Let’s face it, working out first thing in the morning is about as appealing as having a greasy, nude tickle
fight with Donald Trump.
You’re tired from marathoning Stranger Things on Netflix until 2am, and the last thing that you want to
do is reach past the snooze alarm in the dark for your wrinkled tank top and stinky runners. You’d rather
sleep for another 90 minutes and hope you can make it to the gym after work.
Well, what if I told you that there are amazing health benefits associated with early morning gym sessions?
What if you could build a killer physique in the morning, and have the evening hours all to yourself?
It definitely takes some getting used to, especially if you are someone who has been working out in the evening for most
of your lifting career, but here are some of the primary advantages of getting that workout in before you head off to work;
1. You don’t have to worry about working out later.
The obvious answer is obvious. Getting that morning workout in means that you don’t have the anticipation of getting to the gym later,
especially if your evenings fill up fast. If you think about it all day, you have time to talk yourself out of it. Remember, the anticipation of the event is always worse than the actual activity. Getting up with the alarm and powering through your workout doesn’t give you a chance to
fight with your inner chubby kid all day.
2. You will be blessed with an increased focus for the rest of the day.
Rushing out of bed and grabbing that muffin on the way to work is a sure-fire way to be feeling pretty rough and reaching for the 2nd cup of coffee at 11am. Get your workout in before work, and grab a healthy shake on the way to work to notice your performance increase, and you may not even need that caffeine boost until late afternoon, if at all.
3. Your mood will be completely different.
Have you ever wanted Dave to just shut up?
He knows when you’re coming into work every morning and won’t stop talking to you for the first half hour you’re there. Well, with your newly found endorphin release from the early morning workout, you may actually realize that Dave is pretty funny, and his jokes are actually on point, even if they are delivered at 8am every single morning.
Now, thanks to early morning exercise, you’ve made a new friend.
4. Kick-starting your metabolism.
Now, while the research doesn’t show that exercising in the morning increases your metabolism any more than evening exercise, it will give you a nice kick-start and set the pace for a day full of calorie burning and high energy. You are also less likely to make terrible nutritional choices, as you won’t want to sabotage that early morning workout that you left your comfortable bed for.
All in all, working out in the morning may seem much more difficult at the beginning for some, but once
you can get yourself into a routine, it actually gets easier.
Your gym won’t be as busy and you’ll be in and out faster, and with less distractions than in the evening.
If you can convince your gym buddy to head out early with you, that accountability goes a long way in keeping your both motivated and on schedule.
Your only obstacles when it comes to getting out of bed before the alarm, are the beautiful backs of your eyelids. I know, they’re gorgeous, and just another 10 minutes won’t make you late, but looking back in 2 years, are you going to remember how many times you hit snooze on the alarm? Or are you going to look down at your killer physique and wonder why you didn’t do this earlier.
