What is the BEST Time of Day to Train? (it's not what you think)
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A question we get on occasion is “What time of day is the best for training?” This is worth discussing, and we’re going to keep it simple and to the point.
Training in the afternoon or the evening is a wonderful thing. You’re more awake, your work is probably done for the day, and you might even perform slightly better (emphasis on slightly). If you can train in the PM hours, go for it.
With that said, the bottom line is that the best time of day to train is the time of day that you can train most consistently, and for a lot of people, that means training needs to take place in the morning.
After all, consistency is the most important factor in your training - you can have the greatest technique and programming in the world, but if you’re missing workouts, your technique and programming don’t do you any good. If you need to train in the morning to make it happen, then the AM hours are officially your best time to train.
Some people object with, “I don’t want to train in the morning - I’m not a morning person.” Knock that off. Nobody who trains in the morning is a morning person. Nobody walks in our doors at 5:15 a.m. bounding with joy, sunshine, and bubbles.
Lifters who train early in the morning aren’t morning people any more than you are; instead, they are simply people who know they might not be able to train later in the day, and they are committed to not missing their training sessions.
Not surprisingly, waking up early to train can be rough at first - any new routine often is - but after you’re done it for a few weeks, you’ll have established the habit, and it’ll be far easier. On top of that, you’ll appreciate having consistently hit your training sessions, which means you’re keeping one of the most important kinds of promises - the kind you make to yourself.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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Would You Rather . . . ?
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(This article was originally published on the Starting Strength website on 03/12/20.)
This article is not for you, my friend. Oh, you should read it. You should absolutely read it. But it’s not for you. No, this article is for your mom. This is for your grandpa. It’s for your husband or your wife. It’s for your cousin or your close friend. You, my friend – you train. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article in the first place. This article is for anybody in your life that needs to train but does not.
You know the person I’m talking about. She’s your favorite aunt who “would love to get stronger,” but she hurts too much to train since she has arthritis. He’s your 83-year-old grandpa who has trouble with his balance due to the neuropathy in his feet. He’s your old college buddy who just can’t do as much as he used to because of his bad shoulder.
You need to ask this person a very simple question: Would you rather?
Arthritis is a bad deal, but it’s not going anywhere, so you have to ask your aunt, “Would you rather have arthritis and be weaker, or would you rather have arthritis and be stronger?”
Plantar neuropathy in the feet will wreak havoc on a person’s ability to get around safely, but balance issues improve – often dramatically – when people strength train. So you have to have a conversation with your grandpa, and in the end, you have to ask him, “Would you rather have neuropathy and be weaker, or would you rather have neuropathy and be stronger? You’re going to like being stronger, Grandpa.”
Your college buddy with the bad shoulder? Well, at the very least, he still has three other perfectly good – and trainable – limbs, so you have to ask him, “Would you rather have a bum shoulder and be weaker, or would you rather have a bum shoulder and be stronger?” With the guidance of a Starting Strength Coach, I bet you he’ll be able to train that shoulder as well, but he won’t believe you on that just yet, and that’s OK. Give him time, and get him thinking.
“Would you rather?” It’s a simple question, but it’s a powerful question. It’s powerful because these people have never asked themselves, “Would I rather be weaker or stronger?” And because they’ve never asked themselves that question, they don’t know that those are the only options. Weaker or stronger? But you know. You train. You chose stronger, and you’ve become stronger. You know that a life lived stronger is a life lived better.
You don’t need to convince these people. You just need to ask them. “Would you rather have X and be weaker, or would you rather have X and be stronger?” Put the ball in their court, and you might find this question to be pretty compelling.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)
If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?
Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 2 (Lifting Gear Series)
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In Part 1 of this mini-series, we discussed why the training log is your most important piece of equipment. Today, let’s cover how to set one up and correctly use it.
Be sure to check out the included videos as they also cover some additional material not included in this article.
This is the seventh article in our “Lifting Gear” series. Click below to read the previous articles in the series:
Lifting Gear: What to Wear and What NOT to Wear!
Lifting Belts: The Complete Guide and What NOT to Get!
Knee Sleeves: The Complete Guide and the BEST Way to Put Them On
Wrist Wraps: The Complete Guide and How NOT to Put Them On!
Lifting Shoes: The Complete Guide to the Best and WORST Shoes!
Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 1
New Week? New Page
A few basic guidelines make keeping an effective log straightforward and simple, and my first recommendation is that every week gets its own page. Whether you train two, three, four, or even five days per week, you can fit all of your training data on one page if you’re committed to doing so.
If you don’t finish that week’s training - suppose you’re supposed to train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but you missed Wednesday’s session - don’t use the unused space on that page to start a new week. If it’s a new week, then use a new page.
How to Setup the Page
At the start of the week, divide that week’s page into the appropriate number of sections. For example, if you train three days per week, you’ll draw two horizontal lines - one line a third of the way down the page and the other line two-thirds of the way down the page - to divide your page into three sections or “boxes.” This will force you to fit all of a given day’s training into a reasonable amount of space and will ensure you don’t run out of room at the end of the week.
