Morning workouts..... how do you do it?

I LOVE working out in the morning. It gives me an exra burst of energy to get through my day. But, I am not going to lie I only workout morning during the summer and on weekends. In the winter I do my workouts at night.

To get my *kitten* out of bed I...set my alarm and put it on the otherside of the room. I lay out my workout clothes and accessories (ipod, water, etc) the night before. I set my coffee pot to be ready when I return from my morning run as a little treat while I watch the news. Honestly it will become habbit if you just keep at it.

The reason I don't work out mornings in the winter is because it's too cold & dark so I switch it up to evening workouts.

Find what works best for you & stick with it ~ you won't be sorry

I've recently started getting back into 6am runs before work, and so far I'm really enjoying it! It took me about 2 months of setting my alarm early before I actually managed to get up for one (too cold, too dark, too tired, too rainy) and eventually I pinned a notice beside my bed that said 'do you want to make excuses, or do you want to run?'. A bit silly, but it actually worked.

Getting up and dressed is tough, but finding the streets deserted and quiet is really nice, and makes running alot easier. And the feeling when you get home, and you've done your workout/run/gym before most people are even awake is great. And then your evenings are free for you to spend however you like, guilt-free

I hate to wake up early in the AM - my bed is just way too comfy! :yawn: Especially this time of year: fall/winter. Having said that, I will *not* workout in the afternoon/evening so if I don't get up early it doesn't happen. When I get home from work I would much rather spend my time making dinner, picking up, petting the dog, seeing my husband, or going out with friends.

I'm not sure how long you exercise but I do one 30 minute DVD and that's me done for the day. (My husband and I will walk our dog after supper but that doesn't count as it's not a calorie burner.) I set my alarm for 5:45, get to hit snooze two or three times, and then get up to WO. All my WO clothes are waiting for me in the bathroom - no muss, no fuss.

When I'm in the habit, it's not so bad waking up early. But, when I get out of the habit I find it so much harder to get back to it. :grumble: Yesterday was my first early AM WO in almost 2 weeks and it sucked. A big one. BUT, I had so much more energy throughout the rest of the day. When I try to get back into the habit I tell myself the night before that I'm waking up early to WO tomorrow and that's all there is to is. I find that if I set the expectation I'll more likely follow through.

Plus, I have a handful of friends on MFP that get their WO done in the AM and that helps me to get up early too. It's nice not being the only one sometimes. Seeing my early-AM MFPers post their WOs guilted me into it again.

We can all tell you our tips/tricks but everyone is different. What works for me may not help you. It really boils down to how badly do you want to workout/get fit? If you want it badly enough then you'll get up early and do it. Bottom line.

Feel free to friend me if you want - I'll happily kick your butt into it :laugh:

I am not a morning person.... but I would love to be. I always leave my workouts to after work but lately I've been missing them because of other things. I think it would be so good for me and my schedule if I could make myself workout in the morning. Any practical tips on how I can make the transition?

Once you start it you will not want to stop. You have to set your mind to do it. The evenings at my gym were crowded. In the morning, your body is rested. In the evenings, there are plenty of reasons for excuses. I also the gym was too hot in the summer months.

just get your lasy *kitten* outa that warm bed at 4am and kick some *kitten*!
HOW BAD DO U WANT it????

I Youse!!

Go to bed earlier.Refrain from going out after work for beers or drinks. This never helps.

I...absolutely....hate....mornings!!!!! But I love the morning workouts! I get up at 4:35 M-F to get to the gym. One thing that helps me is a partner, at least to start out the habit. If you have a crazy friend that can meet you and make you accountable that will help develop the habit. Also what helped me, which seems so simple but works, is when you do get up in the morning and workout take a minute to remember how you feel, I mean seriously take a minute and remember that feeling. Then remember how you feel when you don't get your workout in. It's about how it makes you feel. I never never never regret waking up and getting my butt to the gym, but if I don't, I don't feel as positive. It's not easy but you can do it!

Also, I set all my clothes and necessities out the night before so that it doesn't take me but a few minutes to get dressed and ready, less time to talk myself out of it.

My workouts are so much better in the mornings.....I have more energy. I used to do them in the evenings...but I would either talk myself out of them to spend time with my family or something always came up.

I set my alarm, it goes off, I get up....

I was going to post this, almost word for word.

It'll likely take a couple of weeks to get used to it, and you may find that you need to go to bed a little earlier.
But, yeah. That's pretty much it.

Honestly? You just get up and do it.

You can try to trick yourself though. Set a second alarm 15 minutes before your first one. Roll over in bed after it goes off and you magically get that extra couple minutes which will seem like a godsend (even though you actually DIDN'T get any extra lol). Just make sure you don't snooze the second one off as well xD

I set my alarm for 5 every morning and it gives me a little time to putter around and wake up before I actually get to it.

Sometimes I take my dog out for walks/jogs and those mornings are awesome with the time change now, because I get to watch the world wake up. It's like a secret that only you and a few others get to see and appreciate because it's so early.

Sometimes I go to the gym and those take a little extra doing but I make sure that I take my music with the workout station on Pandora. Those days I console myself with "it's such a little piece of time in the grand scheme of things and you're not missing anything because you probably would have been asleep anyway."

just get your lasy *kitten* outa that warm bed at 4am and kick some *kitten*!
HOW BAD DO U WANT it????

I LOVE IT!!!

I can't wrap my head around "accidentally" exercising for 2 extra hours. Wow.

Not that I hate exercise. I don't. I just like getting it out of the way first thing, which means a 5am wake up call. And since there is that pesky "showing up on time for work" issue, no chance of me overdoing it. Wouldn't want that.

Last week I switched my workouts to the afternoon, which led to me walking in the door from work, saying hi to the kids and husband, then disappearing to flail about the neighborhood for an hour. Made me sad. So today I switched back to mornings. It's cold, sure, but not as cold as I was expecting. I feel more energetic through the day. My focus is better. I don't have to rearrange my afternoon schedule to fit in a run. AM is just better, so I make it work. If you want it badly enough, you will too.

I'm cursed with being a morning person. 50+ pounds ago, I used to wake up naturally at 5:00 a.m., and just watch the news / tv shows while laying in bed. Now I get up at 4:45 a.m. M-F and head to the basement to watch my Netflix series shows while on the elliptical for ~100 minutes, or a mix of elliptical / weights. It has become a great routine, and my fitbit Flex wakes me up if I'm not already up -without disturbing my wife. With 3 kids 7 and under, that is the only time I get to myself throughout the day. The downside is I'm usually asleep by 9:30 p.m.