Morning or Evening Workout Schedule?

Should you workout in the morning or in the evening?  It’s a debate you hear often and everyone has their opinion as to which is better.   I think it depends on what works best for you and your schedule.

For the most part, my weekday workouts happen in the evening.  I work a relatively early work schedule.  I leave for work before 7am.  Yes, I know some of you leave much earlier than that.  But that means that to get in a workout, I’m suddenly getting up in the 4am hour.  That’s pretty early in my world.  The advantage to the early day is that I’m typically home by 6, so then I can get in a solid workout in the evening.

For me, I’m much more likely to talk myself out of an early morning workout.  It’s just too easy for me to hit the snooze on my alarm clock and suddenly, the time that I set aside to run is gone.  But if I want to do something in the evenings after work, that means getting up in the morning no matter how much I don’t want to.  For me, getting up early is easier as a rarity.

But I know a lot of people who don’t want to go home and workout.  The last thing they want to do after a long day at the office is get on the treadmill or pull on a bathing suit.  I can understand that.  I know that on cold winter days, all I want to do is curl up on the couch and watch tv.  And the later I get home, the harder it is.  So for people in that boat, getting up a bit earlier can definitely help.

I think the big key is that whatever you pick, make it part of your routine.  Make a workout schedule.  Commit.  And stick to it.