an You Train Yourself to Love A.M. Workouts!?
I am the furthest from the most chipper morning person, my family and friends can vouch for that. I usually need a pot of coffee before even brushing my teeth to think straight. As a work-from-home Mom, it is rare that I get anything done before 9:00pm and therefore I do tend to hit the hay late. So early morning workouts have never been something that I would even consider until recently.
Like many of you I am sure I’d rather stay snuggled up under my warm blankets for as long as possible especially this time of year when the chill sets in and the extra dark mornings. You might be asking well why in the world does someone who doesn’t like getting out of bed writing an article about getting up to workout in the morning?
Truth is I recently have become addicted to the challenge of getting my exercise in early in the morning. There is something magical about getting up before anyone else in the house and enjoying the peace and quiet before the chaos of my day starts. I am not saying it is EASY for me to get out of that warm bed to exercise the sense of accomplishment that I get after it is done outweighs the “sucky” part of getting up. There is nothing better than peace and quiet in the mornings with a cup of coffee and some “me” time. Do you agree?
I believe that you can train yourself to be an early morning exerciser. You don’t have to be genetically programmed to wake up and be one of those perky, annoying “sunshiny” kind of people to do it either. I would give anything to be one of them (jealous) so I had to find ways to program myself to do it instead. Lets start with a few benefits of early morning exercise.
The Benefits of Early Morning Exercise
- You get it out of the way. LIFE happens and if you don’t get it done first other things can get in the way. You put it to the backburner and it never happens. The reason I started doing morning workouts is because I would constantly put it off and let other things get in the way. By the time 8pm rolled around I was too tired to do it so I skipped my workout leaving me feel guilty. We are all busy so getting it done and out of the way first thing allows us to enjoy the rest of our day and ensures that nothing will get in the way of getting in our workout. Unless of course you hit snooze. I’ve read that 90% of people who get up to exercise are more consistent than those who just “try” to fit it in their day.
- I’ve noticed that since I started working out in the mornings that my energy levels are so much higher than if I waited to do it mid-afternoon or late evening. Studies have shown that those that workout first thing in the morning have more energy and mental clarity throughout the rest of their day. Exercise “jump-starts” your metabolism allowing you to have more stamina and burn more calories too! Who wouldn’t want that?
- People who exercise first thing in the morning also have a decreased appetite for the remainder of their day. They also have an increased focus on healthy eating and tend to make better food choices compared to those that don’t.
Tips for Getting Up!
Here are a few tips that I use to help me get up to workout in the morning. I hope they can help you become a morning person too!
- I set my phone alarm across the room from my bed so that I HAVE to get up and shut it off. I can’t just roll over and slap it and get another 9 minutes of sleep.
- If you drink coffee you will appreciate the fact that I get everything set and ready to brew my coffee at the same time my alarm is scheduled to go off. I absolutely LOVE the aroma of freshly brewed coffee so it encourages me to get myself out of bed to enjoy one cup before heading down to workout (along with a large glass of water).
- Grab yourself an accountability partner. I run monthly fitness/nutrition challenges and another challenger and I realty wanted to get up to workout but struggled with motivation to do so. So, I asked her to be my accountability partner where we text each other when we are up and when we finished our workout. It is working great because I know that I need her just as much as she needs me. I wouldn’t of course want to let her down so I tell myself that each morning. Find someone to meet you at the gym for a class or call/message you to make sure that you did what you said you would. It really is amazing how far you can go with accountability!
- Get everything ready the night before. Some people will wear their workout clothes to bed so all they need to do is put on their shoes and go. I tend to just have everything laid out and ready for me to slip on once I am up. It is nice to have this done because then I don’t waste 20 minutes stumbling around in the dark looking for the right shorts or t-shirt to put on. Don’t waste that precious time looking for stuff you need cause that will just become another excuse soon. The less you have to think about in the morning the better your chances of becoming a morning exerciser. So I guess I have trained myself to be a morning person. It is a constant struggle but to me the positives outweigh the negatives. Just be patient with yourself. Becoming a morning person won’t happen over night. How many of you are morning exercisers or would like to be?