Is It Really Better to Work Out In the Morning? Fitness Experts Weigh In

When it comes to working out—and everything else, frankly—I have some pecadillos. For one thing, I'm an introvert who shudders at the thought of group classes. And then, there's this: I tend to overthink when I work out. I'm committed to doing it five times a week, and I usually do come through. I mean, I'm 46; brittle is not the vibe I'm going for. Still, even though my workouts are habitual, I have an internal debate with myself nearly every morning.

The thing is—and this will be relatable to everyone in the modern age—I wake up on most weekday mornings and instantly feel rushed. I have deadlines to meet, stories to tell about Taylor Swift's body wash and other pressing topics, a young son to get ready for school, UGC videos to shoot, new products to try, Teams pow-wows… You know. The good stuff. With all this swirling in my mind, I often think: Can't I just sit down and start writing now, while my brain is fresh, and work out later?

If I'm on a major deadline, I often do just get to work while I'm still having my coffee. But I feel guilty for every second I'm not working out —torn between disappointing my editors and letting myself down. I have this stubborn fear that if I don't get my workout done in the morning, it will never happen that day at all. And I've also heard that working out in the morning is ideal- why? I don't really know.

I've been asking myself if I should just adjust my routine to start working out after work, and if I do, whether it will impact my health in any way. I decided to ask for some expert advice, starting with Jennifer Grehan , founder of The Core Collab, a Pilates reformer manufacturer.

Pros and Cons of Working Out in the Morning

She gets me. Or rather, my timing quandary. "I've taught Pilates for more than 20 years, ran more than 20 studios, and I'm a mom of three boys—so I've trained clients at every hour of the day and squeezed my own workouts into the gaps," Grehan said.

Plus, if you plan to work out after work, it might just … not happen. The day gets in the way. "Meetings run late; you're tired, and I'll go tomorrow kicks in," she says. (Been there!)

But! Morning workouts aren't all roses. Grehan says that muscles are stiffer if you work out right after you wake up, so you need a longer warm-up. Plus, "if you're not a morning person, you'll skip it," she notes.

Rob Brown, personal training leader at the soon-to-open Life Time Bryant Park location, confirmed some of my fears about working out after work. "Saving your workout for the evening doesn't ruin your chances of achieving your fitness goals; it just makes it a lot harder," he says. " The reason I say this is because developing a routine is the first step to start seeing real progress, and it's much easier to do that in the morning before work."

In his decade-plus of training, he's seen a laundry list of excuses from clients about why they can't show up for evening appointments. "Emergencies are more likely to come up; traffic can prolong your commute so much that you have to skip the workout; you're more likely to get invited to after-work events with co-workers or friends; afternoon meetings can run long, causing you to have to skip your workout," he says. "If you have children, they most likely have events to attend after school; you forgot to bring your gym clothes to work. None of the above are things that happen in the morning before work."

How Nutrition Impacts Fitness Goals

That said, Brown stresses that you can still be successful with your fitness goals while working after work if you can stay very disciplined on a few things. "The first and most important is your nutrition," he says. " Planning out what you eat and when you eat is very important to stay consistent with your afternoon/evening workouts."

"You need to consume carbs 90 minutes before your workout to feel your best, so have a great snack prepared for 4-4:30 if you're working out around 5:30-6:00 pm," he says. But he says to be careful not to overeat when you do get home after your workout. "When you work out in the morning, you will continue to burn calories throughout the day with consistent movement," he says. " The unfortunate routine many people fall into is eating their largest meal before bed when they don't need the carbs for energy. Typically, working out makes you hungry, so when you get home after an evening workout, it can be easy to eat too much, and those excess calories will be stored as fat while you sleep."

The easy way to avoid this pitfall is to have a protein shake or bar ready to go immediately following your workout and then sticking to the dinner you hopefully planned earlier in the week.

Pros and Cons of Working Out in the Evening

After work, your body is warmed up from moving all day, Grehan says. Plus, a workout is a great way to shake off work stress, and many people feel stronger later in the day. The trick? Making that workout stick.

How to make after-work workouts stick, according to Grehan:

1. Book it like a meeting. Put it in your calendar with a start time, not "sometime tonight".

2. Go straight from work to workout.Once you sit on the couch, it's over. Shoes by the door, bag in the car.

3. Keep it short on hard days. A 20-minute Pilates session still counts, and it beats a skipped hour.

4. Finish strong, wind down calm. If late, intense workouts keep you wired, end with slower stretching and breathing so it doesn't eat into your sleep.

5. Remove the commute. With workout equipment at home, there's no "I'm too tired to drive there," Grehan says.

Her takeaway? "Mornings are for whatever you do best," Grehan says. "If that's writing, write. Your workout can have the evening, as long as it has a fixed time."

Adán Martínez , founder of Primitive x Swole AF Gym in Garden Grove, CA, adds another tip about nighttime workouts. "If you're working out in the evening, make sure it ends two hours before bed," he says. "That way, you can get the benefits of having improved sleep."

In the end—and you could probably see this moral of the story coming—it matters less when you show up than that you show up at all. Tamil Arasan , founder of NatFit Pro, puts it like this: "Honestly, the time of day matters way less than people stress about. I trained mornings for years thinking it was the disciplined choice, then switched to evenings when work got busy, and my results didn't change at all. What changed things was whether I actually showed up, not the clock."

He adds: "The one thing that actually kept me consistent was deciding my training days ahead of time, usually on a Sunday, so I wasn't negotiating with myself every single day about whether and when to go. That daily debate is what wears people down. Pick your days once, keep it to three or four you can realistically protect, and when you miss one, just move on. One missed workout is nothing. Quitting because you missed one is the actual problem."