Running is one of the best exercises for the body. Running has many benefits: losing weight, reducing the risk of heart disease, relieving fatigue and increasing endurance. But beginners have a number of questions that they cannot answer on their own. One of them: “When is it better to run – in the morning or in the evening?”
It would seem that it makes no difference when to run. The main thing is running time and speed. In fact, this is not so; an incredible number of things depend on the time of jogging: the number of calories burned, warming up of the body, the risk of injury, pain that occurs after training.
When to run: morning or evening?
In order to answer the question with absolute accuracy, you need to understand for what purpose you decided to take up running? The time of day makes adjustments to the physiological state of the body, which affects the final result of the run.
Morning run. The early hours of the day are always difficult. Apart from realizing the fact that it’s time to get up, the thought of going for a run is unlikely to add cheerfulness. Most likely, the sport will have to wait until better times. Just because today is a hard day, and tomorrow it will be easier, or the day after tomorrow, or never.
Running in the morning means reducing your sleep time, since the alarm clock will be set at least an hour earlier. If in the first days the motivation for jogging in the morning is fueled by enthusiasm, then after a week the ardor will subside and fade to nothing.
However, from the point of view of benefits for the body, is running in the morning beneficial or even harmful?
There are many supporters who categorically do not recommend morning jogging, arguing that:
- Running in the morning is too much stress for an unawakened body
- The early morning air is filled with harmful substances that will enter the body through the respiratory system during training.
- A morning run is more exhausting than an evening run.
All arguments have a right to exist, but they can be challenged. Than cause even more controversy.
Pros of running in the morning:
- The body wakes up faster, and a shower after a workout will finally wake you up
- Fresh air (despite the accumulated harmful substances) has a positive effect on lung ventilation
- Morning jogging is more valuable in terms of improving muscle tone
Evening run. Going for a run in the evening is usually easier than getting up early in the morning. However, after a busy day there is not always a desire to go outside again. As a result, classes can end as quickly as if they had studied in the morning.
The benefits of evening running are:
- Calms the body and prepares for sleep (or completely exhausts it)
- Positively affects muscle growth due to high fatigue after a long day, develops endurance
- Accelerates the fat burning process (more calories are burned)
To summarize, it is worth saying that the optimal time for running is lunch time. But at this time, most runners are busy with school, work and other concerns. Therefore, it is an extremely inconvenient period of the day.
The optimal time for morning jogging is 6 – 8 hours. During this period, the body is ready for the load, although the feeling at the beginning of the distance will make you doubt it.
Evening jogging is recommended between 17-20 hours.
If you can’t do a workout during positive hours for jogging, then simply don’t attach such serious importance to the time. The main thing is systematic training and the desire for results: athletic or “slim”.
Recommendations and tips
The main recommendation is not to change your daily routine for running. If, after reading this, you decide to change your life and start running every day, then you will encounter a sharp rejection from your body. This is due to the fact that your body will experience extreme stress. Instead, try integrating running into your existing routine. Running in the morning or evening is still beneficial for the average person, and the difference will be minimal. To adequately introduce running into your life, follow these tips:
- If you are building muscles, then focus on a high-protein breakfast and a fast morning run.
- If you experience severe pain, stop running immediately.
- Always take a bottle of water with you.
- After an evening run, you may feel like you're not hungry. This is a deception of your body, be sure to have dinner, otherwise the next day you will eat many times more.
- Deload if you've been running for several hours. You can go for a morning jog every day, but after a long evening jog it is better to rest for 1 to 3 days.
- Don't stop running. Such training is a matter of habit. The initial steps will seem difficult, but after a month you will get much better.
- It's better to run when you're rested.
- A good solution would be to run in a group of people. This will add motivation.
In general, it is up to each person to decide when is the best time for them to run, as everyone has different endurance limits. The main thing to remember is that it is better to run no more than an hour in the morning, and an hour or more in the evening.
Is it necessary to run every day?
Daily jogging is a reason for joy. You were able to overcome yourself and take up sports seriously. But is it necessary to run every day or can you limit yourself to a few workouts a week? Both options are fine.
Running every day is useful if your goal is to achieve athletic results, tone muscles or lose weight. In this case, constant load will have a positive effect and speed up the process of achieving results. But one day of rest during the training week should be present.
If your goal is to build muscle in your buttocks and thighs, then daily running is not suitable. In order for muscles to grow, they need to be given rest. Limit yourself to 3-4 runs per week. The rest of the time, just rest or train other areas of the body.
What are the benefits of evening running?
Running at dawn is great, but there are also plenty of benefits to running in the evening.
- It will be easier for you to bear the load. Strength and endurance increase at the end of the day. In the evening, your body makes better use of the oxygen that goes to your muscles, which means you can cover longer distances.
