Working out at night?

Didn't see a thread on this topic, or anything related to it. I'm sure it's common, we all have hectic lives so gym time could be hard to come by. More often than not, I find myself arriving at the gym around 9PM, sometimes a bit later. I love it. It's quiet, you have all the equiptment and machines to yourself.

My question(s) is: is this doing my body more harm than good and more specifically, am I getting any benefit from drinking my post-workout whey shake this late at night? (2 scoops with ~12oz of water)

Didn't see a thread on this topic, or anything related to it. I'm sure it's common, we all have hectic lives so gym time could be hard to come by. More often than not, I find myself arriving at the gym around 9PM, sometimes a bit later. I love it. It's quiet, you have all the equiptment and machines to yourself.

My question(s) is: is this doing my body more harm than good and more specifically, am I getting any benefit from drinking my post-workout whey shake this late at night? (2 scoops with ~12oz of water)

What matters is that you are working out.

I go to the gym usually around 9:30pm or later. It's actually a pretty "prime-time" for my gym. Which kinda sucks.

Also:

Is It Necessary to “Spike” Insulin Post-workout?

Another concern of the fat-free-post-workout camp is the blunting of the insulin response. The rationale of maximizing the insulin response is to counteract the catabolic nature of the post-trained state, switching the hormonal milieu into an anabolic one, thus speeding recovery. Although this might benefit those who train fasted or semi-fasted, many don’t realize that a pre-exercise meal (and in some cases the mid-exercise meal) is doing more than enough spiking of insulin levels for anticatabolic purposes.

It’s an important objective to not only maximize muscle protein synthesis, but also minimize protein breakdown. However, the latter doesn’t require a massive insulin spike, but rather just a touch beyond basal/resting levels. To illustrate this, Rennie & colleagues found that even during a sustained high blood level of amino acids, no further inhibition of muscle protein breakdown occurred beyond insulin elevation to approximately 15 μU/l,20 which is slightly above normal basal levels of 5-10 μU/l.

To reiterate, the pre-exercise meal can have profound effects on insulin levels that surpass the length of the training bout. Tipton’s team found that as little as 6g essential amino acids + 35g sucrose taken immediately before exercise (45-50 minutes of resistance training) was enough to keep insulin elevated to roughly 4x above fasting levels 1-hour post-exercise.21 It took 2 hours post-exercise for insulin to return to resting levels. A similar insulin response was seen with 20g whey by itself taken immediately preworkout.22 If carbs were added to the pre-training protein, there would be yet a greater insulin response.

As far as solid food goes, Capaldo’s team examined various metabolic effects during a five hour period after ingesting a meal composed of 75g carb (47%), 37g prot (26%), and 17g fat (27%).23 Although this study didn’t examine training effects, this meal would make a nice post-workout meal due to its absolute (and proportional) amounts of protein and carbohydrate. The fat-fearing camp would warn against the meal’s fat content interfering with the insulin response. However, this meal was able to raise insulin 3 times above fasting levels within 30 minutes of consumption. At the 60 minute mark, insulin was 5 times greater than fasting. At the 300 minute mark, insulin levels were still double the fasting level.

Elliot and colleagues compared the effect of fat-free milk, whole milk, and a higher dose of fat-free milk (to match the calories of the whole milk) taken 60 minutes post-resistance exercise.24 Whole milk was superior for increasing net protein balance. Interestingly, the calorie-matched dose of fat free milk containing 14.5g protein, versus 8.0g in the whole milk (an 81% advantage), but still got beaten. The investigators speculated over the possible mechanisms behind the outcome (insulin response, blood flow, subject response differences, fat content improving nitrogen retention), but end up dismissing each one in favor of concluding that further research is necessary to see if extra fat calories ingested with an amino acid source will increase muscle protein synthesis. Lingering questions notwithstanding, post-workout milkfat was the factor that clinched the victory – at least in overnight-fasted subjects.

To put another nail in the coffin of the insulin spiking objective, post-exercise glycogen resynthesis is biphasic.25 Unlike the subsequent “slow” phase which can last several hours, the initial “rapid” phase of glycogenesis lasting 30-60 minutes immediately post-exercise is not dependent upon insulin. Maximizing post-workout hyperinsulinemia may be beneficial for athletes with more than a single exhaustive endurance-containing training bout separated by less than approximately 8 hours, but in all other cases, the benefit in “spiking” insulin is nil.

In line with this theme, interesting research has surfaced in recent years challenging the idea that highly glycemic (and thus insulinemic) carbohydrates taken post-workout are the optimal for recovery. Erith’s team found no difference between post-exercise high- and low-glycemic index (GI) carbohydrate intake on exercise performance the following day.26 In a similar study, Stevenson’s team actually saw better next-day performance in subjects who consumed low-GI post-exercise carbohydrate than those who consumed high-GI post-exercise carbohydrate.27

Is spiking insulin necessary post-workout? Generally not.

-No greater inhibition of muscle protein breakdown has been seen beyond insulin elevation to approximately 15 μU/l, which is slightly above resting/basal levels of 5-10 μU/l.

-In one study, whole milk was superior for increasing net protein balance post-workout, despite the calorie-matched dose of fat free milk containing 81% more protein.

-The initial 30-60 minute “rapid” phase of glycogenesis immediately post-exercise is not dependent upon insulin.

