A short transcript excerpt of Debra Atkinson advising women (particularly in menopause) to schedule higher-intensity workouts in the morning because cortisol peaks around 8am and tapers through the day; she recommends reserving afternoons for lower-intensity movement (walks, yoga, Pilates) or meetings, and shifting missed hard workouts to another morning to improve alertness and reduce daytime stress impact.
Chapters
Try to flip that higher intensity workout to the morning. And the reason is cortisol. If all things are firing okay, cortisol is at its high at about 8am in the morning and then it begins to taper off throughout the day. So you have energy during those daylight hours. You, you're high functioning at work, you're able to to exercise and you, you can fire on all cylinders with ideas and problem solving. All of that is good. You may even recognize in yourself if you have to work on something that takes a lot, know it's better to do it in the morning because in the afternoon you can do things. But it might be a better time to have meetings and not necessarily to work on that. I gotta write something or edit something that's really important. That's thanks to cortisol. So if you move things earlier, many women will find I feel more alert the whole day because I do that. I'm stressors are happening, but they're not bothering me quite as much the whole day. And if you're doing a workout late in the day, you can certainly do it. But I would always opt to not try to catch up for that workout you missed. Go for a walk, do yoga, do your pilates, your mind, body, kinds of things that you love instead and just say I'm going to do my harder workout another morning this week your fitness level will thank you for that.
