Better to indulge your biorhythm but pay attention to non-sporting habits: the gym in the evening with a late dinner has effects on the metabolism. Better a snack first
There are those who train as soon as they wake up, before going to work, those who are better off on a lunch break and those who opt for the late afternoon-evening to leave the problems of the office behind. The time we dedicate to our favorite sporting activity is often caught between work and family commitments. But is there a good time to play sports? To understand it you have to rely on
cronobiologia
that medical science that studies i biorhythms in our organism in the different phases of the day and night.
The role of hormones
During the day the human body undergoes a series dhormonal and metabolic changes which can affect training response he explains Carlotta Mutti, neurologist of the Sleep Medicine Center at the Parma hospital. While upon awakening we see a peak of
cortisol, the stress hormone also produced by physical activity, in the late afternoon testosterone rises
the anabolic hormone par excellence, which promotes the formation of muscle mass. Immediately after the peak she begins to increase
melatonin
then the body temperature is reduced and the body begins to relax and prepare for falling asleep.
If we get there in the evening with an abundant charge of cortisolto which theadrenalin and the endorphins released for the excitement of a sports competition or intense training, it is easy for an i to occurInterference with the action of melatonin and our body is in danger of short-circuiting, making falling asleep difficult. For all these reasons the experts they have always advised against training in the afternoon, or worse in the eveningbecause if it is true that physical exercise is associated with a good quality of sleep, it is also true that the situation can be reversed if the exercise performed just before going to sleep because in this case the quality of sleep is likely to be compromised.
The timing
If in the past years physical activity at sunset was very demonized and it was suggested to practice sports only in the morning or at the latest in the early afternoon, over time various studies on professional and amateur athletes have shown that the repercussions on sleep do not they seem to be so dramatic, as long as leave the swimming pool or gym at least two hours before going to sleep. In fact, the most recent studies document that the excess of evening physical activity does not subvert, as was feared, the characteristics of sleep.
The most affected stage of sleep is Rem (where you dream the most)
, which decreases by 3% on average, a very low percentage. The remaining parameters (including latency to falling asleep and continuity of sleep) seem to remain unchanged by the afternoon-evening physical activity.
A recent review of studies conducted by researchers at Concordia University in Montreal confirmed that the timing of exercise (late afternoon and evening) and the distance between the time of rest and the end of the activity affect the quality of rest. Overall, the analysis showed that when exercise ended at least two hours before bedtime, there are benefits to participants’ sleep quality, including greater ease in falling asleep and longer sleep duration, particularly in sedentary subjects. . Conversely, if exercise ends less than two hours before going to sleep, the time to fall asleep is longer and the quality of sleep is lower.
Owls and larks
But beware, we are not all the same and each one is predisposed to wake up and fall asleep at different times: the difference is the chronotype
, under which we divide into larks and owls. While larks (which tend to wake up early and go to bed early) are naturally predisposed to carry out morning training, owls (which, on the contrary, stay late in the evening and prefer to wake up calmly), biologically prefer the physical activity in the late afternoon or early evening. As far as possible it goes indulged their biological clock because sport like sunlight and nutrition is a synchronizer of our organism recommends Mutti. If a lark has to do physical activity in the evening it risks a misalignment of its circadian rhythm
thus losing the ability to maintain the biological clock that suits him. Conversely, the owl will have the opposite problem: if we suggest that he play sports in the morning he will tend to anticipate his sleep cycle, go to bed earlier in the evening and wake up early in the morning, but not the balance for which he is naturally predisposed. .
However, sport is used as a chrono-regulator in sleep medicine. For an extreme owl patient who has serious difficulty waking up in the morning to go to work, we suggest exercising early in the day just to retune the internal clock. Conversely, early evening motor activity is recommended for a lark who wants to delay the pace. These tricks are used only if there is a serious problem to be solved, otherwise it is good to indulge your own chronotype.
Effects of evening training
The evening sport then cleared through customs? Studies are still few and early to claim to be able to do sport in the evening with absolute tranquility. More in-depth research is needed, on more numerous case histories and with prolonged follow-ups over time to understand the real impact on sleep of sport practiced in this time slot warns Carlotta Mutti. Furthermore, the research does not take into account extra sporting habits. Doing physical activity in the evening will tend to dine lateafter training, but an absolutely certain fact in the scientific literature that eating late carries an increased risk of adiposit, diabetes and metabolic problems
. Therefore it is absolutely recommended to eat before training and not after in order not to cancel, if not worsen, the benefits of physical movement, the neurologist suggests. Moreover those who play sports late tend to over-hydrate to compensate for thirst and exertion, but this behavior can easily cause awakenings at night to go to the bathroom, thus making sleep fragmented. proved that sleeping poorly, even for just one night, reduces sports performance and strength in professional athletes. In addition, sleeping less than eight hours per night routinely increases the risk of sport-related musculoskeletal trauma. Conversely, adequate and quality sleep improves the athlete’s reactivity and alertness, as well as antagonizing stress and anxiety.
Schedules and goals
The type of sport or your goals can also affect your training schedule. The time of day may be less of a factor for endurance exercises such as long distance running or cycling while for those aiming for high performance that requires strength and power, afternoon exercise seems best and in these cases , the ideal time window seems to be between 1pm and 6pm. In order not to risk interfering with the circadian rhythmin the evening it would be better to opt for lighter activities such as yoga, pilates or any low intensity sport. If, on the other hand, the main objective of theweight loss workout, then it is advisable to do it in the morningpossibly on an empty stomach and for about 30 minutes, as in this way the body will mainly use the fat reserves as a source of energy.
March 11, 2022 (change March 11, 2022 | 12:57)
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