Midnight Gym-Goers Are On The Increase, But Why And Is This Good For Health?

More and more gym-goers are choosing to burn their body fat while they burn the midnight oil.

We don’t quite understand the motive - after all, what could possibly possess someone to workout late when they could be asleep instead? However, we're determined to get to the bottom of this phenomenon.

Personal trainer and nutrition coach at No 1 Fitness, Joshua Silverman notes an increase in the number of clients requesting training sessions at unusual hours.

Similarly, PureGym have noted that 20% of their members now train at night - most of which are shift workers.

But why would anyone want to work out at night?

Unsociable shift patterns

Most of the time, late night workouts boil down to demanding schedules and unusual work shifts.

Adam Elson, 21, opts to workout at Pure Gym between the hours of 12am-2am.

His reason? “I currently work a 1pm-9pm shift in a warehouse. After work I’ll usually go home, chill for a bit and then go to the gym later because it’s quieter and you’re not waiting around for equipment.”

Can't sleep, won't sleep

Meanwhile Ian Plant, 23 from Birmingham used to go to the gym after hours before he started his 9-5pm job.

He tells HuffPost UK Lifestyle: "My nocturnal gym habits depended upon what time I was in work the next day. Usually I would go at midnight. But going at 3am didn't seem unreasonable either."

Another draw for Ian, who suffered from insomnia, was the fact that the gym was quieter at that time - resulting in access to all of the equipment straight away.

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Low self-confidence

Meanwhile, low confidence and self-consciousness are also contributing factors for those who exercise in the early hours. Joshua Silverman says that this is particularly evident with people who have a lot of weight to lose.

“It can mean that they don't want to be in the studio training when others are there too. I often meet clients at really early times to allow for this,” he adds.

Long work hours

Silverman also notes that high pressure jobs can impact fitness hours: “Having worked with bankers and stockbrokers for years, I've seen clients with the most full-on timetables you can imagine.

“And this sort of pace of work is not only the mainstay of those in finance. We're leading increasingly busy lives, and the advent of online working means that many people need to adhere to global timetables and are working well into the night.”

He adds that with the benefits of regular exercise being so numerous: from combating disease, obesity and depression, to boosting energy levels and depleting stress, it doesn't make sense to cut out such an important routine based on time restraints.

And that's why late night and early bird gym-goers exist, because people are beginning to find ways around this.

“Society is now realising that cutting this out is a false economy. Clients are more determined to make time for training, and if this time is at 5am before that 7am meeting, then so be it,” says Silverman.

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Kids

It comes as no surprise that having young children can also influence the time that parents opt to workout.

Parents' typical schedules tend to go "out of the window" once they have kids says the personal trainer. This means that super early and super late training sessions work best. "They grab the time whilst they can,” he adds.

Safe surroundings

Now that it's getting dark outside by 6pm, it’s no longer possible to go on that 10pm run - well it is, but you might not necessarily feel safe. The answer for most? A later session at the gym.

While we take our hats off to those who are dedicated enough to attend the gym at late-o'clock, we're still not convinced that it's good for your health in the long run.

In terms of sleep disruption, Huffington Post reports that exercising at night doesn't actually keep you awake. This is because most of us don't exercise intensely enough or long enough to counteract the sleep-improving benefits of that workout.

Those who are getting fewer hours of sleep could be risking their body's ability to repair muscle.

According to Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, says that sleeping is one way your body recovers from damage and protects itself against illness.

Ian Plant damaged the cartilage in his toe during a gym session, and looking back now, he thinks that the reason it didn't recover quickly was due to lack of sleep.

"In general, I thought going to the gym would be more beneficial to overall health. But looking back now, I think it did more damage than good."

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So, how can midnight gym-goers counteract this? Joshua Silverman suggests grabbing a snack such as walnuts or blueberries post-workout to help fuel your body to repair muscle while you sleep.

He also recommends winding down for the evening by watching at least 30 minutes of TV or turning your phone off, sitting and ‘chilling out' before you go to bed.

7 Ways You're Secretly Cheating During Your Workout

Mistake: You don't waste time on the elliptical. (01 of07)

The "quick start" button on an exercise machine, which usually gets the gears moving at a consistent pace, is known to be the least effective setting. Study after study shows that doing interval workouts can not only help you get fitter faster but can also encourage your body to burn more fat after the workout is finished. "We've found that when people do the same steady-state routine every time they get on the machine, they plateau both physiologically and mentally," says a representative from Precor, a company that makes premium fitness equipment. That's why newly designed Precor elliptical machines for gyms and, more recently, homes eliminate or make it harder to find the "quick start" feature and instead highlight interval options with varying levels of intensity. (You can find these interval workouts on any type of exercise machine.) (credit:Simone Van den berg via Getty Images)

Mistake: You exercise now so that you'll have Madonna's stamina (and maybe her arms) when you're her age. (02 of07)

Research from Michelle Segar, PhD, a behavioral sustainability expert at the University of Michigan, found people want to age well—in theory—but when Segar has followed up with exercisers over time, those who felt they got noticeable (and immediate) rewards from their workouts exercised 20 percent more than those who said that their goal was to stay healthy. If you focus on the feel-good endorphins or stress relief you notice as soon as the class is over, you'll be more likely to schedule another workout ASAP. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Mistake: You think you're working your butt off in hot yoga class. (03 of07)

Turning the temperature up in the yoga studio doesn't actually make us work any harder, found researchers at the American Council on Exercise. Although the hot yogis were soaked with sweat and rated their workout as totally killer, the data showed that there was no real difference in their core temperature or heart rate. In fact, both classes would be classified as "light" exercise, based on industry guidelines. Yoga in all forms still provides amazing psychological and physical benefits, and the same ACE study concluded that these types of hot workouts are safe, so keep it up (just add a high-intensity workout into your schedule, as well). (credit:Getty Images)

Mistake: You wear your "indoor sneakers" to indoor cycling class. (04 of07)

The only pair of you shoes you should be wearing on the bike are bike shoes, because they'll not only prevent injury but also help you work harder and use more muscle groups. Cycling-specific shoes have a hard, rigid sole and clips that attach to the pedals. This improves stability and reduces pressure on the bottom of the foot. And unlike soft-bottomed sneakers, clipped-in cycling shoes allow you to pull up through the pedal stroke, so that you work not only your quads but also your glutes and hamstrings, says Janet Fitzgerald, an indoor-cycling veteran and a master instructor and trainer for SoulCycle. Yes, the shoes are an added expense, but you'll really feel—and see—the difference. (credit:Hero Images via Getty Images)

Mistake: You stretch to limber up. (05 of07)

Research shows that static stretches, like the classic toe touch, reduce strength in the stretched muscles by almost 5.5 percent, with the impact increasing in people who hold the pose for 90 seconds or more. Other studies have shown that pre-workout static stretching can make jumpers less powerful, sprinters less fast, weight-lifters less steady and all athletes more vulnerable to injury. You're much better off with a dynamic warm-up, in which you perform moves that mimic the activity you're about to engage in (think Michael Phelps–style arm swings before swimming laps). (credit:Betsie Van Der Meer via Getty Images)

Mistake: You proactively pop anti-inflammatories. (06 of07)

We know many athletes -- even some doctors -- who used to take ibuprofen tablets before a workout to protect against inflammation. The idea was that if you didn't feel the pain, you could muscle through it. This practice is now strongly discouraged, after studies revealed that anti-inflammatories may have potentially hazardous effects on the GI system during strenuous physical activity. Over the long term, chronic pill-popping can lead to serious GI issues that involve small amounts of bacteria and digestive enzymes leaking into the bloodstream. What's more, the pills might even affect muscle recovery in the hours after a workout. (credit:miflippo via Getty Images)

Mistake: You always get up at the crack of dawn to work out. (07 of07)

It's important to find time to exercise, but not at the expense of sleep. A sleep deficit will make you feel groggy and leaden, and getting extra sleep will even give you an extra edge. Stanford University sleep researchers have shown this time and again with swimmers, tennis players and basketball players: In each experiment, increasing sleep time significantly improved the athletes' performance in areas like hand-eye coordination, reaction time, speed and power. If getting to bed early just isn't an option, do what you can to schedule naps before a competition or a hard workout session. (credit:Keith Wright via Getty Images)

Are you a midnight muscle machine? Tweet us @HuffPoLifestyle and let us know why you choose to workout late.

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