How To Kick Start Your Early Morning Workout Routine

October 8 2013

How To Kick Start Your Early Morning Workout Routine

Can’t seem to find the drive to work out in the early morning hours? Unless you’re fully committed to your fitness routine, you won’t reap the full benefits of your work. But how exactly do you find the drive and determination to work out in the pre-dawn hours? If you’re having trouble with your early morning workout routine, keep reading for some simple tips on how to kick start it.

Get Into a Rhythm

First and foremost, it’s important to maintain a schedule for your morning workout routine. Set your alarm for a specific time on your workout days and make it a point to get out of bed and start working out at this time. Whether it’s 5, 5:30 or 6am, you need to get into a ‘rhythm’ so your body is used to waking up at this time. And no matter how badly you want to do it, avoid hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock. When the buzzer goes off, force yourself to get out of bed and start working out.

Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of The Day

Of course, you’ll want to start your morning off right with a hearty breakfast. Avoid highly processed snack bars and other junk food that offer little-to-no real nutrition. Instead, eat a protein-rich breakfast such as a couple of scrambled eggs, toast and a cup of yogurt. This will instantly wake you up while providing you with the nutrition and energy you need for a good workout. Contrary to what some people may believe, eggs do not raise your bad cholesterol levels, so keep scrambling them up for breakfast!

Light Stretching

Performing some light stretching exercises before your actual strength training will loosen up your muscles so they’ll have more flexibility. It’s not uncommon for muscles to cramp up after sleeping for 6-8 hours; therefore, stretching is especially important in the early morning hours before a workout. There are several different ways to stretch, but your goal is to improve flexibility and mobility by extending your arms and legs. Reach up to the sky, down to your feet, and twist your torso side to side.

Morning Strength Training

After performing the steps listed above, you should be ready to perform some strength training exercises. There are several different ways to approach morning-time strength training, but I recommend focusing on a particular muscle group before moving on to the next. For instance, you can work out your chest first and then focus on your legs or arms. Just remember to avoid working out the same muscles until you’ve given them ample time to recover. 

You can read through our previous blog posts here for more high-intensity interval training (HIIT) tips,