morning workouts

I don't make it an option. If I do, I choose sleep Everytime. I know going to bed that when my alarm goes off I am getting up without a second thought and going. And that's what I do.

I have a different schedule now so my workouts are at lunch but I was getting up at 4:30 am to do my workout before my 12 hour dayshift that started at 7 am.
I haven't had an issue with being alert but I had to travel to the gym. Even when running by the time I'm up and ready, I'm awake.

Same for me, up at 4am in the gym by 5.. If I don't go before work I feel off all day and after work I'm drained.

Every morning I have the choice to be lazy or to be awesome. Put into that context, the choice becomes easier to make.

ETA: The alarm goes off at 5:15 for SL5x5 M-W-F.

I don't make it an option. If I do, I choose sleep Everytime. I know going to bed that when my alarm goes off I am getting up without a second thought and going. And that's what I do.

This ^^^

I'm up, dressed and ready to start my workout before my brain has had a chance to catch up! I've been doing this for 3 years, 6 days a week - it's normal now! If it didn't get done in the morning - it wouldn't get done!

I've been running in the mornings for a few years. Sunday's is easy to get up at 5:45 as I have to leave the house at 6:40 to meet my running group at 7. No option to be late there, people counting on me.

The rest of the week is harder. Sometimes I run with neighbors and that's motivation as someone is waiting on their driveway for you. We usually meet around 5:30, but have met as early as 4:30 depending on the mileage we're running and if someone has an early meeting at work or something with the kids. When I have to get up on my own, not meeting anyone, I struggle. I can't seem to get back in the habit this spring yet, so I've been having to squeeze it in during other parts of my day (while kids are at sports practices, after dinner, etc) and it's not fun. SO much easier to have it done and out of the way by 6:30 which is the time I'd normally be getting up. And I feel awesome the rest of the day knowing I did it and that it's done. I finally made myself get up and go alone today and I feel so much better knowing I don't have to find time later. It gets easier for me to get up once the weather heats up as it's miserable to be running once the sun is up, cooler in the dark before dawn!

It's all about habit. Make yourself do it for a few weeks and then you'll crave it.

I am not a morning person. At all. I hate mornings with a passion. I tried to get up early for working out for months, and it just never happened. The times I did get up early, I would half-*kitten* the workout and feel crap. I tried every strategy going - multiple alarms, alarms set the other side of the bedroom, alarm apps on my phone that will only shut off when I scan a QR code, bed earlier, sleep in my workout clothes, down a pint of water before bed so you need the loo when you wake up.. there were many many strategies. I tried them all, and whislt some worked better than others, none worked consistently enough for me. The pull of my bed was too strong.


The solution? I started to schedule my workouts to be later in the day, either at lunchtime at work or after work. That way, I’d be awake and alert enough to complete it and it fits in with the rest of my day and my schedule. And it allows me to have the luxury of lying in bed until 8am, guilt-free.

There is no rule that says exercise must be done first thing in the morning. Whilst I believe there is *some* evidence that morning work outs have marginally more benefits than workouts later in the day, the fact is that a workout at 5:30pm that gets done is infinitely better than a morning workout scheduled for 6am that you slept through and never bothered with. Admittedly there can be problems with a later workout – it may simply not fit your schedule, it can be difficult to get motivated after a long day at work, it can feel like you’re eating into “play” time in the evenings – but that’s where you need to decide what your priorities are.

I also tell myself the night before this is what I'm going to do. My alarm will go off at 5 - I have my clothes ready. I will get out of bed, change, drive to the gym and when I get to the gym this is the workout I'm doing. having any of that be unknown gives me room to fail. My husband sometimes will also push me out of bed.

I hate going to the gym after work, especially when my daughter and I are still in school. That's a huge motivator. I only have a cuople hours to spend with her at night and that's doing homework, piano, extra curriculars, etc and then after she goes to bed I have to do my homework. leaving a workout until night just isn't fun when her bedtime is 8pm.

If I'm taking a rest day, I still get up at 5am so that I can get other stuff done and nto break my routine. As much as I hate getting up at 5am sometimes, I hate sleeping in more.

For me, it isn't that I like getting up at the butt crack of dawn. (Up by 3:30 am, working out by 4.) I hate it, really. But in the evening, I have so many other things to do on top of being pooped from being at work all day, that I just KNOW I would always find an excuse to not work out. In the morning, there's no excuse other than laziness. Which is part of why I got fat in the first place.

On the days I do get up to workout in the morning I don't get up terribly early. Maybe after 6, sometimes later depending on what errands I have to run after.

Since I switched my cardio to the afternoon it's easier to get up a little "later" in the mornings to lift.

If I don't get up early in the morning and I don't say to my husband "We are going to the gym at X time" then we won't go because work gets in the way and then it starts to get late and there are certain times where the gym is packed and you can't get any equipment.

It's just nice to have it done and over with early and not have to think about it during the day

I have to prepare things the night before- and I don't even go to the gym, I do FitnessBlender videos at home. I prepare EVERYTHING: from laying out my clothes down to pre-scooping the dogs' food into the bowls, lol. Anything to make it easier and give me less to do in the morning overall. Knowing that all I have to do is stumble into some workout clothes and downstairs to the living room makes it less intimidating. I don't think I'd make it if I had to be presentable enough for the gym.

The only problem I encounter is food. I down a protein/breakfast shake right before the workout that sometimes feels uncomfortably sloshy when I do burpees or even jumping jacks. Slowly planning on pushing the alarm earlier so I have a bit more space between eating something and exercising.

ATM though.. I'm just happy I get my hour workout in.