[art credit: DryIcons]

If you’re having trouble exercising consistently, it might not have anything to do with the highly effective derailment efforts of your Inner Slug.

Michael Smolensky, a professor at the University of Texas and author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health: How to Use Your Body’s Natural Clock Fight Illness and Achieve Maximum Health, studies the body’s circadian rhythms and proposes that timing is everything - and that even includes exercise!

“The brain’s clock governs whether or not you’re crabby before you have your morning coffee, how quickly you can write a letter and how accurately you can proofread it, how long it takes you to bike 10 miles, whether or not you fall asleep at the symphony, when your ulcers act up, and more,” he writes.

In his book, he states that we all have an optimal time of day for activities such as work, creative pursuits, or exercise.  He classifies people as either larks, hummingbirds, or owls - and these labels can help identify the best time of day for you to exercise, if you hope to keep a consistent schedule. 

Larks wake up early and have the most long-term success exercising first thing. Hummingbirds generally sleep past dawn and have the best luck with a mid-to-late afternoon workout plan, while owls typically don’t head to bed until after midnight, and tend to be more consistent with a late evening exercise plan.

This leaves me with just one question: what about us slugs?

Tags: circadian rhythms, Exercise