Sports and sleep: how harmful is physical activity before bed?

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.

What time of day to train: recommendations from experts ^

Best time of day to exercise

According to scientists, the optimal time for fitness is when normal body temperature reaches its maximum and muscles become warm and elastic. For most people this happens around 16:00 - 17:00. Also, according to various sources, a person is about five percent stronger in the middle of the day, and more resilient in the afternoon.

It is believed that in the mornings the body temperature is most reduced, and it is undesirable to exercise at this time - simple exercise will be enough. The rest of the time, human biorhythms operate clockwise as follows:

• From 10 to 12 days the highest concentration of adrenaline is observed, so you can engage in any sports that require attentiveness and endurance;
• From 14 to 15 days, human activity is reduced, and it is best to devote time to rest;
• From 15 to 16 days the muscles are in increased tone, and you can work out with dumbbells;
• From 16 to 19 pm - you can exercise, go to aerobics, run. During such a period, the body has the most favorable effect on stress;
• From 20 to 22 pm the temperature gradually decreases, energy decreases, and fatigue appears. It is advisable to postpone any loads.

Before or after meals

• The answer to this question depends on the goals of the exercise, but all trainers recommend eating light food 2 hours before training, otherwise you may not have enough energy and the person will be tired.
• Immediately after eating, any exercise is prohibited, with the exception of using gainer or protein: athletes need to take them 30-60 minutes before visiting the gym.

In the morning or evening

In fact, the choice of time to exercise should depend not only on the generally accepted norms of the circardial rhythm, but also on your own well-being.

• Larks should visit the gym in the first half of the day, because... In the evening you will feel very tired.
• For owls, on the contrary, it is advisable to postpone classes until the evening, because in the morning hours they will not be as active as they should be.

Experts believe that, regardless of personal preference, almost all people are physically stronger and more resilient in the afternoon.

When is the best time to run?

• There is a theory that cardio exercises immediately after waking up contribute to the rapid burning of subcutaneous fat, because. Because of this, the body experiences stress.
• Therefore, those who want to lose weight are recommended to run before breakfast, after drinking a cup of unsweetened coffee or tea.

When should you exercise?

Of course, exercise is designed to wake you up quickly, warm up your muscles and the whole body, so it must be done in the morning.

• It is advisable to do this before breakfast, after visiting the bathroom and washing your face.
• After eating, even mild physical activity can cause digestive problems.

The best time to gain muscle mass

It is believed that training in the afternoon is the best option for those who want to accelerate muscle growth. And you can't argue with this:

Between 14:00 and 16:00, muscles are most susceptible to stress and metabolism reaches its peak activity, which ultimately contributes to favorable training results.

Is it possible to exercise before bed?

Most studies show that exercise improves sleep quality

It doesn’t matter at all what time of day the training takes place.

• Scientists believe that even vigorous exercise just half an hour before bed does not affect the quality of sleep.
• And one thing experts are unanimous about is that lack of sleep significantly reduces the results of training.

If you decide to take up fitness, choose a time for exercise taking into account your current routine and lifestyle. To avoid injury and fatigue, you need to consistently stick to your chosen schedule and make exercise part of your routine.

We also recommend that you read the article on Happy-womens.com Fascial gymnastics: we cleanse blood vessels and improve blood flow.

Arguments against"

If you exercise before bed, it also has its downsides:

1. By the evening, a person is tired after a working day, his physical and emotional strength is already running out. Heavy loads and intense training will be inappropriate. As a result, a person immediately wants to sleep after training, which can lead to disruption of the natural biological rhythm.
2. A disorder in the internal clock leads to the fact that the student may fall asleep after classes, and also often wants to sleep during the day.
3. In the evening hours and at night, metabolic processes begin to decrease, and if you play sports, they, on the contrary, become more active.
4. As a result, the person begins to produce the appropriate hormones, which cause the effect of wakefulness, as if it were morning. Therefore, falling asleep after intense exercise in the evening, even 3 hours before going to bed, is problematic. Poor sleep after exercise is observed especially often in people who are accustomed to falling asleep and waking up early, the so-called “larks.”
5. Another argument against is the peculiarities of building muscle mass. If you exercise in the first half of the day, muscle growth processes occur faster. By the evening they have time to rest, which ensures recovery.

If you have developed a habit of exercising in the evening, and there are no problems with sleep, you can continue to go to the gym at a convenient time. However, if fatigue or sleep disturbances occur, you cannot continue exercising as before: strength exercises are postponed to the next morning so that you can get a normal night's sleep.

What not to eat for breakfast

To get results you will have to give up foods containing fast carbohydrates. These include sugar, sweets, and confectionery. Such food contributes to a rapid increase in blood glucose levels and an equally rapid decrease. However, by the time you start training, you will not have the necessary glycogen reserves.

You should also exclude processed meat from your diet - sausages, sausages, and semi-finished products. It is undesirable to eat fruits with a high sugar content - grapes, pears, sweet apples, persimmons.