Day and Date
In the upper left-hand corner of each section, write the day and the date of the workout - for example, “Mon, 08/19/24” if you’re training on Monday, August 19, 2024 will work just fine. The date is a must - you need the ability to look back and know exactly when a certain session took place.
Component #1: Prescription
Suppose today’s session consists of the squat, press, and deadlift. Set up three corresponding columns inside today’s box for those lifts. With the squat as the sample lift, you start by writing down the first component of the lift, which is the prescription for the day, i.e., the name of the lift and the planned sets and reps. For example:
Squat
3 x 5
This ensures that you’ve recorded the goal for the day, which is to squat 3 sets of 5 reps.
Component #2: Warm-up
Since you already know what you’re going to load on the barbell for your work weight (since you’re able to look back at your last session in your log), it’s time to write out the second component of each lift - the warm-up. If your work weight for the day is 235 lb, your warm-up might look like this:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
Separate your prescription from your warm-up with a short line, and with this done, your training log now looks like this:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
Component #3: Work Sets
Now, it’s time to record the data for the work sets, which will be 235 lb x 5 reps x 3 sets. As a result, you have the following in your log:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Remember the golden rule of lifting notation, which is that the number of reps is always the second number written down - watch the included video if this is confusing.
Component #4: What You’re Going to Do Next
You squatted 235 lb today, and you successfully completed all of your work sets, so your next session will move to 240 lb, and thus, your training log looks like this now:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Next: 240
This would also be the time to note any upcoming programming changes. For example, perhaps you’re planning to squat 240 lb for a top set of 5 reps and then move on to 2 back-off sets of 5 reps - this “Next” section is the place to note it. Don’t walk out of the gym without writing this part down. Ever.
If you’re only performing one set at a given weight, the “1” at the end of the notation is optional. If you’d like to be a bit more concise, you can write it all out as shown below:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
215 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Next: 240
What Else?
You’ve got your prescription, your warm-ups, your work sets, and what you’re going to do next, so what else is there to write?
For starters, write down any cues that you want to use for your next session. “Midfoot,” “knees out,” “stay in your lean,” are all examples of cues that you might want to write down so that you remember what you’re working on the next time you lift.
You can also record how the training session went that day. Something like “235 felt pretty heavy today” is very satisfying to look back at 6 months from now when 235 lb is just an easy warm-up.
Lastly, it’s a good idea to keep a PR sheet. Set aside one page in your log on which to record your PRs - 1-rep PRs, 5-rep PRs, what you’ve done in training vs what you’ve done at a meet, etc. This is an excellent way to look back and measure your progress.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)
If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?
Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 1 (Lifting Gear Series)
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Today, we're going to talk about your most important piece of training equipment. It’s not your belt, shoes, or wrist wraps - it’s not even the barbell or the squat rack. Your belt, shoes, and wraps can be easily replaced, and people train on different squat racks and with different barbells all the time. The one item that cannot be replaced - the one thing that is specific to you - is your training log.
In Part 1 of this mini-series, we’re discussing why the training log is important and why you should keep one, and in Part 2, we’ll cover how to set one up and correctly use it.
Be sure to check out the included videos as they also cover some additional material not included in this article.
This is the sixth article in our “Lifting Gear” series. Click below to read the previous articles in the series:
Exercise vs Training
Your training log is important since it’s specific to you, but it’s important for a number of other reasons as well. For starters, the training log separates exercise from training.
There’s nothing wrong with exercising, and it is certainly much better than doing nothing at all. However, exercising is what you do when you want to get hot, you want to get sweaty, you want to get tired, and you want to feel like you’ve accomplished something. Training, on the other hand, is what you do when you actually want to accomplish something, and that’s what we’re focused on.
Your Training History
Your training log is also important because it contains your history. As a result, it of course contains your lifts, warm-ups, work sets, etc., but it holds more than that. It tells you how training went on a given day - you can write down notes about your training sessions, and I encourage you to do precisely this. Notes such as “Today was a great day,” “Today was terrible,” or “185 for work sets felt awfully heavy!” are all examples of what you might write in your log.
Remember - someday 185 lb will just be a warm-up weight, and on that day, it will be very satisfying to look back and remember when 185 lb was a challenging work weight.
Your Training Compass
Because you train, you have a program and a plan. You have goals, and because your training log contains your history - i.e., where you’ve been - it also functions as your compass and helps guide you in the direction you want to go.
The log works as a compass in two ways - first, before you leave the gym each day, plan your next session. You want to walk into the gym for your next workout knowing what you’re going to hit for your work sets, so write all of that down before leaving the gym.
Second, the log functions as a compass because you’re going to write down your goals: “I want to squat 315 lb,” “I’m going to get my first chin-up this year,” or “I want to bench 225 lb at my next meet” are all solid examples of goals to write in your training log. These help guide you, motivate you, and make the process much more gratifying when you achieve these milestones.
Your training log is important - it separates training from merely exercising, it contains your history, and it’s your compass as you go forward. Next, it’s time to learn how to keep a log, so in Part 2, we’ll cover precisely how to go about setting up and utilizing your training log. In the meantime, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)