Proper organization of training in the evening

Many people dream of having a good figure.

The best option to achieve results is training in the gym. But not everyone has this opportunity due to lack of funds and time. And some even prefer home workouts for the sake of convenience.

If the goal is to lose weight, it is recommended to choose the right set of exercises that will help you lose excess weight and form a beautiful, athletic body.

In this article we will talk about the features of evening exercises for weight loss.

Are exercises before bed beneficial: features of the effect on the body

Athletes know that the main thing is a well-established regime.

It includes not only the sleep and wakefulness routine, but also the regularity of eating and training. But the best time for serious physical activity is the first half of the day, when hormonal levels and the functioning of the body as a whole contribute to this.

Not everyone can exercise in the morning or afternoon. Work and accounting interfere. But in the evening, after finishing all their work, people often find a little time to take care of themselves.

The level of exercise in the evening should depend on how late the exercises are performed.

If you do heavy weight training or exhausting cardio training, you may have problems with your health and well-being. The bottom line is that such movements will sharply increase the heart rate, and accordingly, problems with falling asleep may appear.

In the evening, it will not be a full-fledged workout that will be useful, but something like exercise. It will help you achieve the desired result:

• speed up metabolism;
• overcome fatigue when it comes to moral and psychological stress;
• relieve the spine, especially if it has been in a sitting position all day;
• relax the muscles;
• normalize breathing and heart rate.

All this will ultimately allow you to achieve the main goal - losing weight and toning your body. Such training will undoubtedly be useful.

Be sure to check out:

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Evening workouts and their features

In the second half of the day, fatigue accumulates, so only a sufficiently interested person will train after work. When planning classes, it is necessary to take into account age, physiological characteristics, and the presence of diseases.

After a busy day, the muscles are well warmed up - pumping them up in the evening is most effective. For a business person, due to lack of time, there is no question of whether it is possible to play sports before bed.

Sports in the evenings: who is it suitable for?

Evening fitness is suitable for everyone, but given the uniqueness of each body, you cannot rely on the reviews of others; you need to choose the optimal individual training regimen. You need to determine how many hours before bedtime you can exercise for maximum benefit. It is important to clearly formulate the purpose of physical activity:

• improved health;
• weight loss;
• muscle strengthening;
• good mood.

Attention! Motor tension tones the body, and it will be more difficult to fall asleep; it makes sense to take this into account. When the goal of fitness is to lose weight, then it is necessary to pump up the abs or exercise on machines after dinner in order to fall asleep on an empty stomach, otherwise you will not be able to get rid of excess weight.

A family trip to the gym or a joint bike ride improves the microclimate in the house, promotes mutual understanding, allows you to spend more time with your child, and avoid generational conflict.

Exercise before bed with benefit: important conditions

It is necessary to follow simple rules so that training before bed does not harm your health. It doesn’t matter whether a person decides to do gymnastics, visit the gym, run or pump his muscles - a favorable result will only be achieved if the following conditions are met:

• systematic;
• gradual increase in load;
• proper nutrition;
• complete rest.

Training will only bring the desired result if it is carried out three to four times a week. You should start with a few minutes of exercise, gradually increasing the time and complexity of the exercises. Professional sports require complete dedication, a person does fitness for himself, but in any case, after physical stress, the body needs time for proper rest. Therefore, it is important to allocate time so that you go to bed an hour and a half after playing sports.

Types of permitted loads and rules for their implementation in the evening

Let’s discuss in more detail the types of training and the features of each of them, and clarify how many hours before bedtime you can engage in a certain sport. When visiting the gym or exercising at home, standing in front of the mirror, it is important not to harm the body. By drawing up an individual training plan, you can combine different loads, selecting the most optimal combination, predicting the desired result.

Cardio training

The synonym for aerobic training is considered to be cardio training – the energy of exercise is used through aerobic glycolysis (oxygen oxidation of glucose). These are walking, swimming, cycling, running, football, volleyball. It has been proven that cardio exercises strengthen the circulatory system, increase resistance to stress, stimulate the immune system, and help reduce excess weight.

Attention! Doctors recommend doing cardio before bed at low intensity and lasting from 20 minutes to an hour.

It is important to monitor your pulse and respirations during exercise. People with a history of hypertension, arrhythmia and other diseases of the cardiovascular system should carefully select a set of exercises.

Strength exercises

Strength training aims to build muscle mass by strengthening muscles and burning body fat. These sports include weightlifting and bodybuilding. Strength loads help increase strength and muscle mass, improve the functioning of ligaments and joints.

The advantage of this type of exercise in the evening has been proven. After them, the body needs at least six hours of rest, which is almost impossible if you do it in the morning.

