Fit Tip - When Is the Best Time of Day to Run?

When is the best time of day to not only run, but to exercise? It is a common question, and as with most things having to do with exercise, there are specific, complex answers that often don't work for everyone, and there are simple answers that will apply to everybody! In this Fit Tip, Tom gives you the simple answers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of My Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is fitness Disrupted. Fit tip.
What is the best time of day to run? Perfect
topic for a fit tip, perfect topic for fitness disrupted.

(00:23):
And it has that term that comes up so frequently
when I am asked questions about exercise and nutrition and
motivation best. And when I am asked this question or
a question like it that involves the term best, I
throw a question right back and say, what do you
mean by best? When we say what is the best
time of day to run? Or ask that question? Are

(00:44):
we asking best for weight loss? Are we asking best
for calorie burn? Are we asking best for peak performance?
Or are we asking best for other benefits as well?
And so yes, studies have shown that exercise in general,
so not just running, but exercising first thing in the

(01:04):
morning or early in the morning, may have numerous benefits
and they include number one, giving you additional energy for
the rest of the day. That is a huge one
that has not talked about enough. And it's counterintuitive. People
have said to me for years, I can't get up earlier.
I'll be more tired if I exercise, If I get
up early to exercise, when in point of fact, the

(01:27):
opposite is true. So you actually will have more energy
for the day if you exercise in the morning. And
then secondly, yes, some studies show and there's a whole
host of things that are involved with this, but you
may burn additional energy from your fat stores exercising in
the morning on a relatively empty stomach topic for another show.

(01:50):
But that is a potential benefit, and it's not an
insane number of fact calories, but listen, everything adds up,
so that is a potential benefit as well. All right,
But here's another equally if not more important benefit that
goes to the psychological. Exercising in the morning confers psychological benefits, Okay,

(02:12):
decreased anxiety, better focus, learning, better for kids. Great book
on that is called Spark. So psychological benefits exercising in
the morning. So you're gonna have better energy physically, and
you're gonna have better mental acuity exercising in the morning.
And when we say exercise for this fit tip, that
goes to running, all right, and number four and I

(02:35):
would say most important, it potentially makes it easier to
become a part of your regular routine. That is the
most important out of all of these, because if it's
not a part of your regular routine, who cares, right,
and a huge part of that. It's so simple, and
that's why Fitness Disrupted is about the science and the

(02:57):
common sense and then what makes sense in your life
all coming together. Okay, there are many fewer outside distractions, interference, family, friends, job,
at six am, so you are far less likely to
get off track earlier in the morning. And I find

(03:17):
this with myself. I am training to do a really
long ultra marathon, and if I leave my run till
later in the day, I am much less likely to
do it for these very reasons. Okay, the longer you
wait to get in your run, the more likely you're
not going to do it. It's that's simple, all right,
Far fewer distractions earlier in the morning. All right, let's

(03:39):
go back to the athletics standpoint really quickly. Science shows
that our bodies performed best in the late afternoon or
early evening. Okay, this goes to our circadian rhythms, the
various physiological processes in our body, and yes, we can
study those, track those and many of our bodies biological

(04:01):
processes well, they fluctuate and our body temperature, which affects
our athletic performance, well, that is highest in the late afternoon,
and when it's higher, you're gonna feel the same perceived
effort for a higher intensity. In other words, the same

(04:22):
amount of effort is going to feel easier in the
late afternoon or early evening potentially compared to other times
of day. So from an athletics standpoint, there you go.
But we can't schedule our performances, right. If you're going
for a pr for your run or something like that,
and you have the flexibility, well then yes, from a

(04:42):
physiological standpoint, maybe later in the evening you're gonna do better.
But then we got to take the psychological into that
as well, all right, So leave you with this. What
is most important is the habit formation, right, making it
part of your life. And what studies show as well

(05:03):
on the psychological side is sticking to the same time
of day that's gonna work for most people. And this
makes complete sense. How many of us. You go for
a drive or you go for a walk and you
see the same people at the same time you see
that same person in generally speaking, it's early in the morning, right,
We all know there's people in our neighborhood who you know,

(05:23):
six am, there they are, you know exactly where they're
gonna be, six oh five, six ten. So that is
the major takeaway. Yes, Physiologically, later in the evening circadian
rhythms bodies a little better to perform earlier in the morning.
You may burn more fat, but at the end of
the day, it's about consistency and it's about enjoyment. So

(05:46):
if you're someone who loves to run after work and
you've been doing that, who cares about all the other stuff.
If you're consistent in the evening, awesome, If you're consistent
in the morning, awesome. And if you are true sception
to the rule that you can do it any time
of day. You have that flexibility and you have that
kind of internal drive, and you are consistent regardless of

(06:09):
when you do it, then that's for you. And that's
the fit tip. What's the best time of day to run?
It's whenever you will do it consistently and make it
part of your life. All right, Thank you for listening.
Please rate the show if you have not done so already,
subscribe to the podcast please, and if you want to

(06:31):
reach out questions, comments, future topics, any questions you have
about prior shows or topics you want covered. Tom h
Fit is my Instagram as well as Twitter tom h Fit,
and you can go right to Fitness disrupted dot com
and reach out to me there as well. Thank you
very much for listening. Perfect topic, perfect fit tip. It's

(06:51):
about taking the science and taking what you can actually
do in the real world, combining the two so at
the end of the day, excessive moderation, consistency, enjoyment. Thank
you for listening. I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted.
Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I

(07:16):
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.