Early morning workouts are great. They are not only a great way to kick-start the day but they increase your metabolism throughout the day. Plus, morning workouts (and workouts in general) boost your body’s production of the happiness and productivity hormone – serotonin, which makes you feel great throughout the day.
While morning workouts sound great in principle, many of us have a hard time wresting ourselves from the comforts of our warm beds and instead choose to hit the snooze button a few times before getting up to rush off on our day. So, if you are finding it tough to begin your day with an early morning workout, we might have some really cool tips for you. Try them out for a week and see how you feel!
1. Commit commit commit
If you cannot imagine yourself working out in the morning, how can you turn it into a reality? Simple: Commit, commit, commit to it. Just decide that you’re going to do it, and then stick to it. Maybe do a simple visualization, seeing yourself not only getting up at a certain time in the morning for your workout regimen, but also imagine how you’ll feel afterwards. Once you have that picture in mind, plan your morning routine accordingly.
2. Have a pre-workout meal
It is important that your body is fueled up before it goes through the ritual of strenuous exercise. A great way to give the body some fuel before that early morning workout is to have a simple, healthy breakfast. Foods like berries, bananas, nuts, yogurt, whey protein and almond milk, as well as smoothies, oatmeal or other healthy, easy-to-digest breakfast foods make all the difference in kick-starting your body before working out.
3. Warm up
Warming up is the most important part of a morning routine. It not only serves as a way to loosen up the body, but at the same time makes the body feel ready to go through the exercise. Warming up allows the heart to adjust itself according to the heightened body activity. Before beginning your workout, start out with a simple warm up, which could include 10-15 minutes of easy stretching so that you’re nice and loosened up before you get the real juices flowing.
4. Get that morning workout started!
Now that you’ve made the commitment, had a simple energy boosting breakfast and done some proper warming up, it’s time to begin your workout. What’s your pleasure? It really doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you get your heart rate up and keep in up for 30-60 minutes.
5. Get to bed early
As important it is to wake up early in the morning and go for the early morning workout, it is equally important to give your body the rest it deserves. The best way to do this is by getting to bed early. By sleeping late and waking up early, you will in a way be messing up with the body’s circadian rhythm i.e. the daily cycle of the body. This is by no means beneficial for your health. Avoid this simply by committing to getting to bed early, and at consistent times, so that your body gets the rest it deserves and keeps you getting up in the morning for your workouts!
No matter how hard you work out, doing it it right is important. The above tips can help you not only get in the habit of morning workouts, but ensure the most important thing – that you feel good before, during and afterwards!
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