Some people enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn and visiting the gym whereas others can’t think of anything worse and decide to tackle the weights room a little later in the day. To help you decide which ones best for you we’ve teamed up with the sports scientists at Myprotein.com to look at how your body responds differently to training in the morning or evening.  

Firstly a study conducted at the Department of Kinesiology in Williamsburg, USA, set out to discover the best time of the day your muscles performed at. Researchers took 10 healthy, untrained men and made them perform a series of strength tests at 8:00am, 12.00pm, 4.00pm, and 8.00pm. The results show that muscle performance was greatest in the evening, but only during the exercises that involved faster movements. It’s believed this is because the activation of fast twitch muscle fibers (these are the muscle fibres that are required to lift heavy weights or run quickly) perform far better when the body temperature is higher, which tends to be a lot higher in the evening than in the morning.

Next it’s important to consider how your hormones alter during the day, more specifically testosterone levels (the muscle building hormone you basically want more of) and cortisol levels (the stress hormone that can break down muscle and increase fat, something you want less of.) Whilst experts all agree resting testosterone levels are higher in the morning, a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that the rise in testosterone after exercise appears to be greater in the evening than it is in the morning. Furthermore according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, cortisol levels are also lower in the evening compared to in the morning and the cortisol response to exercise is lower in the early evening (7.00pm) compared with the morning (7.00am.) Put simply this means the very best testosterone-cortisol ratio, where testosterone levels are highest relative to cortisol levels (which is ideal for burning fat and building muscle) is in the evening. Another way to favourably enhance your hormone levels naturally is to supplement your diet with MP® Max T Matrix which contains the amino acid D Aspartic Acid which according to a study conducted at the Università di Napoli Parthenope e Fondazione in Italy can increase testosterone levels after only 12 days of supplementation (180 capsules of MP® Max T Matrix is available from Myprotein.com for £39.99 http://www.myprotein.com/uk/products/mp-max-t-matrix .)

Lastly, despite all the studies in the world it’s important to note that everyone’s biology and sleeping patterns are different and this has a lot to do with your ‘chronotype’ which is essentially an attribute of human beings that reflects what time of the day their physical functions such as hormone levels, (like testosterone and cortisol) body temperature and cognitive functioning are active and at their peak. This explains why some people wake up fresh as a daisy in the morning and are immediately alert, while others have to drag themselves out of bed often to the nearest coffee machine before they can even begin to function. (Bailey S. L et al, 2001, University of Washington.) So whilst science seems to support the idea of an evening gym session, it’s important to listen to your body and decide for yourself whether you’re an early bird or night owl.