Timing is Everything or

When to Exercise to Maximize Your Results
 
 
 By Paul Chek, HHP, NMT
Founder, C.H.E.K Institute

All of us want to get the most we can from our workouts. While figuring out how to do this can sometimes be tricky, there's one variable that you can easily control that can make a great deal of difference to how efficient you are in the gym. It's as simple as when you work out.

That's right, the time of day is pretty important. Why? Your level of cortisol, a vital human hormone, varies depending upon the time of day.

Not only is cortisol our primary stress hormone, it is a primary hormone in general. In other words, you would die without it. Beyond supporting us in times of stress, cortisol serves as:

A stimulating natural hormone that elevates our metabolism and body temperature and prepares our body to work.

An anti-inflammatory hormone, aiding in the control of inflammation, a natural precursor to tissue healing.

An activating hormone, stimulating us to wake from sleep if released due to light exposure, low blood sugar levels, stressful dreams, or because we have parasites eating into our tissues when we sleep at night.

My experience with training athletes, as well as with my own training, has been that people naturally train better when their cortisol levels are high. Since cortisol levels rise with the sun, reaching peak blood levels around 9�?1 a.m. and then progressively set with the sun, most of you will find that you get your best performances in this timeframe

If your schedule doesn't permit you to train at this time, at least you can set your schedule so that your hardest workouts are on weekends or your days off from work, allowing you to train with your natural cortisol tides.

For those of you who currently wake up in the morning feeling tired -- even after sleeping eight hours -- training in the evening after work may well be disrupting your sleep and recovery cycles.

This is because performing any exercise that is more intense than you could perform on a full stomach triggers the release of cortisol, telling your body that it is some time between sunrise and about noon.

There's a good reason why we're built this way. For thousands of years, if not millions, we did our hunting and gathering from sunrise until just before noon. When you elevate your cortisol levels at night by hitting the gym after work, you literally wind yourself up! Since cortisol lasts for hours in the body before it is used up or neutralized by the liver, it will stop you from getting a deep, restorative sleep.

Some of you are probably saying, "That's not me. I workout after work and sleep like a rock." If this is the case, chances are very good your adrenals, the little glands atop your kidneys that produce cortisol, are fatigued or even exhausted.

When your adrenals are burned out (as we say in the clinic) and you work out after work or in the evening and you seem to sleep better, it is often because you are actually stimulating enough cortisol production with exercise to bring you to baseline levels.

Because every hormone in your body has an influence on all the other hormones -- and cortisol is a primary or master hormone -- when you bring it to baseline levels through this pathological means, it actually gives the impression that you are doing better.

If this approach is, in fact, helping you to sleep better, then there may be some therapeutic value to training late in the day. But, you must be careful because, in essence, such a tactic is like taking a sleeping pill because you can't sleep. You're never addressing the real problem!

When I identify such a finding in one of my patients or athletes, I typically start by addressing their lifestyle factors and looking for causes there (these are addressed in my book How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy). If I can't find the problem there, I'll run a variety of tests to see what is stressing their body.

I'll also run a 24-hour cortisol rhythm test to see where their adrenals are performing well and where they are not. This also helps me assess the rhythms of their life and guides me to potentially unrecognized stressors that may be stopping their adrenal glands from recovering properly.

In the end, it all comes down to hormones. Choosing when you exercise is, at its heart, a choice about whether or not to live a lifestyle that is in harmony with the ebb and flow of your hormones. This decision can also have some far reaching consequences about how well you perform in the gym as well as how well you sleep and recover from the day's wear and tear.

So work out earlier and you'll find yourself getting better results from your exercise and waking in the morning more refreshed than ever!

Paul Chek, Holistic Health Practitioner and certified Neuromuscular Therapist, is the founder of the C.H.E.K Institute in Vista, Calif. He is also sought-after consultant to sports organizations, his services have benefited numerous professional sports teams, athletes and individuals seeking optimal health worldwide.

Paul has produced more than 60 videos, 17 correspondence courses and is the author of several books, audio programs and articles. For more information on Paul's popular "You Are What You Eat" audio/workbook program, or for any of his other health/exercise courses, videos and books, call 800/552-8789, 800/552-8789 (New Zealand or Australia), 44 (0)1273-856-860 (Great Britain) or visit online at the CHEK Institute Web site. Please feel free to request a catalog of CHEK Institute products.  http://www.chekinstitute.com/

Reported in : http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/8/timing_is_everything_or_when_to_exercise_to_maximize_your_results.htm