For the past few weeks I’ve made it a point to wake up at 5am, eat something, get some caffeine and start training around 520-530 before work for two of the four training days (my other two training days are Saturday/Sunday). I have a new daughter at home so for me it’s a good tradeoff to be able to not spend the few hours after work in the gym. Anyway, I’ve noticed a definite drop in performance~weight on the bar and I understand the reasoning behind it. I’m wondering - as my morning lifts increase is it reasonable to expect a similar increase in what had normally been my regular numbers when I was training at my usual time? So for example, let’s say I’d deadlift 330x5 @8 at my usual 6pm training time. Well now I find myself doing that same set of 5 @8 with 305-310 in the morning sessions. As the 305-310 turns into 330 over time, would it be reasonable to expect a set of 5 at 350 @8 if I were to train deadlift at 6pm or so or will this become the new normal for me? Or, maybe I’ll even adapt to the morning training and get back to where my evening training numbers were? Just some questions I wondered about this morning in the garage…
Good question, Adam- and congrats on the new addition 
So, I think if we consider the factors that improve with strength training, i.e. improved coordination, muscle size, muscle force production at specific velocities/joint angles/ROM trained, etc. then we wouldn’t necessarily see a “larger” improvement from training when performance is artificially attenuated and likely some of the short-term improvements you’re seeing are probably due to acclimation to the new schedule.
Still, it would be reasonable to expect a better absolute performance later in the day- but I’m not sure the magnitude from AM to PM will always be similar.
Just to add my own experience here. I live in AZ and train in my garage. In other words, between the months of May and October it’s too freaking hot to train anytime past about 7am (120 degree training, no thank you). So I tend to train before work at 5am during those months and the evening after work the rest of the year. When I first did morning training a couple of years ago I experienced a decline like you mentioned. However, within a few weeks I totally adapted and morning training numbers now equal my evening training numbers. Even this last year when I first made the swap from evenings back to mornings I hit the same numbers at the same RPE as I did the week prior in the evening with no issues. So interestingly, my body retained it’s adaptation to train in the morning even though I hadn’t done so in 7 months.
TLDR: you’ll adapt and all will be right in the world.
Makes sense - thanks Jordan.