Nighttime workouts
Hello! Happy humpday 🙂 Hope you’re having a wonderful morning! I’m so excited that so many of you have already tried the zucchini pizza. Glad you’re enjoying it as much as we did! 🙂
Lately I’ve received quite a few questions about nighttime workouts, especially after posting the Monsoon Sweat Workout. To be real, I don’t really love nighttime workouts. However, some evenings are the only time I can fit a workout in my schedule; naptime is for work/blog stuff and Liv hates the childcare at the gym even though the ladies who work there are wonderful. So, early morning or nighttime it is. I finally convinced myself to just do it for morning workouts, but it doesn’t work with the Pilots schedule this week, so I just make it happen when I can.
(The best part about working out at night? Gym to myself!)
A short workout benefits me health-wise, but I also feel so much more energized when I work out regularly. By working out, not only will I (hopefully) be able to keep up with our kids and future grandkids, but I also love the endorphins. Someone once told me that exercise endorphins equal 1/10 of an orgasm. I’m a believer.
Anywaaaayyyyy, here are some of the questions I received about nighttime workouts:
How do you fuel?
Usually I have a pretty late afternoon snack, since I eat lunch while Liv is napping and snack with her when she wakes up and is eating her lunch. If I had a late snack, I’ll wait until after the gym to eat dinner. If it’s a night where we have an early dinner, I’ll go an hour or so after. I’ve also gone to the gym right after dinner and with food child. This is my least favorite method 😉 I’d rather go a little hungry and eat a big meal afterwards.
The gym fuel thing is a matter of preference and like anything else, you do what’s best for you. Some people hate working out after eating while others prefer to work out with a snack or meal beforehand. Then, there are also the people like my husband who can eat an enormous meal and then run 8 miles. I will never understand.
Are you wired before bed?
YES. This is the #1 reason why I don’t really love nighttime workouts, as they’re usually the nights I end up staying awake past midnight. Lately, I’ve tried to do something to wind down before bed so I can sleep earlier (like a short bath with a bath bomb, or turning off all of the electronics and reading for a half hour in bed). If I give myself time to wind down and relax, it’s a lot easier to fall asleep.
What time do you go?
It really depends on what we’re doing and when the Pilot gets home. If we all have a later dinner together as a family, I might not go until 8 or 9. If it’s an earlier dinner, I’ll hang out with the fam and go around 7. It changes. If there’s a certain yoga class I want to go to, or if I’m meeting a friend for an earlier workout (say 6 or so), the Pilot hangs out with Liv and does the bedtime ritual with her. Even though it takes some shuffling, it’s worth it to me and I never regret a good workout, even if it’s only a 20-minute blitz.
So tell me, friends: How do you fuel your workouts? What would be your “ideal” time to work out? For me, it would be 8am. I’d have that nice morning energy without having to wake up super early! For now, 8am is usually when we’re just starting the breakfast routine 🙂
Hope you have a great day! See ya later on the Family page with our timeout routine. 😉
xoxo
Gina
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I can only work out at night. Time also varies but never before 7:30pm.
Must say that fueling has been the biggest challenge I’ve put up with. I can’t work out after eating and can’t eat if I’m too wired. If I work out the usual hour and a half, this means I’m home at around 9:15pm and would still have to eat, bath, find time to cool down and all the other little things I do in preparation to the morning to come … Resulting in a very late bed time.
What I’m doing lately is: prior to the workout I drink a protein or gainer shake. After the work out I’d eat scrambled eggs or an omelette with some goat cheese, spring onions, olives and whatever else I find in the fridge.
Eggs are ok as they dont particularly make you feel like you’ve had this huge meal.
Another option is a salad with feta cheese.
Xxx
Instagram: fernandarozindo
I usually hit the gym right after work, from about 6-8 – then have a late dinner. I eat lunch fairly late too, about 2, and maybe have a small snack around 4 or 5 if I think I’m going to get hungry. I agree about the endorphins – I’ve noticed I am way more prone to getting the giggles (like, finding something funny but then not being able to stop laughing!) when I’ve been working out regularly, lol!
I’ve never done a night time workout before, other than yoga. I just have no energy at that time! I prefer to do mine anytime in the morning.
I prefer working out around 7 or 8 am, though I like to do an evening workout now and then. However, I always have a bit of a mental block about that because, after a certain time in the evening, the only thing I feel like doing is loafing around and being lazy!
