Tips for Working Out Early in the Morning

For many people, whether you’re an athlete training for a race or someone looking to establish a consistent workout routine, early in the morning is theoretically an ideal time to work out.

There could be many reasons:  it’s before work, others in your home aren’t up yet, you don’t have time during the day, things tend to come up later that throw off your schedule, you’re exhausted when you get home at the end of the day, etc.

But actually removing yourself from the comfortable warmth of your bed when the alarm goes off can be quite difficult.

If you’re finding this prevents you from taking advantage of this ideal morning workout time, and you want to put in a stronger effort to get up early and get it done, here are some tips to help:

1. Adjust your mindset

When I was home for the summer after my freshman year of college, I occasionally swam with my dad’s Masters swim team, whose practices were at 6 am.

This was pretty much my first experience with morning workouts, as club and college swim teams always held their practices in the afternoon. My schedule was such that waking up at 5:15 am was unheard of; who does that?

I very quickly noticed a pattern in my thoughts the night before and how that affected whether or not I actually went to Masters practice in the morning, as follows:

Thought 1:  “Yeah, maybe I’ll go.”
Thought 2:  “I’ll probably go.”
Thought 3:  “I’ll decide in the morning.”
Result:  I did not go.

Thought 4:  “Yes. I’m going.”
Result:  I went.

Over time, I convinced myself to think of swim practice the same way I thought of class back up at school.

Class wasn’t optional if I wanted to get good grades and not fall behind. Class was a mandatory block in my schedule.

If I wanted to swim consistently, I had to think of it the same way.

Swimming wasn’t optional if I wanted to stay in shape and get in a workout. Therefore, swimming became a mandatory block in my schedule.

On Mondays at 10 am during the school year, I went to class. On Mondays at 6 am over the summer, I went swimming. That’s how I viewed it. That’s just how it was.

And it worked. I’d feel great after practice, refreshed and with the whole day ahead of me. This helped, too, reminding myself that I’d always be glad I went.

This was how I first became a morning person, something I never thought I’d be (in fact, one of my first email addresses when I was, like, 12, began with “nightowl”). Fast forward several years, and I was getting up at 4 am every Tuesday and Thursday for Ironman training before work, and absolutely loving it. (You don’t have to do that. That’s rather excessive. I’m not entirely sure how I loved it so much.)

ANYWAY.

Make exercise a non-negotiable time block in your day, just like class or work or another commitment. Create an actual calendar event or write it in your calendar if you want. And tell yourself you’re going, with confidence, so there’s no room to back out. Remind yourself of how good you’ll feel after. Then get up and go.

Remember:  Motivation won’t always be around to get you up. Discipline is the way to go.

2. Lay out everything you’ll need the night before.

Having everything prepped the night before saves time, mental energy (trying to think if you have everything while you’re still a bit groggy), and potential annoyance (if you’re trying not to wake up a partner so you’re stumbling around in the dark opening drawers all over the place trying to find what you need).

This could affect your mindset, too; seeing the clothes laid out on your dresser can encourage you, maybe unconsciously, to get up the next day and put them on. Having already done much of the work can make the task of getting up early less daunting.

Take a few minutes at night to put out your clothes, shoes, any accessories (headphones, watch, etc), pre-workout snack, car keys, gym bag, or anything else you’ll need for the morning workout.

Trust me, it’ll make the morning much easier. Plus, you’ll get to sleep in a few extra minutes.

3. Put your alarm across the room.

Physically extracting yourself from the comfort and warmth of the bed is one of the hardest parts about getting up early. Putting your alarm somewhere so you have to do just that in order to silence it takes care of that hurdle right away.

4. Ensure you have a workout plan.

Assuming you’re not going to a formal class or something like Masters swimming where there’s a coach/teacher providing a workout, make sure you come up with a plan the night before.

For example, if you’re going for a run, plan out a route. If you don’t have a workout already given to you by a coach, know what type of workout you’re going to do (easy run? Interval run? How many miles?) down to the specifics.

If you’re going to strength train at the gym (and again don’t have a prescribed workout), write out a specific workout.

If you’re doing an exercise video, pick out a specific video.

If you begin a workout without a plan, you’re much, much more likely to shorten it, half ass it, or call it quits altogether. Taking care of that step the night before will reduce those chances even more.

5. Get to bed early.

It seems obvious, but it’s much harder to get up early when you haven’t gotten enough sleep, especially consistently.

This one may require some compromise; maybe only one TV episode at night instead of two. Maybe you have dinner a little earlier so you can still have time to wind down before bed. Maybe some other slight schedule changes have to occur so you can get to bed on time.

This is important because simply getting up earlier to work out and therefore only getting, say, 5-6 hours of sleep every night isn’t going to be sustainable in the long run. Plus, the lack of sleep will start to affect you in other ways throughout your day, in addition to likely having a poor workout.

Maybe you really can’t adjust your schedule to get to bed by a certain time. If that’s the case, perhaps morning workouts aren’t for you, and fitting them in later is a better choice. But if later isn’t possible, it’s worth making even small adjustments to get just a bit more sleep.

Give these tips a try, and let me know how they work!

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