When is the most effective time for exercise? AM vs. PM

The ‘regular’ exercise is as important as ‘doing’ exercise

“Exercise” is a way to release stress, refreshes feeling, manage weight, and as well as preventing potential occurrence of chronic diseases, controlling blood pressure and blood sugar level. As you can see, exercise is a crucial factor to prevent and treat chronic diseases, thus, we can easily see people exercising in a near promenade or a park.

Doing exercise itself is very important; however, exercising ‘regularly at the fixed time’ is more important. Human body function is based on the biological rhythm of 24 hours a day. The reason why jet-leg is necessary is that we need some time to reorganize our unbalanced biological rhythm. Selecting an irregular exercise hours that would break the biological rhythm may exhaust physical strength and cause fatigue, thus, it is important to exercise everyday at the same time.

The regular exercise hours, AM exercise vs. PM exercise

According to DR. Buxton in Chicago University Clinical Research Center, the most appropriate hours for exercise are from 7p.m. to 1 a.m of the next day. In a day, the pattern of exercise started after 7 p.m. until 1 hour before go to bed brings the best effect from the exercise with the best physical condition without interfering biological rhythm.The study examined the relationship between exercising in different hours a day and the physical response with 40 male subjects in their 30s~40s. According to the result, the amount of secretion of the adrenal cortex hormone (cortisol) and Thyrotropin releasing hormone (Thyrotropin) is highest from 7p.m. to 1 a.m. of the following day, and it indicated that the evening exercise during theses hours increase the effects of exercise in maximizing metabolism and physical awakening level.

The morning exercise requires early start of a day and there are fewer obstacles that would interrupt exercising time such as unexpected meetings or work, thus, one can keep exercise free from interfering factors if time is managed properly. Nonetheless, the early morning exercise breaks the biological rhythm and increases cardiovascular diseases (the occurring hours of the cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and cerebral hemorrhage, is between right after waking up and 10 a.m.). Especially for those with diabetes, it is hard to control blood sugar, and the exercising with an empty stomach would cause hypoglycemia that could cause health problems.

Why is evening exercise better?

To maximize the efficiency of exercise
Some say that the morning exercise awakens the body to open a more vital day, but improper way of exercise sometimes causes physical injuries. Stretching before exercise can avoid a potential danger of injury as a car needs to be fully warmed up before leaving during winter. Significantly, in order to maximize the effect of long and less intensive aerobic exercise, which is good for health, the session of warming-up, main exercise, and the closing exercise has to be more than 1 hour. However most working professionals barely have time to eat regular meals, thus, it is somewhat challenging to practice the ideal way of exercise.

Of course we need warming-up for the evening exercise as well, but various activities from the morning have already activated the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, therefore, it is less stressful compared to doing exercise in the morning. In other words, the danger of injury from exercising is lessened.

Moreover, the amount of secretion of the adrenal cortex hormone (cortisol) and Thyrotropin releasing hormone (Thyrotropin) is the highest in the evening, thus, it can maximize the efficiency of exercise.

The controlling effect of blood sugar and blood pressure
People with diabetes and high blood pressure have to carefully monitor the level of blood sugar and blood pressure and they may face lethal situations due to the morning exercise. The level of blood sugar during the early morning hits the bottom, thus, the morning exercise of a diabetic when a meal and medication are properly given will cause hypoglycemia. In addition, the early morning exercise may stimulate the sympathetic nerve that is in charge of increasing blood pressure and the function of blood platelets is vigorous right after awakening so people with high blood pressure and cardiovascular problem must pay extra attention during the morning exercise.

Nonetheless, they cannot give up exercising because exercise is one of important treatments for such chronic diseases along with diet monitoring and medication. Exercise is proven to be effective in controlling blood sugar and blood pressure, and many medical professionals recommend a right exercise therapy for each patient. The evening exercise after dinner is useful for diabetics to manage the level of blood sugar and weight, and by exercising in the evening, which shows more stable and lowest blood pressure, even people with high blood pressure can work out under optimum condition.

Bye-bye insomnia, welcome good-night sleep~
The evening exercise promotes a sound and deep sleep bringing about moderate level of tiredness. However, exercising right before going to bed, in other words sleeping right after exercise may interfere with a sound sleep, so it is recommended to end exercise 1 hour ahead of your sleeping time.

It is because exercise increases the body temperature and arouses the sympathetic nerves, thus it interferes a mood to sleep. When sleeping, the body temperature goes down due to the deactivated organs in the body. The appropriate body temperature for sleeping is a bit lower than usual, so going to bed right after exercising is not helpful for your sound sleep at all. After exercise, avoid hot bath or staying in a sauna for a long time so as not to raise the body temperature and take a shower with warm or cold water to lower body temperature.

Promotes effective weight loss
Most of you have heard of ‘Things you have had in the evening becomes fat. I do not eat anything at all after certain time.’ It is somewhat true because in the evening, the body tends to store the calories from what we have eaten due to the function of the parasympathetic nerves in the brain. Therefore, the evening exercise consumes the calories that can be otherwise accumulated so it can promote more effective weight loss only if you can overcome the desire to eat at night.

Relieves stress
People in the modern society suffer from various stress-related sicknesses, such as headache, indigestion, constipation, and insomnia, which cannot be detected no matter how excellent medical professionals and devices are consulted.. The evening exercise, the exercise for musculoskeletal system, is effective to relieve stress as it soothes the autonomic nerves and eventually diminishes tension and anxiousness.

Naturally blocks ultraviolet rays
Sunlight is useful for the production of vitamin D as well as enhancing the mood of depression; however, too much exposure under ultraviolet rays is the worst condition for skin, causing premature skin aging and various skin troubles like liver spots, freckles, and pimples. For this reason, exercise in the evening decreases inconvenience such as wearing a sun block because of the naturally reduced amount of ultraviolet rays.

Increases the level of immunity
After the evening exercise, there is an active secretion of melatonin, which encourages sound sleep and reinforces immunity, and the growth hormone that prevents aging and facilitates growth.

from: http://www.hidoc.co.kr/