September 2, 2025 • 9 mins
Pro Rehab CEO Dr. Larry Benz has thoughts on exercise in early morning darkness and the shift between hot summer months into cooler weather.
Natural light can be supplemented by different devices to aid the body's circadian rhythm responses to nature's natural shift to shorter periods of daylight.
Listen to Dr. Benz discuss these issues and more with Terry Meiners on WHAS Radio
Natural light can be supplemented by different devices to aid the body's circadian rhythm responses to nature's natural shift to shorter periods of daylight.
Listen to Dr. Benz discuss these issues and more with Terry Meiners on WHAS Radio
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctor Love. Well, we're throwing it all out there for
Larry Ben's today. He is the President's CEO of Confluent Health.
That's Pro Rehab are Ina. They call me doctor Love.
You've never been called that, have you, Larry not.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
In my most recent years recollection.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
That's a good title though. I like that, Thank you Austin.
That was a good music selection for us. Today we
talk about physical therapy and taking care of your body
when you are, you know, moving through various phases of
life with doctor Ben's from Pro Rehab. So here we go, Larry.
We go into the fall, and obviously it starts getting
(00:41):
dark darker earlier. We change our habits a little bit
because you know, you're not running outside as much as
you would have been when it stays light till ten
o'clock at night. So let's talk about people and how
they ought to transition themselves for exercise as we move
into the colder months.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah. Thanks, it's actually, you know, a fairly good question,
because you know, on the one hand, there's no sort
of hard and fast rules about changing your routine because
of the less daylight. But there's a lot of a
lot of practical and a few physiological you know, factors
I think one should consider. I mean, first, let's talk practicality.
It's dark in the morning, and your outdoor workouts are trickier.
(01:22):
I live across from the park, and you know, even
though I've got a headlight, I could run on these
leaves that have little wet spots underneath them and it
doesn't tell me that they're slippery. And you know, you
have safety and concerns around it, especially with running and
cycling in the morning. So if you're an early riser,
you know, like I am, you might want to shift
to indoor or you know, obviously well lit areas, or
just back up your schedule a bit. Some folks find
(01:46):
that evening workouts are just you know, certainly more feasible
as this lights you know issue goes on and then
you know, we get the time change coming up, and
those are sort of the practical sides of it, Terry.
But I think more importantly is you got some physiology,
you know, concerns and evidence that you know one must follow.
And I think you know, there's this whole idea of
the circadian rhythms which is very, very influenced by light exposures.
(02:11):
So you see a lot of people now practicing early
morning light exposure with these lights that you can buy,
and that will you know, help you produce better energy
and better mood for the day. And so be mindful
that light activity and getting some early morning lightness, even
when it gets starkout, is important for you. It's important
for a number of different reasons. And you know there's
(02:31):
this study that is oftentimes you know, sort of quoted
about you know what about your metabolic response to any
and all this does that make any difference whether you
exercise in the morning or in the evening, And you
know it does appear that evening you know sessions have
been at least shown in one landmark study to give
you better fat burning and a little bit better strength
(02:54):
and performance. And they think it's because your your body
temperature and your flexibility are certainly better at night. Was
that study was reproduced, you know, in twenty twenty one
with this sort of what they call light dark pipe
you know exercise. But regardless of all that, Terry, the
key is consistency, you know, making sure you know, if
you're a morning person, you know, put the darkness is
(03:15):
throwing you off. Try light therapy like a sun you know,
there's these sunrise alarm clocks. I don't know if you've
ever seen it, but they're pretty cool. Or you know,
certainly shift your your workouts to later and hopefully you
have some flexibility in it, but absolutely you got to
consider tweaking it, you know, during this time of the
year and the you know, the the interesting thing, especially lately,
(03:36):
we've had these cool mornings. I mean, what these have
been the best some of the best exercise mornings we've had. Well,
they are the best we've had all summer, especially average
tempts in the morning or sixty seven and this has
been in the fifties, so it's been a wonderful. If
you can wait until like seven am, you know, exercise.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
What about days like let's say I can exercise one
morning and then I have meetings or whatever the next
day and I don't get it done until what we'll
just say, Tuesday evening. What about Wednesday morning? Do you
need recovery time just your sleep and then you get
up and you go at it again. Because I'm one
of the ones who likes morning time usually, but sometimes
that's not possible. How does your body clock react and
(04:17):
physically react if you have to spill over into the
next morning when you just worked out the night before.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, it's a great question. It really is. Fundamentally depends
on the type of exercise. So if you are a walker,
a swimmer, or somebody who rides the bike or does
a treadmill, you're good as long as you got you know,
call it eight to twelve hours in between. But if
it's a lot of running and a lot of pounding,
you want to try and spread that out a bit.