Hey Gina, what do you consider a “late” or “early” dinner? because for me, an early dinner is 630-7ish, on time is 7-9, and late is like 930/10, depending if im with my mom or dad & my day
I’m definitely a morning workout’er. During school, I used to love going to the gym after classes around 4:50 or 5 (sometimes later if it was a Zumba night), but in the adult world- gyms are PACKED at that time. If I find myself in a time crunch, I do a ZuzkaLight workout. It kicks my butt and allows me to get it in early in the day when I want!
I can’t do late-night workouts except for yoga…and I usually fall asleep in savasana when I attempt that! 🙂 My ideal time is 8am, too…you can still hop in the shower and start the day fresh and clean, but you don’t have to wake up crazy early to fit it all in. For now, I leave for work at 7:30 each morning, so it’s usually after work around 6pm or not at all!
Its hard to get to the gym all the time with young children, I know I have a two year old. Fortunately, I have a gym at work and can go at lunch or in the afternoon. Night workouts are tough because of the lack of energy. I have had to run in the evenings before and that is a real challenge. But, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I think my ideal times are a couple hours after breakfast and before lunch, or late afternoon before dinner. I definitely like to eat a big meal afterwards, but I can’t do the morning workout thing because I would never get enough sleep! I did work out after dinner a couple nights ago and was up soooo late..it was terrible. I like to unwind after work/sitting all day by going to the gym, and maybe do like 15 mins yoga when I wake up!
I can’t find my ideal time. I usually just want to sleep after so night is probably best. No endorphins for me.
At the moment, I’m overly familiar with the dawn starts, we are not friends but it’s the best time to go in the insane heat we have here in summer. For weight training, it’s evenings because my gym doesn’t open until 10, when I’ve been at work for a few hours already! It helps having free rein over my schedule, I admire you for making yours work.
I havre always preferred afternoon or evening work outs. I tried to get into working out in the morning pre-baby a few times but I found my energy levels during the day were such that I basically crashed around mid-morning and felt like a slug the rest of the day. And now? HA. I have toyed with the idea of morning work outs, but my daughter still doesn’t sleep through the night at 15 months so I relish in every bit of sleep I can because my sleep is disrupted *at least* once during the night.
Before I had Riley, I would have a late snack right after work (so 4:30-5) and either hit the gym or run shortly after. Now I have a late snack (like 5:30-6 because my commute has changed with a new job and new home) and hang around to help my husband with bed time stuff for our daughter and spend time with her as well because she’s in daycare. That’s the only time I have with her, so I am not apt to miss it to go to the gym or run. I usually wind up at the gym by 6:30-7 and eat dinner around 8-9. Not really ideal but it is what it is. I am new to my post-baby-work-out routine because for a long time I either completely lacked energy due to extreme sleep deprivation or lack of motivation, but this seems to be working for me for now!
I don’t have any issues with sleeping either. I usually crash hard around 10 without much fan fare. Working out relaxes me but it doesn’t make me hyper.
My ideal workout time is around 11 am. That’s when I have the most energy and am optimally fueled. But with a 1 year old, an 11 am workout hasn’t happened for me in a looooooooooong time. Now I usually work out when my husband gets home from work – around 4:30 or 5. But I go back to work in September, and I’m thinking logistically evening workouts may be the most practical, and good lord I’m not looking forward to it. Like you, I will most definitely be wired and not be able to sleep!
I tend to be an evening workout person (during the week) and almost always have been. If I can’t workout right after work (6:00-ish) I will go home, eat and then head to the gym around 8:00 or so. It feels pretty amazing to get up and “get ‘er done” before sunrise (and know that it’s out of the way) but I often have 7am meetings (and with a commute that makes for an early wake up call) AND I have incredibly thick hair (length and texture similar to Gina’s from what I can tell)– working out in the morning makes my hair routine much more difficult than it should be (I work in a professional, conservative office setting so it has to be “done”) I fully admit that I definitely do not wash my hair every day but if I worked out in the morning would almost “have” to (it gets sweaty!)–adding another hour+ to my routine!!
Lately thanks to work and life I’ve been doing a lot more night workouts as well- honestly I think I might be kind of a weirdo! My ideal time to workout would be early afternoon! Lolz- being a grown up seems to work against that most of the time. 🙁 I have tried and tried to love morning workouts but I have THE hardest time waking up, let alone waking up and hitting the gym (or a Shaun T workout lately!). I definitely agree that it’s harder to wind down at night though… I’ve been trying to use a hot shower and a big mug of “sleepytime” tea to wind down. I love the idea of the bath bomb or something similar!