Why are Evenings the Best Time to Train?

For those of you who hate getting up early in the morning, in order to train before you go to work or school, here is some good news! There has been research released in the last few years indicating that evening training sessions may be more beneficial from the perspective of building more muscle mass, reducing body fat as well as increasing your overall strength and endurance.



Over the course of a regular day, the human body fluctuates between being in a state of positive nitrogen balance, negative nitrogen balance or somewhere in between. In a positive state, the body is building more muscle mass while in the negative state it is breaking down lean muscle which can lead to muscle breakdown. In addition, the metabolic rate of the body changes. This can have a positive or negative effect on normal processes such as the metabolism of protein, replenishing of glycogen stores and the recovery of muscle cells. Sports researchers now think that early evening hours may be the optimum time to get the most out of the positive effects of these processes. Here are five main reasons why evening training is best.

Gain More Muscle Mass and Decrease Body Fat:

In 2005, American research studies determined the effects of training at different times of the day with respect to changes in the body composition of a test group of men who did weight training. After ten weeks, results showed that the men who trained in the evening (after 6PM) had a 4% decrease in overall body fat and a 3% increase in lean muscle mass. In comparison, the male subjects who did their training before 10 AM experienced no reduction in body fat and increased their lean muscle mass very little. These results seem to correlate to the normal state of body metabolism which tends to decline beginning in the evening. Apparently, if someone begins to train at just the right time their metabolism is basically forced to work harder over the entire day which burns more energy.

Increase your Strength and Power:

Another 2005 study, completed in France looked at the best training time to increase your overall strength and power. Every four hours, tests were done on a small sampling of healthy men from 6AM to 10PM to establish muscular and neural processes influencing the strength of muscles. Results showed that muscle power (i.e. maximum voluntary contraction) was at its highest level at approximately 6PM while the lowest levels were measured at 6AM. There also seemed to be a positive correlation between the highest levels of strength and the body temperature of the various subjects. The researchers of this study think that both the metabolism and temperature of the body are usually highest at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. This fact may cause muscle cells to work at their peak during evening workout sessions.
Better Overall Endurance: Research also shows that your endurance level (aerobic capacity) is about 4% higher in the late afternoon so you should advantage of this fact. Aerobic capacity is defined as endurance or your ability to sustain work (i.e. exercise) for a prolonged period of time.

Less Chance of Injuries: 

If you exercise in the early evening hours, you have less chance of injuring yourself for three reasons. You will likely be more alert then. As already mentioned, your body temperature is highest at 4PM, meaning your muscles will be warmer and more flexible and your muscles are also strongest at that time of the day.

Improve Sleep Quality: 

It has been proven that exercising definitely improves your quality of sleep when performed in the morning or afternoon. It is not quite as clear whether exercising in the evening has the same effect. However, there have been a few isolated studies conducted that do show that 30 minutes of vigorous exercise before going to bed resulted in better quality sleep.

Increased Primordial Instinct:

In case you don’t know what that means, for a man, it means everything. According to the normal circadian rhythm of mammals (specifically humans), testosterone levels peak at certain points throughout the day. Two such of these times are first thing in the morning (think of erections), and at evening. For this reason, training during the evening will elicit a stronger anabolic response compared to other times of the day. This is also the reason humans are especially receptive to copulation during evening hours.

The Take Home Point

The studies mentioned above indicate that the best time to train is during early evening hours starting at around 6PM. The physiology of your body seems to be better prepared for reaping gains in strength, power and endurance plus preventing injuries and possibly sleeping better. So, it may be worth trying evening training sessions if your schedule will permit.