It should be remembered that strength exercises promote the production of autogenous adrenaline and norepinephrine, and they, in turn, prevent falling asleep. The disadvantages of such exercises include weight gain and disruption of female reproductive function. To avoid adverse events, you should coordinate the set of exercises in detail with a fitness specialist.

Abdominal pumping without weights and regular warm-up

A flat, toned stomach will adorn both the fair sex and any “macho man”. Therefore, strengthening the abdominal muscles is an essential part of any workout. It is up to the trainer to decide whether to perform it before or after the power load.

Advice! It is recommended to pump your abs one and a half to two hours before going to bed, otherwise you may have difficulty falling asleep. We should not forget that “belly dancing” also refers to pumping the abs.

A warm-up is performed before each workout to prepare the muscles for intense work. Do not neglect it during evening sports activities. Low-intensity relaxing exercises are preferable - yoga, breathing exercises. They will help prepare for bed and provide the body with a good night's rest.

Stretching exercises

There are many evening sets of exercises for muscle stretching. They help eliminate tension and maximize muscle relaxation.

Advice! Experts advise finishing any workout with stretching. This is the only type of physical activity that is allowed to be performed immediately before going to bed. You can work out right in bed.

Another difference between this type of exercise and the others is that stretching before bed must be done daily.

Proper nutrition after evening workouts: when to eat and what to eat

Advertising advises using so-called sports nutrition - dietary supplements designed specifically for people involved in sports. These are concentrates containing proteins, vitamin-mineral combinations, fat burners, and energy drinks. Manufacturers claim that they are safe for the body, are not doping, and have no side effects.

On the Internet you can find many diets that are useful for athletes, with accurate calculations of calories, the ratio of carbohydrates and proteins. However, in order to prevent undesirable health consequences, before deciding to take dietary supplements or adhere to a certain diet, it is better to consult a doctor or sports trainer.

It is important to know! Experts recommend having a snack one and a half to two hours before exercise and not eating for the same amount of time after fitness. It is important to remember this if the training ends at night.

What kind of physical activity is preferable in the evening?

In the evening, the body experiences maximum fatigue and tension, which is caused by physical and mental stress during the day. The goal of the workout is to relieve this tension, not make it worse.

Exercises immediately before bed should be relatively calm, without sudden overload. Working hard before bed is a bad idea, which can lead to problems with the heart, blood vessels, and nervous system. Classes take on a different character.

Personal characteristics must also be taken into account. As you know, people are conventionally divided into two categories: “night owls” and “larks”. It is easier for the former to stay awake in the afternoon; they go to bed later, but also get up later. The latter prefer to go to bed early, but also wake up early. This should also be taken into account when choosing a time for studying.

Before going to bed, you should focus on those muscles that were least used during the day. Most often, the emphasis is on the following movements:

1. Warm up . Light muscle stretching, swings, as well as walking in the fresh air or low-intensity running are performed.
2. Low intensity strength training You can perform a set of exercises with dumbbells, for example, lunges, squats. This will help keep your muscles toned.
3. Abdominal exercises , as well as static training such as bridges, planks, and so on.

This will be quite enough, especially at the initial stage. The main thing is regularity and the absence of maximum stress for the body.

Important! Evening training cannot be “wear and tear”, so you should not constantly increase the working weight or the number of repetitions. But it is known that load progression is one of the main mechanisms of effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to add variety to the exercises, change exercises, alternate types of load, and so on.

Another option for a good workout before bed is yoga. It will keep your body in good shape and calm your nerves. But not everyone can master it on their own; at the first stage, you may need the help of an instructor or careful study of the materials.

If an athlete does not know where to start, then it is better to do a simple warm-up, perform light movements, but gradually look for different training approaches and techniques.

Arguments for"

The benefits of exercising, including in the evening, are obvious:

• The body becomes more energetic.
• The slow phase of sleep increases, during which a person has time to regain strength.
• Over time, waking up becomes easier.
• During evening classes, the body “resets” negative energy associated with stress and psycho-emotional disorders.

That is, training before bed provides pleasant relaxation: the body gets tired, so at night a person goes to sleep faster and feels refreshed the next morning. However, this rule only works if you exercise 3-4 hours before falling asleep, and not a few minutes.

How long should your workout last at night?

The duration of the workout also needs to be chosen correctly. Excessively long exercise will only increase your heart rate too much, which can lead to insomnia, and short exercise will not be effective.

Selecting the required time is an individual question and depends on the exact time of classes, daily routine, body characteristics and other factors. At the initial stage, thirty minutes will be enough, a little exercise and stretching are performed (the time for running or walking is not taken into account).

Further, the training time can be increased, but it is not recommended to train for more than an hour and a half, unless we are talking about yoga.