Optimal time for sports activities

Many scientific studies have been and are being conducted regarding the selection of the optimal time for physical education, fitness and professional sports. They showed that the approach must take into account three factors at once:

• load intensity;
• individual characteristics of the body;
• purpose of the lesson.

For each person, the norms of physical activity and sleep duration are individual. Some people exercise in the morning, which makes them feel more energetic, while others do it in the evening. However, in any case, you need to understand:

1. In the evening hours, it is harmful to engage in weightlifting and other sports that put a lot of stress on the body.
2. Since it is undesirable to exercise before bed, after evening exercise you should do a set of relaxing exercises: walking, yoga, light jogging, stretching, free swimming in the pool, etc.
3. In the morning, they do useful exercises that help invigorate the body. Therefore, doing gymnastics after waking up is normal, but without heavy loads.

Running and athletics

Running exercises in the morning, exercises and other exercises that do not overload the body have an invigorating effect. A light jog combined with warm-up movements and pull-ups on the horizontal bar is allowed both in the morning and in the evening. It is appropriate to pump up your abs, do push-ups and do other similar exercises. It is useful to pay attention to the following tips:

• It is harmful to run immediately after waking up, because... the body should adjust within 30-40 minutes.
• in the first half of the day the time is from 6 to 7 and from 11 to 12 o'clock. The main goal of running is to awaken and energize the body.
• In the evening they run from 19 to 20 hours. Exercise allows you to relieve stress, tension from the day and burn calories.

At the same time, it is not recommended to engage in running sports too late (after 20 hours), since due to the increased load, the body does not have time to fully rest and get ready for sleep.

Another important topic relates to whether it is possible to train at night. There are several different, including opposing, answers. However, it is important to understand that at night the natural human biorhythm prepares the body for sleep. Therefore, constantly exercising at night is a bad decision.

Power training

The situation is similar with strength training (weightlifting, bodybuilding, etc.). Since such sports involve a heavy load on the body, exercise in the evening or especially before bedtime has a harmful effect in terms of falling asleep.

Another negative aspect of evening training is that at this time fat is burned ineffectively, and weight loss will be minimal. The reason is that food comes in during lunch and sugar is burned only after 4-5 hours. Therefore, the body first spends it and then extracts energy from its own fat reserves.

Yoga

Doing gentle exercise before bed is beneficial because it gives your body time to relax and become tired, making it easier to fall asleep. Light bends forward, twisting, longitudinal bends and other types of movements help relieve fatigue from the spine and muscles of the body. It is optimal to do them an hour before going to bed.

Cardio exercises

Cardio training involves intense aerobic exercise that strengthens the heart muscle and activates metabolic processes. The corresponding chemical reactions begin approximately 40-50 minutes after the start of the workout, so cardio takes an hour or more. During classes, they especially carefully monitor the pulse, the value of which is used to determine the calories burned.

The optimal time for classes is the morning (from 6 to 11). The body burns fats because the new food has not yet arrived in large quantities (before lunch). The heart muscle is also strengthened (due to moderate exercise). If you exercise in the evening, and especially before bedtime (after 20-21 hours), an influx of vivacity occurs, and it becomes difficult to fall asleep.

What not to drink before breakfast

Ready-made juices and sweet carbonated drinks are completely excluded. They contain quite a large amount of sugar, which leads to a sharp release of glucose during training and rapid fatigue. For the same reason, it is not recommended to drink sweet coffee or with cream.

Contrary to popular belief about the benefits of freshly squeezed juices, in this case the statement is not true. They are almost completely devoid of fiber; in addition, they cause increased secretion of gastric juice. This means that heartburn may occur during training, so exercise will have to be suspended. If you cannot do without juices, add vegetable fiber and L-carnitine to them.

Nutritionists recommend drinking coffee (strong) and green tea without sugar and milk in the morning.

TOP 5 tips for proper nutrition before bed

The beneficial effect of training is neutralized if a person eats incorrectly. Here are 5 simple tips for those who play sports to remember:

1. It is allowed to eat foods high in protein - dietary meat of boiled chicken, turkey, veal, as well as seafood.
2. Dairy products – low-fat kefir, cottage cheese, yogurt and cheeses – strengthen bones and muscles.
3. Among the drinks, weak herbal teas (preferably green) are suitable.
4. It is undesirable to consume any sweets and any fatty foods.
5. Among the drinks prohibited are coffee, black tea, cocoa, and alcohol.

In this case, you should remember the general rule: eating is not advisable 4 hours before going to bed. The digestive system must have time to absorb the incoming food, otherwise at night the stomach and intestines will not be able to fully recover.

What to eat in the morning for weight loss

If your main goal is to lose extra pounds, you need to ensure that your body has a sufficient supply of glycogen, which is involved in the breakdown of fat. For this reason, the morning menu should include slow carbohydrates. They provide a stable flow of energy throughout the entire workout, thereby eliminating stressful situations for the body.

