Working out in the morning

Time2Live99
Time2Live99 Posts: 43
edited September 21 in Fitness and Exercise
I have always wanted to be that girl that got up at 5am and went running outside, but i just cant seem to do it. I wish i could get up and do my workout before work so i didnt have to worry about it when i get off but i just cant seem to get out of bed in time. In fact the past couple weeks i have been feeling so exhausted and have been hitting snooze till the last minute. If you workout in the morning, how do you get out of bed and get going???

Replies

  • papersparrow
    papersparrow Posts: 31 Member
    I've found having a work-out buddy helps. If I know someone else is hauling their behind outta bed to exercise, then I should too. I feel too guilty to hit the snooze again :)
  • RedneckWmn
    RedneckWmn Posts: 3,202 Member
    I just recently moved 45 minutes from where I work, that's without traffic. So if I don't get up and workout in the morning I'm sitting in traffic for over an hour and not a happy camper. Before I moved and lived 10 minutes away it wasn't that easy. I just had to force myself to do it. Otherwise I got in the habit of eating the calories I thought I was gonna burn and then never made it. Once you get into the routine of doing it you get used to it. For me its a really great way to start the day and get ya going.
  • ErinGiam
    ErinGiam Posts: 396 Member
    Well the past 2 days I have also been so exhausted that I couldn't get to the gym before work. However, if I know that I have plans that evening after work, I make every effort to get my but to the gym. I also try and think about how good I feel after I come home from the gym, but that doesn't always work either.
    If you keep trying, you will learn to wake up earlier to go to the gym, it just takes sometime. Good luck :smile:
  • Aah thats the same girl I want to be! Right now Im settling for the girl that gets up at 7am and walks outside:)
  • littlemamajamie
    littlemamajamie Posts: 118 Member
    Go to bed at a decent time...and then in the morning when you just can't seem to get up try thinking about how good you will feel all day. Not only because your feeling great from working out but because its all done and you won't have to worry about it the rest of the day.
  • Monicamarkt
    Monicamarkt Posts: 22 Member
    Start by just getting out of bed... then put your gym clothes on and make your coffee. Once you are in your gym clothes, you will probably be much more motivated to do something. Start easy, go for a walk outside or turn on a video in your living room. If you have a workout planned the night before it is way easier to be motivated than if you are just getting up to "wing it." Also, if your partner gets up with you it is waaaaayy easier. If you must workout after work, bring a snack to eat about an hour before your scheduled workout than hit it hard and go home. You have to just fit it in whenever you have time and will do it. If you want to be a morning person, be a morning person. It gets easier with time!
  • kah78
    kah78 Posts: 376 Member
    Here's what I had to do: 1) Go to bed early--like 9 pm till I got used to it. 2) Sleep in my workout clothes (sans shoes--but everything else!) 3) Set the alarm clock really loud across the room.

    I'm going on about 4 months now and I'm pretty used to it! It can work...and it's Sooooo nice to have it done with for the rest of the day!
  • I'm with you. It's really hard. I'm to tired to get up and get dressed so what I found that works for me is that I go to sleep with my sports bra and tank on. That way I tell myself "Well your half dressed so get up!" And I set my alarm to go off every 5 minutes. Afterwards I feel really good that I worked out.
  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
    I am getting up at 4:50am tomorrow to head to the gym for a spin class before work.. DONT THINK ABOUT IT. you will talk yourself out of it, just do it!
  • jaylu
    jaylu Posts: 158
    i would love to be able to work out in the mornings all the time but i get up at 5 to be in work for 6 as it is - getting up any earlier is just the middle of the night!! but i enjoy my morning workouts on my days off, its great to know it out of the way for the rest of the day!
  • JustBeckyV
    JustBeckyV Posts: 182
    I can't get myself up early enough to go running but I do get up an hour early so I can do some weight training first thing. I wanted to try and run in the morning and weight train at night but havent been able to switch it up!
  • Sumatra
    Sumatra Posts: 181
    Anytime I've been consistent with exercise it has been when I made myself get up early and exercise. At one time that meant I was getting up at 4:30am. I am not a morning person, but I made myself go to bed earlier so that I could get up earlier. I did it every single day and just made myself get in the habit. At first it killed me getting up, but I made myself go to bed a little earlier every night until I was getting enough sleep even getting up early. Now, I'm a stay-at-home mom of two small children, they get me up plenty early to exercise, but it took me a while to figure out a way to exercise with them and get in at least one exercise session everyday. I still exercise first thing in the morning, starting as soon as I get breakfast ready for my girls. I also usually get in an additional afternoon exercise session at least a few days every week.