When choosing the duration of a workout, you should be guided by the rule - the closer it is directly to sleep, the shorter and less intense it should be. If an athlete works out in the evening, around 7 or 8 p.m., and finishes training at least 2-3 hours before bedtime, then he can afford a full-fledged workout with a serious load, and if immediately before bed, up to half an hour before going to bed, then a forty-minute lesson will be more than enough.

When is the best time to train?

When it comes to the best time to exercise, it is important to separate strength training in the gym for the purpose of muscle growth and training for the purpose of burning fat and losing weight. These are fundamentally different activities that involve different metabolic processes - which is why it is extremely difficult for the body to burn fat and build muscle at the same time

Workouts for weight loss are aerobic (that is, they require the cells to consume oxygen), while strength exercises for muscle growth are anaerobic. Cardio's effectiveness for burning fat increases when blood glucose levels are low (which literally forces the body to burn fat reserves), while strength training is not possible under such conditions.

In other words, morning workouts are ideal for burning fat and increasing endurance, while workouts for muscle gain are recommended in the afternoon. However, you can also exercise early in the morning - you just need to follow the tips described in our material (for example, take a portion of a gainer before training).

Why is it hard to exercise in the morning?

Strength training early in the morning is much more challenging for most people than training in the afternoon. The main reason for this is that the body simply does not have enough energy in the morning - muscle glycogen stores and blood sugar levels are minimal, and the energy from fat stores cannot be used to perform strength exercises.

Let's say you are doing basic exercises with a barbell - just a minute ago the body did not know about the upcoming load, but now it needs energy. The source of this “fast” energy can be exclusively glycogen reserves from the muscles working in this movement, but not fat depots. In order to get energy from fat, the body will need at least 15-20 minutes.

Effective complex

When training in the evening, do not forget that the muscles need time to recover, so performing the same movements every time is not recommended.

The most effective option is to train every other day or three times a week. The program can then be modified when the athlete gains the necessary experience.

The most common option is a three-day split.

For example:

As a result, we get two workouts for the lower body and one for the upper body. Subsequently, you can introduce more exercises for the arms and back, and if possible add equipment, for example, dumbbells.

Other exercises aimed more at general physical fitness are also suitable for evening training. For example, these could be simple squats, various leg raises, walking, and so on. At the first stage, you can perform such an activity each time with the same program, and then, as it becomes more difficult, divide it into two or three days.

Benefits of morning workouts

It’s great when a person has the opportunity to do fitness after sleep. For those who like to exercise in the early hours of the day, jogging, race walking or cycling - everything that relates to aerobic exercises is suitable. The main thing is a successful combination of food intake and work schedule with fitness.

Positive aspects of physical activity for early risers:

• effective for combating excess weight;
• reduce the feeling of hunger;
• help combat overeating;
• tone the body;
• help you wake up faster;

It is important to know! It has been noticed that the risk of getting a sports injury during morning exercises is significantly reduced.

But some people find it difficult to exercise after sleep, even with enough time.

It is important not to deviate from your decision under any circumstances. Experts advise washing your face with cool water, drinking a cup of coffee, providing sufficient lighting, taking care of music, and finding partners to ensure joy during morning fitness.

Main conclusions

Losing weight is possible if you follow a daily routine and follow the recommendations in terms of nutrition and exercise. Going to the gym will not be available to everyone, just like working out in the morning. Therefore, many people study at home, almost before bed.

In such a situation, movements of light and medium weight, with little or no weights, are perfect. Otherwise, you can overload the body, which will cause difficulty falling asleep, disruption of the routine and, accordingly, a number of health problems.

The influence of sleep on physical activity

As you already understand, sports and sleep are interdependent things. Not only does sport affect the quality of sleep, but healthy sleep also contributes to productive training.

• A well-rested person feels better, has more strength and enthusiasm for a full workout. And vice versa, from lack of sleep there is absolutely no energy and desire to engage in physical activity.
• During the deep sleep stage, the hormone somatotropin is released, which is responsible for the body's endurance, increased muscle mass and energy. And with a lack of sleep, stress hormones, such as cortisol, enter the bloodstream. Draw your own conclusions.

Monitor the load

Sedentary work, static postures, relaxing in front of the TV - all this causes a feeling of chronic fatigue and guarantees poor, intermittent sleep. The muscles gradually weaken and cannot fully process the calories received during the day. As a result, you slowly but surely gain weight.

Correct the situation with a short warm-up after work, a brisk walk, or a five-minute dance. Moderate cardio exercise helps keep your metabolism at a normal level. The heart will pump blood more actively, stimulating the process of fat burning during wakefulness and sleep.

Active movements will relieve fatigue and help you fall asleep faster. Muscles that are in good shape consume more energy, and fat gradually burns even at rest.

