What time of day do you work out at?

The guys and I are in the process of taking ourselves through the month long progression we are about to use with our Trinity Sports Summer Camp coming up in July. This particular workout had us up and going at 5:45 am. This is not a typical time for us and to be honest I have not worked out at this time in many years but it was fun for a change. We were discussing during the warm-up what our favorite time of day to workout was. For me personally it is late morning like around eleven. For others I know it is first thing in the morning. Some prefer after work or even later in the evening.

I began to wonder if there is a time that is better than others. Surprisingly I have not seen a tremendous amount of research on this so I decided to go look for some so I could share it with you. My personal opinion is that whatever time you chose you should try to keep it about that same time. If you get your body adapted to working out at approximately the same time each day it will adapt to that stimulus and each day prepare itself for the activity. 

When I began looking around I found a few articles like this one from CNN Health that say it is best to work out in the afternoon. Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern University explains that in the afternoon our muscle strength is at its peak. Also in the article it discusses circadian rhythms. These rhythms work like an internal clock in your body that control your sleep patterns, your blood pressure, and even your moods.

I saw a few other articles that talked about these circadian rhythms so the research is starting to point to the afternoon as being the best time to workout.  For now I am going to stick with trying to be consistent on the time you work out at. Again if we are living adaptive organisms, which we know we are, then as long as you are consistent with your body it will adapt to that time and provide the necessary fuel sources for your body to perform.  

What time of day do you workout at? Is it consistent or does it vary? If your results of your workouts varies quite a bit and your schedule is very sporadic, try using a consistent time and see what changes occur.