- You will be more relaxed. If you are under stress throughout the day, then all body systems work at double capacity. And evening jogging will help you regain strength, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, relax and be more resistant to stress in the future. And endorphins, which are produced during physical activity and provide a good mood, help with this.
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- Evening is a time to be alone with your thoughts. People rest more often at night and do not think about daily responsibilities. This not only improves their mood, but also helps them get rid of external distractions to think about their own goals and desires.
- You will become more conscious of your health. After a run, it is difficult to eat carbohydrate-rich foods. On the contrary, the body is looking for something easier to recover, mainly protein foods. Running at the end of the day will help you make better choices and avoid overeating at night.
Olga Begasheva
somnologist
Evening jogging is good for those who are experiencing a period of seasonal depression: their ability to work is decreasing, bad weather is pressing, and the nights have become longer. In the evening after a run, they will produce norepinephrine, adrenaline, dopamine and all types of catecholamines. These substances will help the body tone up. If running is short, it will help a person fight migraines and dysphoria. In general, evening running is a kind of antidepressant.
Is it possible to run when you have a cold?
I always don’t like it when something interferes with my work. For example, a cold interferes with running training. Perhaps you can run when you have a cold and it won’t be so bad? Depends on the severity of the cold and the time of year.
You should stop running only if you have serious illnesses that occur with an increase in temperature above the permissible 37 degrees or are accompanied by a severe cough. In this case, it is not recommended to go for a run, it is better to lie down and bring yourself back to normal. Running will do nothing to cure a serious cold.
If a cold occurs with a runny nose and a slight sore throat, then the question of whether to run when you have a cold disappears - definitely yes. Running when you have a mild cold is useful, since active ventilation of the lungs will clear them of harmful bacteria that cause more serious diseases.
After jogging if you have a cold, it is advisable to drink a packet of cold medicine to improve the effect of the exercise!
Individual characteristics of the body
Biorhythms of the body
The concept of “biological clock” is well known to everyone. But what exactly is it? What is the mechanism of their work? Let's figure it out.
We have a whole family of circadian genes in our bodies. They encode proteins that are synthesized at night.
This process affects the functioning of the brain and internal organs, regulating the quality of sleep, peaks of activity, appetite, body temperature, and the ability to reproduce.
But everyone's biological clock works differently. Depending on individual circadian rhythms, three chronotypes are distinguished: larks, pigeons and owls.
For larks, the peak of activity occurs in the first half of the day, sleep begins and ends earlier. In owls, the body starts working in the late afternoon, and in the morning activity is sharply reduced. Pigeons are an intermediate option.
Therefore, it is more effective for everyone to run in accordance with their circadian rhythms.
Work schedule
The biological clock is a feature of the body that is embedded in the DNA. But there are also external factors that have a huge impact on training time. This is our work schedule.
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Night shifts, shift work, irregular working hours - all this disrupts the routine. When you have to get ready for work by 8:00 in the morning, and perhaps also send the children to school, there is not enough time for a morning run. Working until late at night eliminates the possibility of an evening workout.
Thus, there is no single recipe for when it is more beneficial to run . But each temporary training regimen has its pros and cons, and we will dwell on them.
Running from extra pounds
Research shows that exercising briefly after waking up burns up to three times more calories than exercising at other times. Therefore, it is better to run for weight loss in the morning.
The fact is that during the night the body uses all available reserves of carbohydrates (this is the most accessible source of energy). At the time of the morning jog, a new portion of carbohydrates has not yet arrived, and the body is forced to use up fat reserves, which it would otherwise be very reluctant to part with.
In addition, morning aerobic activity “spins” your metabolism for the whole day. This means that for some time after your workout, you will spend more calories on everyday activities.
Important: this method of losing weight can definitely be recommended only to those with excess fat deposits. There is a danger of burning muscle mass instead of fat, and this is an undesirable development.
If your goal is to lose weight, but early jogging is unrealistic for you, run at a different time of day. Listen to your body, give it the opportunity to choose what time is best to run.
People who are losing weight often wonder: how much should you run to lose weight? To train in the morning on an empty stomach, 20-30 minutes will be enough. At any other time, to lose weight you need to run for 40 minutes. When the body adapts to the stress and endurance appears, it will be effective to exercise from 40 minutes to an hour for fat burning.
The benefits of hydrogen water in combination with jogging
Liquid enriched with hydrogen is a powerful stimulator of metabolic processes that trigger the neutralization of active toxins. Although not all doctors recognize the therapeutic effect of hydrogen water for humans, there are nevertheless a number of studies proving its positive effect. Therefore, few today would risk denying the uniqueness and usefulness of such a liquid for the body. Features of hydrogen water:
- Removes reactive oxygen species that are formed due to the breakdown of oxygen compounds.
