There Is A Best Time For Everything – Dave’s Diary

It’s one month into the new year and we hope that resolution to work out a bit more is going well.  Could it be that a great routine starts best at a specific time of day?

Muscle strength, muscle flexibility, hand-eye coordination and lung function tend to peak in the afternoon so the best time to exercise is between 2 and 6pm.   The Wall Street Journal reports on a study saying within that range, 5pm is the ideal time.

A study from Albany Medical College in New York found the risk of injury is lowest from 3 to 6pm. And it’s not just exercise for which there is an ideal time of day. Our bodies work with the ebb and flow of our circadian rhythms of waking and sleeping.

Here’s a handy list of what’s best to do when:

6am to noon
When it comes to cognitive work, most adults perform best in the late morning. Just before you wake up, your body temperature starts to rise, and it continues rising until midday. That gives a boost to working memory, alertness and concentration. Taking a warm morning shower can jump-start the process. Tip: If you want your boss to read your email messages, send them at 6am. E-mails sent early in the day are more likely to be read than those sent later.

Noon to 4pm
After eating a meal, alertness starts to wane. Our ability to focus and concentrate begins a perceptible slide in the early afternoon. We become more easily distracted. We also become sleepy. If it’s possible for you to nap, do so at 2pm.

3 to 6pm
This is the best time to exercise. Your muscles are more flexible and you are actually stronger, which lowers the risk of injury.

Evenings
You are tired and spent from the day, but guess what? For most adults, fatigue actually boosts creativity, especially for open-ended thinking. When you’re tired, your brain wanders. That allows you to come up with ideas you might not have in a more awake state. This is also reflected on social media where late-night tweets and Facebook posts tend to be more riddled with emotion.