What is the best time for cardio training?
You can choose to do cardio training in the morning and make use of the increased cortisol production and metabolism. Cortisol levels decrease by approximately sixty to 92 percent during the day while testosterone production only decreases by 42 percent. If you want to lose weight it is better to exercise as early in the day as possible. But if you are exercising for endurance and to improve aerobic performance it is not possible to determine which is the ideal time to exercise.What is the best time for strength training?
It turns out to be very difficult to say anything about what is the best time to do strength training. Firstly, because the hormone testosterone, which stimulates muscle growth, peaks at the same time as the hormone cortisol, which stimulates muscle breakdown. Although the positive effect of testosterone on muscle growth has been proven, the negative effect of cortisol is based only on conjecture and not scientifically proven.Also a person's lifestyle plays a major role in determining the best time to exercise. A person getting up every day at six o'clock has a different sleep-wake rhythm than a late sleeper who only gets out of bed at eleven o'clock. This makes it difficult to calculate the average of the T / C ratio, and thus to estimate the amount of muscle growth that can take place on average at any given time. Moreover, the level of hormones varies by age and depends on the body size, body fat and how experienced in exercising a person is. In addition, there are still a vast majority of other hormones such as insulin, IGF-1, and the growth hormone that affect exercise performance power.
The importance of consistent training at the same time
The law of diminishing returns refers to the fact that athletes constantly need to do more for the same result. This law has the negative effect that the body gets used to the exercise and less and less responsive to training stimuli. Researchers carried out tests among athletes who always trained at the same time and the morning came out on top when it comes to athletic performance. This study showed that if you are consistent in the morning in the gym then the high amount of cortisol produced after waking up will decrease over time.Here the mental aspect also plays a role. If you know you're going to be active, it creates stress which increases cortisol. The fact that your mind gets used to the early wake up and work out in the morning, apparently ensures the reduction of cortisol production.
There was also no difference measured by the researchers in the increase of power early in the day, compared to other exercise times. These two results together ensure that morning is the perfect time to generate muscle growth, provided that you consistently exercise early in the day over a long period. Good news for strength athletes!
Conclusion
If improving your endurance is your goal, it is unfortunately not possible to determine with certainty which is the best time to do cardio training. You could, however, choose to take advantage of the increased body temperature later in the day. This allows the blood flow to the nerves faster, keeps the joints supple and ensures that the body is better oxygenated.People who do cardio training to lose fat may exercise better early in the day to take advantage of the high cortisol levels which increases the metabolism.
If you do strength exercises, and your goal is to build muscle mass, you can workout the most effectively in the morning. Additionally, you will over time benefit from reduced cortisol production. Which ensures that you have less chance of muscle mass being broken down during exercise. You can maximize muscle strength, however, by exercising at a later time, say between 15:30 and 20:30 when the body temperature is highest.