-There’s no need to attempt to spike insulin for recovery purposes since maximal effects are seen at minimal elevations. Simply getting enough total substrate surrounding the training bout suffices, at least within the context of a 24-hour separation between exhaustive training of the same muscles. Multiple depleting endurance-type bouts per day (i.e., < 8 hours between bouts) may be the exception to this rule.

-On a related tangent, it’s been commonly recommended to maximize post-exercise hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia by consuming high-GI carbohydrates. However, this strategy has been seen to offer no benefit on next-day performance, and one recent study even saw endurance impairment.

I've been working out at night when working an early morning job. I've been loving it and I haven't seen any negative effects on my results. The two biggest problems I have with it are not being able to fall asleep before 130-2am (when I lift around 9pm). This isn't much of a problem as I'm usually out until much later regardless.

Also I sometimes get more sore the next day, as I'm not able to get in a BIG meal an hour after I finish my lift. When I lift earlier in the day and I'm able to get both a shake and a large meal or two post workout, I always seem to recover much faster.


Other than that, I'm loving the late night workouts. Gym is mostly cleared out, I can focus on my lifts and not waiting for benchs and racks.

it makes me stay up late.

if i jog home then "hit the weights", i'm up for 2-3 hours and feel like shit the next day
to each his own

working out just before you go to bed, is not recommended.
but if you stay up for 1-2 h after the workout, it should pose no problems.
nutrition can be bit itchy, just remember to eat like hell in the morning.

Don't have a source, but I read on site somewhere that sleep after working out is actually good for you, though not necessarily an 8 hour cycle. During REM you release testosterone, and your muscles have a chance to heal up, so if you work out in the middle of the day and then nap that can be good for you.

I think the conflict comes in to play that eating before sleeping can lead to your body storing the food as fat, but I still think you should eat after working out.

In conclusion, going to sleep for the night: I don't think it's bad for you in any direct way, but if your heart is racing and you've got a bunch of adrenaline in your blood I could see it giving you a hard time actually falling asleep.

I think the conflict comes in to play that eating before sleeping can lead to your body storing the food as fat, but I still think you should eat after working out.



Why does food magically turn to fat because you went to sleep?

I always work out between 7pm and 9pm, and I sleep like a rock on those nights.

due to work + kids I generally have to work out at like 7:30 pm

the worst part is that I have to work out after dinner :\

Thanks for all the responses.

When I workout, I'm able to sleep much, much better. I could fall asleep almost instantly, but I always try to stay awake for ~1hr or so after I drink my shake. My schedule looks something like:

9 - 10PM Workout
10 - 10:30 Drink shake, shower
10:30 - 11:30 Cooldown before bed, fall asleep shortly afterwards

You suckers and your reliance on your diet to stimulate insulin release. I just hit a couple buttons and wham instant fast acting insulin, directly into the fleshy sub-cutaneous fat of my midsection.

Of course it leaves a ridiculous looking insulin bump and the privilege ran me $8k plus a recurring $400/mo.

Why does food magically turn to fat because you went to sleep?

I guess it doesn't :shrug:

Google Answers: Eating before sleep: Fact or Fiction (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/755705.html)

What matters is that you are working out.

So many people give a shit about when they work out, if they are taking in enough this or that, or when to take this or that, and bla bla bla.

If you go to the gym on the regular, and don't eat like a fat ass pig, you are already far far ahead of the curve. If you're not trying to be the next mr olympia chill out with all the nitty gritty.

I think it's more that people want to see progress because that will inspire them to continue, and they want to avoid doing things that hinder that progress.

I think it's more that people want to see progress because that will inspire them to continue, and they want to avoid doing things that hinder that progress.

Yeah, but if you're working out hard - and you're not being a complete fucking moron about your diet - you will see results.

Working out hard also implies working out correctly.

If you're fucking shredded to hell and want to get that 8 pack to be a bit more defined - then yeah - you are going to have to start looking and fine tuning - but I think most of the people here aren't like that at all.

Unless you are crazy hardcore, I doubt it makes any real difference.

I mean, if you are working your ass off to add muscle for a competition or something by a certain date, worry about it, otherwise, don't.

there is definatly some jacked brolies that workout at my gym at night so it must be ok. actually ive read an article (no link sry) that says ur stronger at night. but basically it breaks down to just moving the weight, no matter the time.

edit: to answer the original question. Yes you are getting the benifit. u should probably add some carbs to that though.

I do remember reading something with Ray Lewis where he said he switched from working out early in the morning to late at night and he felt it benefited him a lot. But then again he's been a beast his whole life so how much of a difference did it really make...

I don't think it really matters that much, just do what is convenient for you and fits your schedule.

Your test levels are the highest in the mornings, (hence big boners when you wake up) so technically you'd be having a better workout the earlier you go. To each his own though, I always have to work out right after I eat breakfast. There also is nothing wrong with eating before bed.. your fasting your body for 8 hours or however long you sleep so the later you get food in you the better.

Your test levels are the highest in the mornings, (hence big boners when you wake up) so technically you'd be having a better workout the earlier you go. To each his own though, I always have to work out right after I eat breakfast. There also is nothing wrong with eating before bed.. your fasting your body for 8 hours or however long you sleep so the later you get food in you the better.

Dude - I have a big boner pretty much 24/7. It really sucks :\

I can't wear sweatpants or thin shorts because my boner sticks out always.