training in the morning?

[Vitamin S]

is there delay/lag when one wakes up between when one is cognitively and mentally ready and muscles being awake?

i usually train in evenings due to work but on days off i go early morning to get it over with and noticed i may have coffee and be ready to go to gym but my muscles dont respond the same way? like the weight feels much heavier and i tend to drag through the workout?

thx

[scottlove]

is there delay/lag when one wakes up between when one is cognitively and mentally ready and muscles being awake?

i usually train in evenings due to work but on days off i go early morning to get it over with and noticed i may have coffee and be ready to go to gym but my muscles dont respond the same way? like the weight feels much heavier and i tend to drag through the workout?

thx I read somewhere that your synovial fluid takes 2 hours to warm up when you wake up. This is the fluid that lubricates your joints. My normal training time is mid afternoon and I feel lose and warm and ready to go. The weekends are a different story. I train in the morning and I just don't feel ready. I can work chest for over an hour and my joints are still a little achy. I think circuit training for reps or cardio would be alright but training heavy may be a different story. P.S. I just realized you're in Praetorian's Corner so you may not care what I have to say, but I said it.:mock

[TT Eric]

Good point Scott! I concur, I trained for a while very early in the morning, it was a total aggression, my body was like WTF! It's like when you start your car at -40C and you floor it! Isshhhh...

Eric

[Primal]

This is Prae's corner, but I do know a little info regarding the subject. Scott is correct, synovial fluid usually takes an hour or so to get going, this is why if you are working out in the morning that you must be especially careful. Not enough synovial fluid and heavy lifting can cause cartilage to wear away at the joint and you could put yourself at risk for osteoarthritis. If you can, try to get your training in around 9-11ish in the morning. If you look at the human circadian rhythm, you will see that testosterone is naturally heightened at this time in most people. This is also when you are the most alert in the day. Basically, your risk for injury goes down and you get a better workout and feel better at this time. Hope this helped.

Source: 1st year kin material... Plus I have an exam on this tomorrow.

-Primal

[steve_d]

Just personal experience... I think it depends on what you get used to. For a while I could only work out after work (5pm). Then I started going before work (8am-9am). I hated it for a while, but got used to it fairly quickly and liked it just the same. I don't think I can remember ever training within an hour of waking up so can't comment on that - cardio maybe. My schedule now is during the week around my lunch break (12pm, 1pm) and weekend I go earlier with Ange (10am). I find I notice the 2-3 hours earlier quite a bit. I think mostly relates to how long its been since I ate, and drank to get my body going. If it was a cheat day the day before, even easier to get going early.

I know that in the powerlifting meets I've done I was doing max lifts within 2 hours of waking up. Part of it is just what you're personal preference is I guess. I'm sure there have been studies on it, but I doubt they'd be properly powered to come to any real conclusion. I know I read something about early morning cardio being better than later day for providing better sleep.

I'm wondering if the whole synovial fluid part of the equation is negated with a proper warmup.

[Primal]

I'm wondering if the whole synovial fluid part of the equation is negated with a proper warmup.

I'm not sure, but I have heard that when you are asleep, or sedentary for a while, the production of synovial fluid changes from being viscous to more of a paste. I guess this is why when you wake up in the morning you are stiff? But as you get moving around more (getting warmed up) this changes the composition of the synovial fluid to being more viscous. So, I guess if you do a proper warm up, that literally warms your body up, it can increase synovial fluid to an extent. Like I said, I don't know for sure, just remember hearing something about it at school.

Fun fact: Because you are sedentary and laying horizontally in bed, the spine actually decompresses from the weight of gravity and so when you wake up in the morning you are a few millimeters taller for a short period of time.

-Primal

[Praetorian]

As Steve said..its all about what the body is used to. Physically it really doesnt make a difference as long as you try to train at the same time and be consistent with it. If you train in the afternoon or evening and then one day you try the morning its going to feel quite different. The body really thrives on consistency so if you want to make the best gains...pick a time and stick to it.

The synovial fluid idea makes no sense.
P

[Vitamin S]

thanks for the input guys, i am fresh and awake and ready to do cardio no matter what and cardio never really suffers but weights 315 feels like 405 and joint elbows hurt so bad. i did train around 930am but i pretyy much woke up and went right to the gym maybe if i had waken up at 6am and gone to gym at 9am i would have had more time to wake up. its not often i train that early but on weekends i wanna get it out of the way.

and i do powerlifting so its always heavy weight reps between 2-6 and its like starting an old car and punching it right away.

[Praetorian]

You also realize that you retain water as the day goes on thus providing more leverage and more joint protection. You are always driest in the morning because water is lost throughout the night.

P