    Good luck!
  • I absolutely LOVE working out in the morning! I get up Monday thru Thursday and go to the gym before work. Monday I run, but Tuesday thru Thursday I have a class I go to. I also have a class on Saturday mornings that I attend. The fact that I go to classes that I enjoy also helps motivate me to go in the morning. I was never one to want to get up early, but I have been doing it for the past almost two years.

    The thought of having to work out in the evenings after work is difficult for me. I feel like the amount of excuses I could come up with in the evening far surpasses my one excuse of just being tired in the morning. I love knowing I am done for the day, have tons of energy and feel even better about my body for the whole day.

    It is really is just disciplining yourself until you get in a routine, then it comes easy.. just go into auto-pilot!
  • Here is how I've tricked myself into becoming a morning exercise fan...
    When I had a gym membership: I would sleep in my workout clothes. That way I wouldn't have to think about it in the morning, I'd just be ready to grab my ipod, keys, and put on my shoes and be out the door. I would get everything ready the night before so that if I got up and saw it laying there I'd feel bad for not going. I put my alarm clock across the room so that I would have to actually GET UP to hit snooze. I would consciously remind myself when it went off that if I did not go, I would not do it later. I would think about "What day is it today? Do I have plans after work? Then I better get going, or else I won't exercise later". I also found that once I listened to some of the same music that whenever I would hear those same songs at other times of day it would make me wish I was working out.
    Currenlty without a gym membership: I do have an elliptical trainer at home. (I wanted a treadmill, but hubby won that argument haha). I don't like to run outside alone at 6 am, being a female by myself and all (hubby is not a morning person, and not at the same pace as me, so going together around the neighborhood is not an option). When the alarm goes off (still across the room), I think about how I want to cuddle with my cat, so I go find her, and then once I'm up at my usual work-out time, I have nothing else to do for the extra 30 minutes, so I go ahead and get on the elliptical. We have a t.v. in the same room, so I watch the morning news while I work out.
    Also in the past: At one point, I did want to go out around the neighborhood, so I resorted to putting an ad on craigslist. I asked for someone to let me walk their dog (I can not have one). They were super excited that someone wanted to walk their dog for free, and I was super excited to have a companion for my morning jog. However, this didn't end up panning out for very long, because they were an older couple that could not get up as early as I needed to go for my jogs. So... I stopped working out all together.
    You just have to figure out what ways your brain wants you to trick it into working out. For me I think the #1 thing is knowing that it will be out of the way for the whole day and I wont have to worry about it until the next morning.
  • Ohh, I know how you feel!! It's so easy to just roll over and hit snooze BUT here's what I find has helped me:
    1) I have two dogs, and my "Pepper" is another alarm clock for me.. I'm not suggesting you get a dog just for this but IF you have a dog they will actually get an a schedule. She wakes up and needs to do her business outside around thesame time when I need to get up and get ready to exercise.
    2) get a buddy. There are two other neighbors on my street who have started jogging. We meet mon-fri at 6:00 and begin our morning jog.

    After working out in the morning I actually have so much energy that I am hoping this will continue when I go back to work.

    Good luck.. You can do it!!!!

    Michelle
  • I never have been able to do it. I think because I don't fully wake up in the morning, I hazely convince myself of anything. - It's too cold, I clearly didn't sleep well (even if I slept perfectly well), my hair needs to be washed instead. I ended realising that my work isn't as far from my home as I first thought. It's about 6.5ks. (Erskineville/Sydney CBD) and it takes about an 1.5 hours to walk home every day. It means I don't have to get up early, I don't get home from work tired and fall into my afternoon nap, tv, dinner, routine plus try and find the motivation to get out and exercise. BONUS - it so much better then sitting in peak hour traffic for the 40mins or on the stuffy train.

    Having read some posts here however, sleeping in gym clothes sounds perfect. I always think - it's all very well the gym class being at 6.15am but it means I have to get up, and get ready for it too! This might actually help!!
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