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Sometimes it can feel like the last thing you want to do (let’s be honest – most of the time!), but waking up early at morning for work out can be very healthy.
Early morning workout health benefits
First of all, having your daily work out done before the beginning of the day means you have set your metabolism for high function, and will be burning those extra calories all day long. Of course you will also be the happiest soul in the office thanks to the combination of endorphins, lowered cortisol and general high!
Not so good at early starts? Here is how to be better at it
So how do you become an early bird? Try to remember these different benefits for these extra morning motivation that you lack most of the time.
Focus on the benefits of early workouts at mornings
You will sleep well tonight – better than every night the came after a non-workout morning, in fact. People who exercise on early mornings experience deeper, longer and better sleep than gym guys who work out in the late afternoon or evening, according to a study by Appalachian State University. This is because boosting your endorphins late in the day can make it harder to be calm and fall asleep.
Stick to your morning work out
You just need to keep it up with the knowledge that it will get much easier with time. It takes around two months (or 66 days) for a certain behavior to become an automatic habit, according to the European Journal of Social Psychology, so pretty soon the mornings won’t seem as tough as they are now, and they might become the delight of your day.
You are not likely to cancel or postpone a morning workout
It is all very easy to cancel an evening workout because something other plans that are probably more fun has come up (or you are tired from your long day at work, have housework to do, etc). Getting it done first thing in the morning means exactly that – you don’t need to use up brain space and overheating during the day by trying to squeeze it in your schedule. Remember the free evening you’re saving when you get up early to hit the alarm clock and go to workout.
You can lose more weight working out in mornings
How is this for motivation – work out before eating breakfast and you will burn more fat and calories than in evening workouts, as your body won’t be able to use your last meal for fuel, and will start burning your fat reserves more efficiently. On top of that, you’ll find your diet easier to stick to, as people who workout in the morning eat less throughout the day compared to evening exercisers, according to studies.
And finally, get some daylight on your way to the gym, or take your dog for a nice sunny walk, for added weight loss benefits. People who get sunlight within two hours after waking up are thinner and manage their weight more efficiently, regardless of what they eat, according to a study from the International Journal of Endocrinology.
Going to sleep earlier at night
Perhaps the most obvious – and yet, mostly routinely overlooked – piece of advice is that waking up earlier means you are going to need to go to sleep earlier at night! But at least, as mentioned above, you will be sleeping more soundly as a result of your new waking up and workout routine, so dropping off should be simple.