Morning Workout Tips

Like most people, I struggle to get out of bed in the morning to go do a workout. I love the idea of getting my workout done before my day starts but in reality this doesn't happen too often. With summer and the warm temps that come with it right around the corner I thought it would be a good idea to address some of the ways I get myself out of bed when every fiber of my being would prefer to stay in that bed.

I would say the most important thing don't set your expectations too high when it comes to working out in the morning. At the beginning of the semester I had grand plans to get up and run before class every day. If I had the opportunity to run later in the day, even if running in the morning made the most sense, I would hit the snooze button. I love running in the evening so I'm always going to choose running then if I can.

I quickly realized that I had to be more realistic about working out in the morning. Initially I only did one morning workout a week and that was because the only time I could go to the pool was at 7:30 in the morning. Even having just one day of waking up earlier caused me to wake up a tad earlier every other day of the week too.

One of the ways I convince myself to workout in the morning is knowing that I get to sleep in other days of the week. I intern at Corrigan Sports on Monday & Wednesday, have class Tuesday & Thursday, and then Friday off. Since I already had to be up on the earlier side on Monday & Wednesday I found it was easier to set the alarm earlier on those days so I could enjoy sleeping in on the other days.

Lastly, don't be afraid to take a nap. Initially I thought if I took a nap it was negating the point of waking up early to get in a workout. If I was going to sleep in the afternoon I might as well just do the workout in the afternoon and sleep more in the morning. I found that on the days that I did my workout in the morning I had more energy throughout the day until I made it back to my apartment. And after a few weeks of getting up earlier I didn't even need that nap anymore because I was going to sleep earlier. It takes time for your body to regulate it's schedule so don't freak out if things seem out of whack at first.