Morning workout best?

[Guest guest]

In Mercola's current newsletter, there's a Chek article which asserts

that it's best to work out in the morning. Here's the opening:

>All of us want to get the most we can from our workouts. While figuring

>out how to do this can sometimes be tricky, there's one variable that you

>can easily control that can make a great deal of difference to how

>efficient you are in the gym. It's as simple as when you work out.

>

>That's right, the time of day is pretty important. Why? Your level of

>cortisol, a vital human hormone, varies depending upon the time of day.

>

>Not only is cortisol our primary stress hormone, it is a primary hormone

>in general. In other words, you would die without it. Beyond supporting us

>in times of stress, cortisol serves as:

>

>- A stimulating natural hormone that elevates our metabolism and body

>temperature and prepares our body to work.

>- An anti-inflammatory hormone, aiding in the control of inflammation, a

>natural precursor to tissue healing.

>- An activating hormone, stimulating us to wake from sleep if released due

>to light exposure, low blood sugar levels, stressful dreams, or because we

>have parasites eating into our tissues when we sleep at night.

>

>My experience with training athletes, as well as with my own training, has

>been that people naturally train better when their cortisol levels are

>high. Since cortisol levels rise with the sun, reaching peak blood levels

>around 9–11 a.m. and then progressively set with the sun, most of you will

>find that you get your best performances in this timeframe (Click Here to

>see Figure 1).

>

>If your schedule doesn't permit you to train at this time, at least you

>can set your schedule so that your hardest workouts are on weekends or

>your days off from work, allowing you to train with your natural cortisol

>tides.

>

>For those of you who currently wake up in the morning feeling tired --

>even after sleeping eight hours -- training in the evening after work may

>well be disrupting your sleep and recovery cycles.

>

>This is because performing any exercise that is more intense than you

>could perform on a full stomach triggers the release of cortisol, telling

>your body that it is some time between sunrise and about noon.

>

>There's a good reason why we're built this way. For thousands of years, if

>not millions, we did our hunting and gathering from sunrise until just

>before noon. When you elevate your cortisol levels at night by hitting the

>gym after work, you literally wind yourself up! Since cortisol lasts for

>hours in the body before it is used up or neutralized by the liver, it

>will stop you from getting a deep, restorative sleep.

>

>Some of you are probably saying, " That's not me. I workout after work and

>sleep like a rock. " If this is the case, chances are very good your

>adrenals, the little glands atop your kidneys that produce cortisol, are

>fatigued or even exhausted.

The rest of the article can be found here.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/8/timing_is_everything_or_when_to_exercise_to_ma\

ximize_your_results.htm

Any thoughts? I've found that early workouts wreak havoc on my blood

sugar, but it could be that I should've started them appreciably earlier

than I did. Certainly it would be more convenient to place workouts at one

end of the day or the other rather than splitting the day in two as I do

now. Was hunting and gathering actually a morning activity? I know some

hunting is best done early, but isn't some done later?

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