(04:46):
But there's absolutely nothing wrong. And again the kid's consistency.
I think your body responds differently if you're working out
three days a week and all of a sudden you
go to two, or you go from two and try
to go to five. But if you've got an evening
in between, you've certainly got the ability to recover well enough,
particularly if it's a night time when you're kind of
in the horizontal position.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
When you were talking about daylight and all that, I think
about too, when a lot of early morning runs I've
had in my life where it is it's just now
getting light outside and you don't see like your foot
strike is important and you'll see people in streets. You know,
I won'der why is that idiot in the street. It's
because sidewalks have pads different blocks, and they can because
of tree roots under them, can push them up and
(05:29):
next thing you know, you're either tripping or your foot
is landing, your foot is striking at a different level,
and that's messing your body up.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
There's no doubt about it. Like I said, I run
there of the park. And the best example I use
on this one is, you know the Cherokee Seneca have
the areas where drivers are allowed usually on the one lane,
and runners and walkers are on the other. Well, there's
a big difference in the number of leaves between those
two areas, and so we tend to run where the
cars are during this time of year because there's literally
(06:00):
leaves or there's you know, less branches and other kind
of things to trip you up. But that's the thing
I always worry about, is a visibility. You know, you
could use a headlamp, but the headlamps don't tell you
the hidden potholes and the roots and things that can
really trip you up.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You sweat profos profusely during some of the really hot months,
maybe don't sweat as much during as once it gets colder,
like you're saying, it's fifty degrees in the morning, but
hydration should be consistent. Correct, Yeah, absolutely. I think the
you know the who, releases some reports on this.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I just read one last week and now it's an
interesting recommendation because they're saying that unless you exercise ninety
to one hundred and twenty minutes at one continuous time,
and not many folks do that throughout an entire day
even that you really don't need a lot of the
electrolyte replacement products. I'm a little different. I think it
(06:51):
goes by how much of a sweater you are. If
you're a naturally born sweater like guys like you and
I are, terry, we should be hitting the electric light
replacements pretty quickly as we enter the day if we're
morning exercisers, but definitely consistency throughout. In fact, when it's
really low humidity out and you think you're not sweating,
(07:12):
you're actually sweating just as much. It just dissipates, evaporates
a lot, a lot quicker and could really throw you off,
especially if you get into low humidity weather.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And looking ahead to when it really gets cold, obviously
it could be several months from now. We lose heat
through our heads, right, that's why hats are important, or
toboggans that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Absolutely, In fact, it's usually the first piece of apparel.
Even when you see people running in shorts and maybe
a light long sleeve, they got something on their head.
And even in the fifties, you know, like it's been
the last several days, I've seen more and more people
wearing hats and other kind of things to help them out.
But you want to protect your head. And then certainly
(07:54):
in the you know, when you get start getting in
the forties, because of the sweat, you want to wear
gloves on your hand because they're also full filled with
a lot of arteries that disippeted a lot of heat.
So hands, feet, head, with the head being the number one.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Once somebody finally turned me onto gloves, is like, oh
where have you been all my life? It's like I
just never know that that was a deal, but it
is a deal. Makes a lot of difference. Larry, great
talking to you again. I know you were impressed by
the cards over the weekend, cards football and big Game
Friday night, and I know people are excited about what's ahead.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Absolutely, yeah, hopefully also great weather, and you know, I
think the jam used to predict to be the first
and what we call the fun Belts otherwise known as
the sun Belt. So it should be a great game.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I'm looking forward to that great talking to you, Larry
Seed down the road.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Always thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Doctor Larry Ben's pro rehab is he's the leader, of course,
of Confluent Health, that's the over group of pro rehab
and he is actually he's the guy who collected the
handle physical therapy on Twitter. I still know how I
landed that one ahead of anybody else. That's doctor Hary
Bins back in a minute on news radio eight forty
(09:02):
wh s
Speaker 2 (09:10):
HM
Doctor Love. Well, we're throwing it all out there for
Larry Ben's today. He is the President's CEO of Confluent Health.
