You should train in the morning, here's why:

“Hey Coach, when is it best to train?” This is a question we receive quite frequently. There is no one size fits all answer, but we will say it’s best to train when you feel most energized to do work. Some people feel better in the evening, some in the morning, some work odd hours and feel best at 3am. The second answer is when can you train consistently? Training consistently and not skipping workouts is more beneficial than crushing one workout, and then skipping the next 1 or 2 because your sore or don’t feel like it. But there are big benefits when you train in the morning.

Fat Loss - The most appealing reason for people choose early morning training biggest reason is fat loss. This could be due to many factors both physical and psychological.

We know training no matter what improves our metabolism. But training in the morning improves it more than training in the evening! This is critical as a higher metabolism will result in greater fat loss. That is why at Full Plate our programs revolve around building a fast metabolism.

Next we can look at the psychology of how we make healthier decisions after training. Typically we eat healthier foods for the remainder of the day after training. So simply by training in the morning, your setting yourself up for success for making healthier food decisions all day long. Things like eating lean proteins, extra servings of vegetables, and drinking extra glasses of water.

Training in general regulates your appetite. But making those healthy decisions (proteins, fats, and fibers) has a negative feedback with our appetite. What this means is the more healthy food decisions we make, the less hungry we will feel throughout the day. Proteins, fats, and fibers take longer to digest so we don’t feel hungry so quickly. Fibers also help regulate blood sugar and therefore insulin levels. Insulin spikes will drop blood sugar making you want to eat again. Typically those food decisions are poor and higher in carbs…thus spiking glood glucose and restarting that same cycle over again.

Time management - This benefit is the obvious one. Starting your day earlier helps you to get more accomplished over the course of the day. Training before tackling your to-do list limits distractions. Just think about how fast you can crush the workout without the distractions of phone calls, emails, messages, etc. Crushing your first task of the day will only set you up for the next task, and the next task… But exercising in the morning helps with more than just waking up early.

Training in the morning helps you become more alert. Let’s be honest, training in general makes you feel more alert. When we train we release stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol, etc.). Cortisol tends to be a little more elevated in the morning, helping you smash an early morning workout! Not only do you feel more alert during training, but early morning training also helps you have more energy throughout the day.

Early morning training not only boosts your metabolism for fat loss, but those same mechanisms improve circulation and oxygen delivery to the muscles, brain, etc. This literally helps give you more energy throughout the day, a big game changer for those struggling to get going in the morning!

The combination of energy and alertness will help you with improved cognition throughout the day. So not only do we feel more alert, not only do we have more energy. But we can actually get more done with our time. This is critical for how millions of people become successful in their industries.

Improved sleep - Sleep quality is largely affected by circadian rhythms…and more so consistency or routine. So the obvious way to improve sleep quality is to simply make a habit of going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. Yes this includes weekends! Training in the morning helps you to establish that routine, it gives your body a consistent schedule to abide by.

Not only does schedule matter, but the simple fact that we are training in the morning and therefore require better recovery at night means we fall asleep faster AND spend more time in deep sleep. This has more benefits than what was listed above.

Spending more time in deep sleep releases more growth hormone. This is critical for recovery, and perhaps is the most important reason why we advocate so much for sleep. The training we do breaks down our muscles. The real muscle building happens when we leave the gym. With the nutrition we consume and the sleep we get. More growth hormone means more protein synthesis, and therefore stronger and more powerful muscle.

It will be difficult in the beginning to build the habits for success. We are asking our bodies to break the mold of late nights and late mornings. This take time and perseverance. But if you don’t quit, I can promise you that it will be worth it.