5 Secrets of Making The Morning Workout Happen!
Last July I started a new job... Exciting I know! However, before I started I was aware that the job involved very long hours, 10 hours a day sometimes more. This meant that I had to fit my gym time into one of two slots, either before work or afterwork.
After a little bit of thought I decided to go for the before work option as gyms are quieter in the mornings than the evenings, I would miss the morning rush hour if I found a gym by my workplace and I wouldn't be tempted to find an excuse throughout the course of the day not to hit my session afterwork.
I managed to find a gym which was literally a two minute walk from work that coincidentally also had 24/7 opening hours! My first week at work came and went in a flash but it was absolutely creasing me. Not because the job was hard but because I was waking up at 4:45am getting my bag and breakfast ready for the day, then I was grabbing lunch on the go, which is never the healthiest, and then I was coming home and watching TV until 11pm at night. I quickly realised that something had to change and fast, otherwise I wasn't going to see out the end of the month!
Fast forward 10 months and I'm still hitting the gym everyday before work, I'm fitter, healthier than ever and a morning without a workout just doesn't feel natural now. Below I've outlined the 5 things I've done to ensure I never skip that morning workout.
1. Prepare EVERYTHING The Night Before - When I say everything I mean it. Lay all your clothes out next to your bed so you can literally roll out of bed and put them on, as there's nothing worse than scrambling around in the dark looking for your gym shoes. Have all your food for the next day cooked, boxed and readied before you go to bed so all you have to do is grab them out the fridge and take them with you. Finally, make sure all your bags are packed and ready to go without any additions. From the moment I wake up to the moment I'm out the door is less than a 10 minute process.
2. Get Enough Sleep - I used to think that going to bed early was anti-social when in reality staying up late, becoming sleep deprived is actually far more anti-social due to having increased irritability and having poor performance in my workouts, which would only worsen my mood even further. For me 7 and half hours sleep is an absolute minimum.
3. Find a Goal or Motivator - When I first started my new job, my boss discovered that by the time I'd arrived at the office at 7:30am I'd already been to the gym and smashed out a workout he said "I guarantee that won't last longer than a month" which really pissed me off and got me fired up. I used that as my fuel to smash through the hard mornings when I really didn't want to get out of bed at 5am. Once I felt as though I'd proved him wrong I found myself a new goal to work towards which was to squat my own bodyweight. Working towards holidays works well here but make sure you have a goal to work towards when you come back.
4. Have a Direction - Are you in a mass building phase, trying to lose fat, trying to increase your strength, trying to quicken speed per mile? What is your plan? If you're making up what you are going to do in that session on the way to the gym/track the chances are you aren't going to be progressing week on week, which is going to mean your progress is going to stall, you're going to become demotivated and ultimately quit! I plan my sessions out for the week on a Sunday in my workout log, which allows me to look back at previous weeks to ensure I'm continually improving week on week.
5. Talk About It - At first I was very shy about talking about my morning gym routine which was mainly due to the fact that I was aware I was doing something out of the norm. When people started to discover my morning exploits they were actually very intrigued by firstly where I found the energy from to train first thing of a morning and second of all what I'd been training on that particular morning. Now there isn't a day go by without one of my colleagues asking me if I've trained, which for me adds a little more accountability. Not everyone will be as respectful of your morning workouts as my colleagues were, many people will call you mad and what not but you'll eventually discover that their initial hostility is actually due to their envy of your energy and desire.
My final bit of advice is the hardest bit of working out in the morning is actually showing up. Of course getting out of bed is always going to tough and you're always going to be a little bit groggy in the first couple of minutes. The first couple of weeks of working out in the mornings are always the toughest as you have to wake up earlier than you otherwise would but after a few weeks your body clock adapts itself and before you know it you're naturally waking up to workout... Even on the weekends!
After a little bit of thought I decided to go for the before work option as gyms are quieter in the mornings than the evenings, I would miss the morning rush hour if I found a gym by my workplace and I wouldn't be tempted to find an excuse throughout the course of the day not to hit my session afterwork.
I managed to find a gym which was literally a two minute walk from work that coincidentally also had 24/7 opening hours! My first week at work came and went in a flash but it was absolutely creasing me. Not because the job was hard but because I was waking up at 4:45am getting my bag and breakfast ready for the day, then I was grabbing lunch on the go, which is never the healthiest, and then I was coming home and watching TV until 11pm at night. I quickly realised that something had to change and fast, otherwise I wasn't going to see out the end of the month!
Fast forward 10 months and I'm still hitting the gym everyday before work, I'm fitter, healthier than ever and a morning without a workout just doesn't feel natural now. Below I've outlined the 5 things I've done to ensure I never skip that morning workout.
1. Prepare EVERYTHING The Night Before - When I say everything I mean it. Lay all your clothes out next to your bed so you can literally roll out of bed and put them on, as there's nothing worse than scrambling around in the dark looking for your gym shoes. Have all your food for the next day cooked, boxed and readied before you go to bed so all you have to do is grab them out the fridge and take them with you. Finally, make sure all your bags are packed and ready to go without any additions. From the moment I wake up to the moment I'm out the door is less than a 10 minute process.
2. Get Enough Sleep - I used to think that going to bed early was anti-social when in reality staying up late, becoming sleep deprived is actually far more anti-social due to having increased irritability and having poor performance in my workouts, which would only worsen my mood even further. For me 7 and half hours sleep is an absolute minimum.
3. Find a Goal or Motivator - When I first started my new job, my boss discovered that by the time I'd arrived at the office at 7:30am I'd already been to the gym and smashed out a workout he said "I guarantee that won't last longer than a month" which really pissed me off and got me fired up. I used that as my fuel to smash through the hard mornings when I really didn't want to get out of bed at 5am. Once I felt as though I'd proved him wrong I found myself a new goal to work towards which was to squat my own bodyweight. Working towards holidays works well here but make sure you have a goal to work towards when you come back.
4. Have a Direction - Are you in a mass building phase, trying to lose fat, trying to increase your strength, trying to quicken speed per mile? What is your plan? If you're making up what you are going to do in that session on the way to the gym/track the chances are you aren't going to be progressing week on week, which is going to mean your progress is going to stall, you're going to become demotivated and ultimately quit! I plan my sessions out for the week on a Sunday in my workout log, which allows me to look back at previous weeks to ensure I'm continually improving week on week.
5. Talk About It - At first I was very shy about talking about my morning gym routine which was mainly due to the fact that I was aware I was doing something out of the norm. When people started to discover my morning exploits they were actually very intrigued by firstly where I found the energy from to train first thing of a morning and second of all what I'd been training on that particular morning. Now there isn't a day go by without one of my colleagues asking me if I've trained, which for me adds a little more accountability. Not everyone will be as respectful of your morning workouts as my colleagues were, many people will call you mad and what not but you'll eventually discover that their initial hostility is actually due to their envy of your energy and desire.
My final bit of advice is the hardest bit of working out in the morning is actually showing up. Of course getting out of bed is always going to tough and you're always going to be a little bit groggy in the first couple of minutes. The first couple of weeks of working out in the mornings are always the toughest as you have to wake up earlier than you otherwise would but after a few weeks your body clock adapts itself and before you know it you're naturally waking up to workout... Even on the weekends!
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