BlogHer - Exercise in the Early Morning: It's Not For Me - Comments

I Agree!

Kathy333 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:10:37 -0600

Once my younget starts preschool I'm going to try that schedule since I also work from home. Get up early, have coffee, eat with them, take them to school and then do my running. I do find I get tired pretty early when I get up in the early morning hours, but right now don't have a choice.

Kathy

Allbusiness:Working Mothers

Mama Marathoner

You're so lucky!

Zandria — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:48:49 -0600

It would be fantastic to get up, having some coffee, do some work, and THEN go for some exercise. That would definitely be ideal. :)

Personal blog: Zandria.us
BlogHer blog: Singles/Fitness

That's a good idea

Zandria — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:47:21 -0600

It wouldn't be convenient for me to go to the gym in the middle of the workday, but I could do better about going outside for walks on my lunch breaks.

Personal blog: Zandria.us
BlogHer blog: Singles/Fitness

Not an early morning person but thankfully self-employed

Creatively Belle — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:06:52 -0600

I certainly like my morning sleep and getting up earlier for exercise was never my thing.

When I worked in the city I got in the routine of walking to the next train station so I would get in at least a 30 minute walk 3 - 4 times a week and that made a good difference.

I never got into the exercise thing after work, especially as I was working long corporate hours.

But being self employed it is so much easier to fit in enjoyable exercise like yoga, walking and swimming (I don't do exercise that I don't find enjoyable) as I can fit it in around work.

The secret I've found for getting going in the mornings is to get into the shower immediately, have food and the first cup for the day and then I'm up anyway so it flows from there. If I change that routine too much I'm behind for the day.

All the best,

Belinda

Great Earring Holders - great presents and no more messy jewelry tangles!

Nope, can't do it. I need

AllThingsToNoOne — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:56:38 -0600

Nope, can't do it.

I need at least an hour and a couple of cups of coffee before I am fully awake. I don't sleep well to begin with and get up early during the week to get me and my 15 year old up and out of the house.

I do admire those who can spring up out of bed, throw on their sneakers and hit the ground running!

I'm envious of am exercisers

shoegal302 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:43:03 -0600

My Mom gets up at 5am, six days a week and walks on her treadmill for an hour. I'm always impressed by people who can do that. I'm a morning person but have issues with what to eat if I'm going to the gym early (because otherwise my sugar levels are all over the place), but I don't want to eat so much that I cramp up during a workout.

I Hate Mornings!

JuniperLimb — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:16:05 -0600

I've tried the morning thing too. Can't do it. I have an afternoon alarm to send me to the gym upstairs (nice having one at the office) so that I won't work through my workout time.

I Mix It Up

Alissa-Taylor Gifts — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:55:31 -0600

I also hate mornings, on top of that I have to leave for work by 7am, which means an early morning workout is really early. I try to stay on top of things though, so if I know I won't be getting an afternoon/evening workout in, I try VERY hard to get out of bed at 5-5:15am (sometimes it works, other times it doesn't).

Alissa - Taylor Gifts

Taylor Gifts Blog

I'm an Early Morning Girl!

Kathy333 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:38:08 -0600

I get up early to work out, but I have two young daughters and a husband that works long hours, so if I don't, I miss my workout for the day! I go to bed fairly early (by 10) and get up around 5 each morning (or 5 day sa week) to run and/or workout. I find I have a lot more energy on those days as well, but again I think that you just get used to your schedule after a while and that is what your body adjusts to. Also, I think it depends on the rest of your schedule. If you don't have to pick up kids from school and make dinner at 6 PM each day then its easier to have some flexibility. Sometimes i wish I had more flexibility in my schedule so that if I want to sleep in one morning I can!

Kathy

Allbusiness:Working Mothers

Mama Marathoner

Crazy, for sure!

Zandria — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:59:00 -0600

Or maybe you were going to bed early enough at night that you were ready and rarin' to go that early in the morning! :)

Personal blog: Zandria.us
BlogHer blog: Singles/Fitness

I did the 4:30am thing...when I was MUCH younger.

Catherine Morgan — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:08:00 -0600

Hi Zandria. It's funny you should blog about this. My daughter was complaining about how early she has to get up for school (6am), and I told her my little story about getting up at 4:30am during my junior high and high school years to workout. Even though I'm only 28...almost 30 years ago I was getting up before school to do a half hour workout show that Denise Austin had on tv (this was before everyone had VCRs). Anyway, her show was on from 5am to 5:30am M-F (15 minutes of stretching and 15 minutes of aerobics)...I would get up, have a bowl of cereal, do the workout, shower and get ready for school. I must have been crazy.

