best time for work outs

[nature boy]

yeah so like you may know i've been doing my work outs at night while winnie is putting ryan to sleep. i usually go on the bike for about 22 minutes (the exact length of an episode of transformers) and then get on the total gym for some upper body stuff. then i'd cool off and surf the net a bit, shower, then surf some more while my hair dries, then go to sleep.

this has been working for me because i feel like i have no other time during the day to get a work out in. and since i've been doing it at night i've been more regular at it than ever before (4-5 times a week).

this past week, however, i found that i couldn't sleep for the life of me. like, i'd be tossing and turning until 3-4am. but i still get up around 8-9 to go to work. so i've been pretty tired all day, which makes the day even longer.

my question is, is it even worth it to work out at night? i heard that working out in the morning is always best for weight loss, working out in the afternoon is best for strength training, and working out at night is only good if you have no other time to work out (something is better than nothing). i don't know if it's the work outs now that are keeping me up, or it's just my regular messed up sleeping.

what say you guys?

[joel]

yes there are studies related to working out and time of day. and i think working out late can affect your sleep somewhat... but the benefits to working out especially on a regular schedule should outweigh all the negatives... including with sleep. you should be able to get more recovery out of less amount of sleep. at least that's what i found.

i think there is a tendency for people to be somewhat restless after a cardio workout. It probably takes about 20 minutes of cardio just to get into actual fat burn... if you do cardio for longer you'll actually feel the kick from this, what people call a second wind sometimes. that's what might give you a somewhat restless feeling. one thing though, if you do some cardio work out late i would recommend not eating an hour prior to workout or anytime after it... with the sugar in your system from the fat burn and if you eat anything after it'll definitely keep you up a bit. i am usually able to sleep about 1-2 hours after a workout without any problem.

i'm just speaking from my own experience though.

[nature boy]

hm, i wonder if it's best that i split up my workout then? like cardio in the morning and weights at night? i'd hate to have to split it up but these long and tiring days are getting to me.

[se7entse7en]

go to bed earlier and do your workout in the morning. Then surf the internets.

[nature boy]

i can't do it man. i'm too much of a night owl. i can try to get up a bit earlier and go to work a bit later, but it won't be easy.

[supersuk]

Best time is the time that will allow you to work out most consistently.

For me its after work or around 2-3pm where I would normally take my power nap during work.

[nature boy]

another weird question that i thought about during my workouts:
is it necessary to have those "fail" reps? i read/heard (don't remember) that if you don't have the failure reps then you're wasting your time. sure, it's good to just move your muscles but they're not "working out" until you go until you fail.

is that true?

i find that i just go until i feel pretty tired, but my muscles don't fail necessarily. they just feel tired and i want/need to quit. am i just wasting my time then? oh, and if it means anything, i don't get sore anymore either. i think i was just sore after the first night.

[supersuk]

Don't know, I try to push it to a fail rep. Sometimes I don't have a spotter, and I push it to near fail. I've gained good muscle mass both ways. I think as long as you're pushing it as close to your limits is all that matters. Its just that most people who haven't been lifting for a while dont really know they're physical limits, its mostly mental for them.

[se7entse7en]

I used to pick a weight such that I could lift 3 sets of 10 reps where the last rep of the last set was very hard. I also worked out alone and some exercises don't lend well going to failure. How do you bail out of a squat?

You can make gains without going to failure.

As a beginner you can make significant gains quite quickly as you train your nervous system.

[nature boy]

why is 3 sets of 10 reps the ideal? i hear that a lot.

i find that sometimes after 2 sets of 10 i feel like i'm doing failure reps. sometimes i try to squeeze out a 3rd set but i admit it doesn't always happen.

[se7entse7en]

I found that a weight where I could do 3 of 10 to be heavy enough to see gains, but not so heavy that if I got into trouble that I would die. For example, if I fail on the bench, the weight is still low enough that I can gracefully bail out without having to yell for the neighbors to come help.

It was also what we were tought in highschool and I figured it was a good starting point.

[joel]

it depends on what you are focusing on.
for muscle gain you want to do less reps and more weight. most people will say 3 sets of between 8-11... 12-15 for more of a leaning up which means you are not really doing enough weight to get significant muscle gain, 16+ is just endurance at this point you are only doing enough weight to help your muscles be able to work out for longer, but not necessarily harder.

these are also generalisations a probably will defer a bit for each person. some people are more genetically inclined to gain muscle too... so they will have to do less to get more.. but its a pretty good measuring stick to start out with.

[nature boy]

hm, that's what i was thinking. i know that to gain mass you just do less reps of higher weight and to lean up you do more reps of a lower weight, i just didn't know where the 3/10 rule came from (like if it was scientific or not).

[Duncan]

i remember hearing somewhere that building mass occurs when you stress the muscle to failure because that's when you "tear" the muscle tissue (or fibres?) a little and it forces the muscle to rebuild itself bigger and stronger after your workout. That's why failure reps are important. It's the time when your muscle tears the most.

[supersuk]

I do mostly 3x 5-8 reps, for strength....

hypertrophy, you'll probably want to be in the 8-12 rep range.