Set of exercises

Before starting your evening workout, it is important to get in a positive mood. Remember that by wanting to lose weight and get your body in shape, you are setting yourself a goal worthy of respect. Moreover, it is quite achievable. If the self-hypnosis technique does not work, you can turn on energetic music, which will improve your mood and set the rhythm of your home workouts.

So, the weight loss complex begins with cardio exercise:

• Walking in place. Of course, it’s good if you have a treadmill at home, which will allow you to control the speed, time and number of calories burned. However, even without this miracle of technology, you can simply walk vigorously, slightly raising your knees. The time for one approach is 3 minutes. This warm-up is needed to warm up your muscles a little and get your heart pumping. This will allow you to avoid injuries and prepare for further exercise;
• Walking should turn into running in place with a high hip lift. To control the correct execution of movements, you should extend your arms along your body so that your elbows are pressed against your body. Your arms should be bent at the elbows at a right angle. You will get an improvised plank. When performing this element of gymnastics, the upper surface of the thigh should be in contact with the palms. The movements are repeated for 2 minutes;
• Running in place with a high shin lift. Ideally, when performing this exercise, your heels should reach your buttocks. However, if your level of training is still low and you cannot perform the movement in this way, it’s okay. Every next time it will work out better and better. One approach of this type of running is 2 minutes;
• Jumping rope. This activity was a lot of fun as a child. Now is the time to remember it. To perform it correctly, you need to choose a good jump rope: heavy enough and of a suitable length. When performing jumps, you do not need to intensively rotate your arms - they should be fairly straight and static, and you should only work with your hands. You can start with 50 jumps, but add 5-10 at each subsequent workout.

Once your heart rate has reached the optimal frequency, you can move on to strength training.

The following weight loss complex is popular among fitness trainers:

1. Squats. A very popular exercise for the muscles of the buttocks and back of the thighs, to which both professionals and fitness enthusiasts sing odes. To perform a squat correctly, you need to stand up straight, place your feet slightly wider than your shoulders, with your feet parallel to each other, and your arms extended in front of you. A correct squat is done with a straight back. The depth of the squat is up to the parallel of the thigh with the floor or deeper. For beginners, it is enough to repeat the exercise 20-25 times, but gradually increase the number;
2. Lunges. Stand up straight with your feet together and then take a big step forward while squatting down. The legs should be on the same line. The deeper the squat goes, the better. You can lock in this position for 2-3 seconds to feel the muscles working. After this, return to the starting position, and then repeat the same thing, but on the other leg. Number of repetitions – at least 20;
3. Scissors . This exercise can also be performed in a lying position. The arm should be straightened and placed under the lower back. The legs should be raised 30 cm from the floor and a movement reminiscent of working with scissors should be performed. In this case, the right and left legs should alternately be higher or lower. This is an excellent workout for the abdominal muscles and thighs. You need to repeat such movements 20 times;
4. Name . This is a variation on the previous exercise. From the same starting position, raise your legs 30-35 cm from the floor and write your full name in the air with them. You can repeat the exercise 2-3 times;
5. Push ups . The straight body must be raised on the arms to the “plank” position. If everything is done correctly, then at the end point the entire body (from the top to the heels) will be a straight line. If your physical fitness does not allow you to lift your entire body, you can do push-ups from your knees. It is important not to overload the spine and not raise your head. Number of repetitions – 20 or more;
6. Reverse push-ups. This exercise requires a chair or bench. You need to sit down, resting your hands on the seat, and then move your buttocks over the edge of the seat so that the emphasis is only on your hands. The elbows must be turned strictly back, and the legs must be placed parallel to each other. Bend your arms to a 90-degree angle, and then straighten them almost all the way. Repeat at least 20 times;
7. Plank. It is valued by trainers in all fitness centers, as it allows you to load almost all muscle groups. The technique of execution implies that the entire body should be extended in a straight line. Lower your face to the floor, bend your arms slightly at the elbows and try not to sag in the lower back or raise your buttocks. If standing in this position for a minute is too difficult, do the plank from your knees, but as your strength and endurance grow, return to the original version.

Do yoga

Savasana, or Dead Man's Pose, is a great way to relax the spine. During the day, fatigue accumulates; in the evening you have no energy left for useful activities or rest. All you can do is sit in front of the monitor, further overloading your back. Trying to relieve fatigue with coffee will only make the situation worse.

Put your laptop or tablet aside and lie down on the gymnastics mat. 20 minutes of shavasana will put the spinal discs, adjacent muscles and fascia in order. The aching back pain will go away, your mood will improve, and you will have the strength to do household chores, walks or exercise. The result: active calorie burning and a good night's sleep.