:-)

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
at Catherine-Morgan, Capessa Health, Women4Hope

Exercise in the Early Morning: It's Not For Me

Zandria — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:22:48 -0600

I don't mind admitting that I'm not a morning person. In fact, it’s been pointed out to me that I don't start talking at work until I've had at least one cup of coffee -- and by then, it's already been a few hours since I first woke up. When it comes to physical activity, the non-morning person mentality definitely holds true here as well. "Why get up early when you can go out in the evening instead?" my brain likes to rationalize.

The advantage, of course, is that early-morning exercisers tend to find less excuses to put off their workout than those who do so later in the day. While I enjoy being flexible with my fitness routine, choosing what I want to do and when I want to do it, there have definitely been times when I put off a workout entirely because I had something going on after work. This is okay for a day or two, but when you have a stretch like I did last week where I had something going on almost every night, the whole working-out-in-the-evening thing tends to suffer.

Motivating yourself to work out in the morning isn't so bad once you get used to it. As long as you don't have to drastically alter your schedule (and go to bed at a decent time the night before), you can train your body (and maybe more importantly, your mind) to exercise in the morning. The reason I know this is because I've successfully been an early-morning exerciser in the past.

When I first started making an effort to work out regularly in the summer of 2007, I was getting on the elliptical machine at the gym almost every morning. I started setting my alarm about an hour earlier than I'd normally get up for work, and regardless of the weather I'd trudge over to my gym (which was only about a five minute walk from where I was living at the time) and put in half an hour of cardio.

I actually did that for a few months before my aversion to 1) indoor exercise machines and 2) early morning exercising (always on an empty stomach, no less) got the better of me. (I tried a few 6am spinning classes during that time, too, but I could never get into it. I think the fact that I'd just woken up, and also that I was trying to spin on a completely empty stomach, were a big part of what did me in. I've been thinking about giving spinning another try in more favorable conditions.)

I think the biggest reason I was able to stick to this early-morning schedule so well in the beginning was because I was afraid that if I didn't get it done in the morning, the activity wouldn't get done at all. Plus, the gym I was going to would get super busy in the evenings, to the point that I might have had to wait my turn for a machine -- and no way was I going to do that.

In the interest of research, I decided I would get up early Monday morning and go for a walk. It’s been a long time since I got up early on a weekday for the express purpose of getting some exercise (in fact, the only time I can recall getting up before 7am in the past year was because I had to take myself or a friend to the airport for a flight).

Yesterday morning I set my alarm for 6:05am, 55 minutes before my normal wake-up time (purposefully set for a few minutes before my roommate’s alarm would go off, to ensure I’d be out of the bathroom before she got up to take a shower). I laid out my clothes, shoes, and mp3 player in advance so I wouldn’t have to search for them in my bleary-eyed state. I even warned my roomie that I’d be getting up early so she wouldn’t wonder what in the world I was doing.

When my alarm went off at 6:05, I seriously contemplated getting out of bed. Then my brain said, "Why are you forcing yourself to get up? It’s not like you’ve never gotten up early to exercise before. You already know what it’s like." So I burrowed back under the covers and slept for another hour. (Also, I place some of the blame for this behavior on the temperature. It’s much harder to get motivated to go outside at 6am when it’s only in the high 20s outside.) I did, however, go jogging that evening after I got home from work.

Consistent early-morning exercisers, I applaud you. You’ve found a time that works for you and you stick to it. As for me, not getting up at 6am is making me very, very happy.

What is your preferred workout time?

Related Reading:

Charlotte (from The Great Fitness Experiment) wrote a great post last month about the ideal time of day to workout.

Except for Mondays and some Thursdays, I workout in the morning because am workouts interfere the least with my children's schedules. I like my a.m. sweat fests. I find I have more energy and patience throughout the day. I worry less about what I eat.

A blogger from Fit Bottomed Girls says she wants to be a morning person, but her body just doesn't function normally at that time of day.

My snooze-loving brain always, always tells me I need more sleep. But my awake brain knows that morning workouts make the most sense. You wake up, get the blood flowing, get sweaty, and then you shower and get ready for your day. When you don't work out in the morning and "get it out of the way," you're stuck with the dilemma of when to get sweaty and enduring another shower. Ay caramba.

Rebecca Pratt, writing for SparkPeople, says you can learn to love exercising in the morning even if you’re not a morning person. She shares her “Top Ten Reasons” for getting up with the early birds (including such things as increased mental acuity, a higher quality of sleep, a jump started metabolism, and appetite regulation).

Barb (from Fun and Fitness for the 40-Something) likes to exercise in the morning, but she cites a study by the American Council on Exercise that says calories burned are calories burned, regardless of the time of day.

MSNBC: Michelle Obama's arms hard-won with exercise. The future first lady used to join a friend at the gym for 430am workouts. (And I complain about getting up at 6am? Arrrggghhh, I'm such a freakin' wuss.)

(Contributing editor Zandria blogs regularly at Zandria.us.)