That's Pro Rehab are Ina. They call me doctor Love.
You've never been called that, have you, Larry not.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
In my most recent years recollection.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
That's a good title though. I like that, Thank you Austin.
That was a good music selection for us. Today we
talk about physical therapy and taking care of your body
when you are, you know, moving through various phases of
life with doctor Ben's from Pro Rehab. So here we go, Larry.
We go into the fall, and obviously it starts getting
(00:41):
dark darker earlier. We change our habits a little bit
because you know, you're not running outside as much as
you would have been when it stays light till ten
o'clock at night. So let's talk about people and how
they ought to transition themselves for exercise as we move
into the colder months.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah. Thanks, it's actually, you know, a fairly good question,
because you know, on the one hand, there's no sort
of hard and fast rules about changing your routine because
of the less daylight. But there's a lot of a
lot of practical and a few physiological you know, factors
I think one should consider. I mean, first, let's talk practicality.
It's dark in the morning, and your outdoor workouts are trickier.
(01:22):
I live across from the park, and you know, even
though I've got a headlight, I could run on these
leaves that have little wet spots underneath them and it
doesn't tell me that they're slippery. And you know, you
have safety and concerns around it, especially with running and
cycling in the morning. So if you're an early riser,
you know, like I am, you might want to shift
to indoor or you know, obviously well lit areas, or
just back up your schedule a bit. Some folks find
(01:46):
that evening workouts are just you know, certainly more feasible
as this lights you know issue goes on and then
you know, we get the time change coming up, and
those are sort of the practical sides of it, Terry.
But I think more importantly is you got some physiology,
you know, concerns and evidence that you know one must follow.
And I think you know, there's this whole idea of
the circadian rhythms which is very, very influenced by light exposures.
(02:11):
So you see a lot of people now practicing early
morning light exposure with these lights that you can buy,
and that will you know, help you produce better energy
and better mood for the day. And so be mindful
that light activity and getting some early morning lightness, even
when it gets starkout, is important for you. It's important
for a number of different reasons. And you know there's
(02:31):
this study that is oftentimes you know, sort of quoted
about you know what about your metabolic response to any
and all this does that make any difference whether you
exercise in the morning or in the evening, And you
know it does appear that evening you know sessions have
been at least shown in one landmark study to give
you better fat burning and a little bit better strength
(02:54):
and performance. And they think it's because your your body
temperature and your flexibility are certainly better at night. Was
that study was reproduced, you know, in twenty twenty one
with this sort of what they call light dark pipe
you know exercise. But regardless of all that, Terry, the
key is consistency, you know, making sure you know, if
you're a morning person, you know, put the darkness is
(03:15):
throwing you off. Try light therapy like a sun you know,
there's these sunrise alarm clocks. I don't know if you've
ever seen it, but they're pretty cool. Or you know,
certainly shift your your workouts to later and hopefully you
have some flexibility in it, but absolutely you got to
consider tweaking it, you know, during this time of the
year and the you know, the the interesting thing, especially lately,
(03:36):
we've had these cool mornings. I mean, what these have
been the best some of the best exercise mornings we've had. Well,
they are the best we've had all summer, especially average
tempts in the morning or sixty seven and this has
been in the fifties, so it's been a wonderful. If
you can wait until like seven am, you know, exercise.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
What about days like let's say I can exercise one
morning and then I have meetings or whatever the next
day and I don't get it done until what we'll
just say, Tuesday evening. What about Wednesday morning? Do you
need recovery time just your sleep and then you get
up and you go at it again. Because I'm one
of the ones who likes morning time usually, but sometimes
that's not possible. How does your body clock react and
(04:17):
physically react if you have to spill over into the
next morning when you just worked out the night before.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, it's a great question. It really is. Fundamentally depends
on the type of exercise. So if you are a walker,
a swimmer, or somebody who rides the bike or does
a treadmill, you're good as long as you got you know,
call it eight to twelve hours in between. But if
it's a lot of running and a lot of pounding,
you want to try and spread that out a bit.
