Morning Workout Motivation

I find I have to give myself enough time to wake up properly first, and then the main thing I do is not give myself a choice. Once I've been awake for 30 minutes, I absolutely HAVE to get up and put my gym gear on, no alternative. If I fail to get to the gym in the morning it's usually because I've managed to talk myself out of it somehow

Once you get used to it it's not so bad, most of the time I wake up before my alarm goes off. Since I'm pretty used to being up by then. It is nice to have it done with and not have to worry about it.

I get my workout clothes out the night before. Workout planned - I workout at home, so if it's a DVD, have it loaded, or weights ready, whatever. And have the mindset that when the alarm goes off, it's up and at 'em, get dressed and get to it.

It was hard at first, but I've been working out at 5am for well over a year now. Another part of my motivation was realizing that the feeling of regret later in the day for not getting it done was worse than the effort it takes to get out of bed and just do it.

I try to get out of bed at 6am and try to be out at around 7:30am for my exercise.

Motivation #1) I wake up to a Pandora radio station on my smart phone - happy, energetic, positive music (Britt Nicole, Mandisa, Meredith Andrews, etc.). I have another app that launches Pandora a minute before my alarm goes off.

Motivation #2) I'm usually sore when I wake up - maybe because I'm overweight; maybe because I slept wrong, or maybe because I had an awesome workout at the gym the day or two before. (It's becoming increasingly for the third reason! NSV, yay!). But I know that going to the gym again helps me loosen up and work out the kinks. --so I feel better again sooner than I would have if I'd just kept wallowing my my soreness all day. I usually take it slow for the first part of my morning gym routine. If I'm extra sore, I do some of my own water aerobics or swimming in the gym pool instead of the usual treadmill/elliptical. If I'm extra-extra sore or just really feeling lazy or off that day, I just float around in the pool or hot tub, enjoying myself. It's a nice reward for the fact that I still got out of bed and made the effort to get to the gym.

Motivation #3) It makes me feel really great for the next couple hours. (Once that post-exercise high wears off, I'm usually a bit sad, and wish I could go back to the gym. lol)

Motivation #4) The gym is sort of on my way to work. So I shower and get ready for work at the gym. Then I don't have to go back home again, which would make me feel like I'm going backwards in my day or slowing down too much, again. It keeps me going, and gives me more time at the gym. In order for this to really work, when I wake up, I get out of bed and then change into my work clothes (except fresh underware - which I throw in my purse (and which I try to keep extra pairs of, in my car, just in case.)) --even though I haven't showered yet and I still feel a little gross. Then I pack my gym bag (or it's still in my car from the day before). This way, I'm able to MAKE SURE I have everything I need for work--since I would otherwise be paranoid about forgetting something. Sure, it's inconvenient to have to change again when I get to the gym, but I'd rather forget a crucial-gym-item than forget a crucial-work-item.

Motivation #5) It's so nice to wake up, go to the gym and get gross, then shower and scrub away all the grossness, and then be clean and fresh and happy for work. I only have to shower once per day, if I don't go back to the gym again later. It makes me feel a little clever and efficient. lol But anyways, a shower where I get to scrub off sweat feels so much more awesome than just a normal shower where I wasn't really sweaty and gross in the first place and don't feel like I need to scrub too much.

Motivation #6) I have always been kinda messy at home and struggled to keep up with my cleaning and laundry. I've also recently had a few too many run-ins with athlete's foot and ringworm (possibly from the gym, or possibly from not washing my sheets often enough). So I've decided to be more diligent about both. So, on my non-gym week-morning (each Wednesday, for me), I wake up at the same time (5:30) so that I can keep my alarm clock settings the same to help my body get used to getting up early. Then I clean my house (I live alone, so I can get away with vacuuming at 6am without bothering anyone) and wash my sheets. This also makes it easier to be gone on the weekends to visit family or vacation or whatever --since I don't rely on the weekends to clean my house.

Oh, yeah: and it's nice to get it "out of the way". Although that's not usually one of my primary motivators. But it's true nonetheless.

I hope you find some good ideas from this thread!

Anyways, my best advice is to work hard one day so you're sore the next and have to go to the gym the next morning to work out the kinks. (don't overdo it, though. A little sore can be good - as it is in my case. but a lot sore isn't so good.)

I get up to work out at 5am most mornings. For me, once I am out of bed then I am fine, its just the getting out of the pit lol.

I bought a cheap and naff alarm clock, one that does a really loud and awful ERRRRR ERRRRR ERRRRRR noise lol. I have it on the other side of the room so I have to get out of bed and turn it off. Once I am physically out of bed, the chance of me staying up is much better than rolling over and hitting snooze while still laying in bed.

I found this: http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=how_to_make_yourself_work_out_when_its_dark_out

I have been struggling really bad summer. I can do tips 1-3 but then I hit the snooze. I am going to try to play music to see if that will get me going.

I found that I am very groggy in the morning...."what is that sound?", "why am I awake when it's still dark outside?", "what the hell is going on??".

Then I changed my alarm to the 'Rocky' theme. From the time I open my eyes, I know what the hell is going on and what my mission is. For me, it's the best reminder and motivator.

:smokin: