Morning exercisers - advice?

I get up around 5:30-6am to get my exercise out of the way.... just as you are thinking about doing. Which is a good plan, if you tend to get too busy in the day and evening to fit it in.

What helped me was conditioning my body to go to bed earlier. Rather than 11pm or later (I get up way too tired and want to hit snooze if I go to bed at 11pm and plan to exercise in wee hours....). I go to bed around 10pm. Sleep is what will help ready your body for an early morning rise. Try to get at least 7-8 hours every night.

I was really tired this morning since I didn't sleep through the night and I surely didn't "feel" like working out today. ....but by 6am I said to myself.."you KNOW you are going to feel better once you get going. By the time I put my exercise gear on (and hit my garage, which is where my weights and cardio equipment are) I was feeling really good within 20 minutes of my routine. today was weights followed by Intervals on my elliptical day...

Now that I am regularly exercising in the a.m. 6 days per week, my eyelids get sooooo heavy by 9:30 that I know I will be ready to actually fall asleep at 10ish....

PS, I don't watch TV in my bedroom so once everything is shut down in the house and I hit the bed, I am ready to sleep, sleep, sleep... I try to keep the same schedule on the weekends when I workout. Get up early, don't sleep in...,get it out of the way so I can enjoy my day.

I rarely set my alarm...even on the weekends I am up and ready to go..as long as I get enough sleep. ....and like others posted, be sure you eat a good balance of healthy protein/carbs/fat within an hour after your workouts. if you don't have time to prepare a meal, this would be a good time to drink a protein shake with some berries of your choice.

Hope that helps.

I'm not a morning person but the way I made myself do it was to go to bed early, you can't get up if you're tired. I go to bed between 9:30pm-10pm to get up at 6am. I don't eat before the treadmill, but do eat something small before body pump class such as a piece of bread or banana. When I come back then I have my protein shake.

I get up every morning at 5 am for a 50-60min cardio work out - I do weights in the evening as they don't take me that long. I HATE mornings. How do I do it? The night before I lay my workout clothes out in the workout room, put a bottle of propel on the elliptical, and make sure there is a DVD of something I want to watch ready to go in the DVD player. I never eat before I work out or I get very sick (even before a 10 mile run the most my stomach can handle is a banana). As soon as my workout is over I hit the shower and then make a protein shake (protein powder, half a banana, some frozen strawberries, almond milk, and flax seed). Some days I don't feel like it so my work outs are slower, some days I feel great and kick *kitten*...but the point is you get up and do it every day. Try doing nice and easy am work outs at first to get used to it...go for a long walk or a light jog and see how you feel then.

Find a friend. It is so much easier to get up when you know someone is waiting for you! I hve been getting up at 5:00 3x a week for a year and now I hate to miss a day. It is all about the buddy system!

I'm NOT a morning person, but if I don't exercise first thing in the morning, it doesn't get done. I have kids, and I work full-time, and we have afternoon/evening activities, and if I exercise right before bed (the only other time I'd have), then I sleep like utter crap, so - morning it is!

I started setting the alarm an hour earlier than usual, and man, was that tough. I love my bed, and my bed loves me, ha ha.

For me, the trick is - keep your workout clothes in the bathroom. I get up (sometimes 10 minutes after the alarm, sometimes 30 minutes after - I'm still not one to jump out of bed singing, you know? - but that extra time is 'built in' to a degree), head for the bathroom, and grab my clothes from the hook on the way to the toilet. Perhaps TMI, but as I'm sitting there, I kick off my jammies and put the workout gear on, so once I'm up, I'm also ready to go - practically without even realizing it. I throw my hair into a ponytail, put my shoes on, fill my water jug, and go exercise. Either elliptical, or right now I'm doing P90.

I'm not usually *thrilled* to go do it, but I just do do it anyway - once the gear is on, might as well, you know? And once I begin, and finish, I'm usually glad I did. It's easier once you start. I've gotten into enough of a habit now that I'm starting to like it, and I know I'd miss it if I didn't. It was *really* tough this morning, though, I just wanted to sleep, but I did it anyway, and I feel better, though my workout was a bit slower than usual.

After I finish, I drink a bunch of my water, stretch, then head upstairs and start my coffee while I go shower. (I hate steaming-hot coffee, so I punch the Keurig and let it cool off while I do, LOL!) After I dry off and get dressed, I go get my breakfast - usually some oatmeal because it's fast. Sometimes an egg or two, sometimes cereal and a banana if I'm really craving it, or the other day I whipped up a protein shake. I've found that I can't really eat before I exercise - I'm prone to side-stitches, so if I even have too much water beforehand, I feel like crap while working out. Plus, I like to catch up on my email or surf (or log here at MFP) while I eat, and if I do that before I exercise, it becomes way too easy to keep doing that and blow off the exercise entirely. :-P

By that time, the kids are up and eating, and it's a mad rush to get everyone out the door, so I've come to enjoy my exercise...it's a little 'me-time' before the day begins in earnest.

I also get to bed by 10pm at the latest - it's not natural to me, I tend to want to be a night-owl, but my husband needs to get to bed by 8/8:30 pm to get up at 3:30 for his shift, so I've taken to going to bed when he does, because it's easier for the household routine (and the kids should go down then too). It feels a little odd, but then when my alarm goes off at 5:50, I'm actually (usually) rested enough to force myself out of bed!

That's how I do it. Hope you find a plan that works for you! The best way is to make it mindless, so you don't even have to think about it - you just do it. However you get there is up to you. (I've heard that some people sleep in their (clean) workout clothes, so they can just get up and go - hey, whatever works, you know?)

It definitely takes some getting used to. Keep with it and you might start to feel better and you will actually just get up instead of sleeping through the alarm

I find it helpful to turn off my computer about an hour before bedtime, and stop watching television about 15 minutes before bedtime, and to try to be in bed by 10-10:15 p.m. It makes it easier for me to get up at 5:30 to workout. I generally don't eat until after I've worked out, but that has more to do with taking my thyroid medication first thing in the morning.

i never eat before i exercise in the morning. i can force myself out of bed, but i can't force anything into my nauseous stomach except for water. by the end of my workout i do feel hungry though, and then it feels great to fill up on healthy food. good luck!