To lose weight, you should choose foods with a low glycemic index (less than 60) for breakfast:

• from porridges – oatmeal or buckwheat;
• diet bread, bread made from wholemeal flour, with grain additives or bran;
• nuts - walnuts, pine nuts, cashews (in limited quantities, as they contain a large amount of fat);
• legumes – peas, beans, lentils;
• vegetables, fruits, garden herbs.

Important. Such breakfasts must also include protein. In its absence, the muscles will begin to weaken, and fat deposits will not only not go away, but will also continue to grow.

Five recommended exercises before bed

Relaxing exercise can be part of your pre-bed ritual. To practice with pleasure, they develop their own complex, taking into account possible contraindications. You can take the following types of exercises as a basis (they are performed on the floor, on a mat):

1. Lie on your back, bend your knees at a right angle and bring them so as to touch your chest closely. Hands reach to the toes to feel pleasant relaxation.
2. Continuing to lie on your back, place your feet firmly on the floor; arms lie along the body. The pelvis is gradually raised above the surface, pulled as high as possible, held in this position and returned.
3. Sit in the lotus position on a small pillow. The knees diverge as wide as possible. Place your right hand on the floor, bend to the right, and take your left hand as high as possible. Then repeat on the other side.
4. Continuing to sit in the lotus position, make turns left and right. The movements are slow, as if the person wants to see an object behind.
5. Stand on the mat, slightly bend your knees and group yourself, pressing your chest to your legs as much as possible. Hands hug each other. At the same time, you should not strain your abdominal or chest muscles.

Thus, the question of whether it is possible to exercise before bed has a negative answer in the sense that intense, heavy exercise with high loads does more harm than good. A light jog or yoga helps you relax and fall asleep easily. Since each organism has its own biorhythm, you should be guided by both general rules and your own feelings.

Types of physical activity and their effect on sleep

Their choice determines your goal. Are you thinking about increasing muscle mass, becoming stronger or losing weight? You can get lost in the variety of existing techniques. We need a reasonable approach. Choose something that fits the purpose.

Power training

Exercises with additional weight (barbell, weights, apparatus).
They help build muscle and create an athletic figure. Your body will experience intense stress. Well-known sports that are based on strength training are weightlifting and bodybuilding. You can exercise in the gym or at home. Attention! From a biological point of view, this is a shake-up for the body. During exercise, adrenaline and other substances that excite the nervous system enter the bloodstream.

It is better to complete your workouts three hours before bedtime to allow your body to calm down and get ready for sleep. If you are taking (or want to start) sports nutrition, then read its composition. The presence of guarana and caffeine in it will have a bad effect on falling asleep if you consume the mixture shortly before bedtime.

Cardio training

This is an energy-intensive workout that works muscle groups. The heart has to work actively (hence it is called “cardio”) to create blood flow proportional to the work. Exercise develops endurance and is good for weight loss. This includes running, swimming, cycling, football, race walking, etc. Intense cardio before bed is not a good option. The effect on the body, as with strength exercises, is stimulating. Exercise, but end your workout three hours before bedtime. Another thing is low-intensity exercise (light jogging), which can improve sleep quality. Monitor your heart rate and breathing during exercise!

Stretching

From the English “stretch” - to stretch, stretch. These are any exercises for stretching muscles and body flexibility. You can use them to build an independent lesson or complement any other type of load. They often complete a workout. Age and level of training are not an obstacle to such exercises. They help relieve muscle tension and restore strength. This discipline has proven itself in therapeutic gymnastics. It can be done before bed. By relaxing and relieving anxiety, you will fall asleep faster

Attention! Before starting class, be sure to do a light warm-up to warm up your muscles. Stretch limit – mild pain (“pleasant” pain)

Alternate stretching with relaxation. Don't hold your breath, let it be even.

Yoga

This is a multifaceted direction, including a physical component (performing asanas) and philosophy. There are many types of it, both classic and modern. One of the latest, fitness yoga, has lost its spiritual part, but this has not become less popular. During the exercise, the muscles are worked, and the body relaxes. Performing asanas develops a sense of balance, improves coordination, helps relieve fatigue and cope with depression. Varieties such as anti-gravity (classes in hammocks) and aqua yoga are gaining fans. You can choose the type and intensity for any person with different levels of training. It can be practiced before bed with music and aromatherapy. If you suffer from insomnia or wake up at night and can’t sleep, do gentle yoga!

Pilates

This type of physical activity was good for helping injured soldiers and athletes recover. For this purpose, it was invented by Joseph Pilates at the beginning of the twentieth century. As in yoga, there are no strength exercises, but there are dynamic loads aimed at strengthening muscles. The goal is to create a healthy and fit body. Is it possible to train in the evening? You can, only an hour before bedtime.

Warm-up and abdominal exercises

An athletic belly with noticeable six-packs is popular among men and women. Due to lack of time and desire to have beautiful abs, have you decided to pump them up before going to bed? This is commendable, but do this kind of exercise 1-2 hours before bed. The load is intense, after which the body needs to be given time to calm down.