(04:46):
But there's absolutely nothing wrong. And again the kid's consistency.
I think your body responds differently if you're working out
three days a week and all of a sudden you
go to two, or you go from two and try
to go to five. But if you've got an evening
in between, you've certainly got the ability to recover well enough,
particularly if it's a night time when you're kind of
in the horizontal position.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
When you were talking about daylight and all that, I think
about too, when a lot of early morning runs I've
had in my life where it is it's just now
getting light outside and you don't see like your foot
strike is important and you'll see people in streets. You know,
I won'der why is that idiot in the street. It's
because sidewalks have pads different blocks, and they can because
of tree roots under them, can push them up and
(05:29):
next thing you know, you're either tripping or your foot
is landing, your foot is striking at a different level,
and that's messing your body up.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
There's no doubt about it. Like I said, I run
there of the park. And the best example I use
on this one is, you know the Cherokee Seneca have
the areas where drivers are allowed usually on the one lane,
and runners and walkers are on the other. Well, there's
a big difference in the number of leaves between those
two areas, and so we tend to run where the
cars are during this time of year because there's literally
(06:00):
leaves or there's you know, less branches and other kind
of things to trip you up. But that's the thing
I always worry about, is a visibility. You know, you
could use a headlamp, but the headlamps don't tell you
the hidden potholes and the roots and things that can
really trip you up.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You sweat profos profusely during some of the really hot months,
maybe don't sweat as much during as once it gets colder,
like you're saying, it's fifty degrees in the morning, but
hydration should be consistent. Correct, Yeah, absolutely. I think the
you know the who, releases some reports on this.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I just read one last week and now it's an
interesting recommendation because they're saying that unless you exercise ninety
to one hundred and twenty minutes at one continuous time,
and not many folks do that throughout an entire day
even that you really don't need a lot of the
electrolyte replacement products. I'm a little different. I think it
(06:51):
goes by how much of a sweater you are. If
you're a naturally born sweater like guys like you and
I are, terry, we should be hitting the electric light
replacements pretty quickly as we enter the day if we're
morning exercisers, but definitely consistency throughout. In fact, when it's
really low humidity out and you think you're not sweating,
(07:12):
you're actually sweating just as much. It just dissipates, evaporates
a lot, a lot quicker and could really throw you off,
especially if you get into low humidity weather.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And looking ahead to when it really gets cold, obviously
it could be several months from now. We lose heat
through our heads, right, that's why hats are important, or
toboggans that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Absolutely, In fact, it's usually the first piece of apparel.
Even when you see people running in shorts and maybe
a light long sleeve, they got something on their head.
And even in the fifties, you know, like it's been
the last several days, I've seen more and more people
wearing hats and other kind of things to help them out.
But you want to protect your head. And then certainly
(07:54):
in the you know, when you get start getting in
the forties, because of the sweat, you want to wear
gloves on your hand because they're also full filled with
a lot of arteries that disippeted a lot of heat.
So hands, feet, head, with the head being the number one.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Once somebody finally turned me onto gloves, is like, oh
where have you been all my life? It's like I
just never know that that was a deal, but it
is a deal. Makes a lot of difference. Larry, great
talking to you again. I know you were impressed by
the cards over the weekend, cards football and big Game
Friday night, and I know people are excited about what's ahead.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Absolutely, yeah, hopefully also great weather, and you know, I
think the jam used to predict to be the first
and what we call the fun Belts otherwise known as
the sun Belt. So it should be a great game.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I'm looking forward to that great talking to you, Larry
Seed down the road.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Always thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Doctor Larry Ben's pro rehab is he's the leader, of course,
of Confluent Health, that's the over group of pro rehab
and he is actually he's the guy who collected the
handle physical therapy on Twitter. I still know how I
landed that one ahead of anybody else. That's doctor Hary
Bins back in a minute on news radio eight forty
(09:02):
wh s
Speaker 2 (09:10):
HM
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com