- Normalizes metabolic processes, and as a result, inhibits the oxidation of cell membranes.
- Increases the secretion of its own antioxidants.
Japanese and Korean scientists claim that the main benefit of hydrogen water is the fight against free radicals. As a result of the interaction of H2 molecules with these dangerous substances, they are converted into neutral compounds and water, which does not have negative consequences for the body, unlike the use of pharmaceutical chemicals.
The benefits of hydrogen water in combination with jogging
By consuming the drink systematically, you trigger a number of positive processes in the body. In particular:
- Oxidative stress and the risk of immune system failures are reduced. With the deteriorating environmental situation, food quality, and stress, hydrogen-saturated water minimizes and provides excellent prevention of illnesses.
- Energy metabolism increases. This helps to reduce and normalize weight.
- Lipids stop accumulating in the liver, and self-cleaning processes begin.
- The level of general tissue resistance increases.
- Meteor dependence decreases, allergic reactions stop.
- The risk of diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, and cancer pathologies is reduced.
- The effects of chemotherapy and radiation procedures are minimized.
- Strength is quickly restored after intense training, which makes hydrogen an indispensable substance for athletes. Important: the product is not doping. Recent studies have shown that the drink prevents brain damage after injury, and this is important for athletes involved in contact sports.
- Restore emotional state: atom regenerates brain cells.
- Change the pH of the body: increase acidity to the alkaline side.
- They help in the fight against diseases of the skin, cardiovascular, genitourinary, digestive systems, eye injuries and hearing loss.
Saturated water is recommended for both internal and external use for cosmetic purposes: to combat dry skin, allergic reactions and inflammatory processes. Widely used for anti-aging procedures: the hydrogen atom prevents the formation of wrinkles. Many beauty salons have switched to using only hydrogen water, which has made it possible to prolong and enhance the results of procedures.
Can evening jogging be harmful?
In terms of physiology, there are no dangers. But it’s important not to forget about your psychological state and not force yourself to go for a run. Many runners find that the hardest part is getting yourself ready to get out of the house, and after running you can find motivation for a long day at the office.
Although the evening is the best time for physical exercise, it is absolutely not suitable for mental stress. Therefore, instead of paperwork, psychologists recommend choosing light training and jogging over short distances.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Nutrition before and after running
Jogging, like any sports activity, will not bring the desired results if you eat improperly. Anyone who wants to lose weight this way needs to pay attention to what they eat before and after running.
Before jogging, it is recommended to consume quickly digestible carbohydrate foods. This could be fruits, cereals, yoghurts, milk, fitness bars. The snack should be light and small - with a full stomach a person will not be able to fully exercise. Excess food is not digested, which can cause nausea and vomiting.
Have a snack at least one hour before your run. If you can’t fit in time with a snack, then you can eat some fruit, for example, a banana or an orange.
Running on an empty stomach will cause damage to muscle tissue, and fat reserves will not be used up. Breakfast must include protein and fiber. After a run, you can eat some carbohydrate foods, but it is better to give preference to protein foods.
Jogging is necessary and important for our body. Active activities will help maintain good health, eliminate sleep problems and tone the body.
The influence of biorhythms
The main purpose of the training regarding improving health, increasing endurance, and weight correction is observed in the morning and evening. All people can be conditionally divided according to the principle of the influence of biological ri, “larks” and “pigeons”. "Owls" feel good in the evening and night hours. "Larks" are active during the daytime. “Pigeons” are able to adapt to any rhythm, it all depends on the conditions of the task being performed.
Any time of day has its advantages and disadvantages for organizing running training. For night owls, early morning awakening is like death. “Larks” fall asleep on the go in the evening. The fundamental factor for successful and high-quality training is the physical and emotional state of the athlete. There is no need to suffer, nature cannot be deceived. The runner needs to choose his workout time based on his own activity periods.
A little about the benefits of running
Running brings tangible benefits to the body.
Pros:
- activation of metabolic processes in the body;
- positive adaptive changes;
- burning excess fat deposits.
In modern conditions, when more than half of the population suffers from obesity to varying degrees, the benefits of running as a universal and easiest way to get rid of extra pounds are undeniable.
Changes after the first fifteen days of running training:
- Developing self-discipline.
- Effective operation of the circulatory system.
- Strengthening the heart muscle.
- Significantly reduces the risk of stroke and heart attack.
- Endurance appears.
- Lung volume increases due to the constant flow of fresh air.
- Immunity increases.
- Colds and respiratory infections rarely appear.
- Stays energized throughout the day.
- The speed of metabolic processes returns to normal.
- Body weight is corrected.
