What is the best period of the day to workout? – What time of day is best to do physical exercise or play sports? Much has written about the answer to this question. There are practical theories for any time of the day: in the afternoon, the body is more relaxed; in the morning, there is more energy, and even fasting can accelerate weight loss.
The opinions expressed by the experts consulted by CuídatePlus lead to a conclusion that seeks a healthy result and is based on the benefits that sport has for the human body: the best moment facilitates perseverance, exercising is not a matter of a couple of days or a week. “I believe that physical exercise must adapted to the lifestyle of each person to make it viable so that people can have a regular practice,” sums up Beatriz Crespo Ruiz, PhD in Sports Sciences and Medicine, and professor at the Castilla-La Mancha university.
And the reality is that not everyone can implement this routine in the morning, so the main thing is to adapt the practice of sport to the circadian rhythm and the circumstances of each person: “The important thing is that it be done, and it can be adapted to any time of day the latest studies say that doing it late in the day does not harm sleep, although it depends on the type of exercise.
Competitive sport is not the same as an amateur.
Pedro Manonelles Marqueta, president of the Spanish Culture of Sports Medicine (Semed-Female) and director of the International Chair of Sports Medicine at the San Antonio de Murcia Catholic University (UCAM), distinguishes between competitive and amateur sports. When professional athletes prepare for a competition, they usually have a training schedule the same as the one set for it because they need to used to it. In the preseason, they do it in the middle of the morning and at the end of the afternoon.
As for the general population, they agree that the training time is not the most substantial and it is necessary to try to train when work and studies allow it: “What is truly important is that you can do sports, not at the time you practice”. The only exceptions are the up-to-the-minute hours of the day in the hot seasons and after meals: “We must wait about two hours because the digestive system needs a blood supply that is also needed in the muscular territory to do sports.”
In this sense, Beatriz Crespo points out that a copious or highly elaborate meal, which requires a more extended digestion period, is not the same as a menu based on vegetables, some protein and fruit, for which between 30 and 40 minutes.
fasting physical exercise
Both experts disagree on the convenience of doing sports on an empty stomach. While the professor at the University of Castilla La Mancha does not reject it in some circumstances, the president of Semed gives a resounding no, in general terms: “The athlete must have consumed food that he will partly use as fuel. Only in exceptional cases, with high-level athletes and depending on the training phase, can it did”.
What seems to make no sense or scientific evidence is that sports on an empty abdominal help you lose weight. “What you have to do remains to create a negative balance between the intake of calories and their consumption,” recalls Manonelles. For her part, Beatriz Crespo assures that there is no time of day that is better to do physical exercise to lose weight: “
