Is Workout the First Thing to Do in the Morning?

This article will outline all of the advantages of morning workouts compared to exercise at other times of the day. We will describe how working out first thing in the morning is advantageous to your physical and mental health. There are 3 things you can do for yourself – Have good health coverage, eat well and train optimally. 

Among the people who regularly work out, many of them do it in the evening. The reasoning behind that is simple — when you’re working in a full-time position, it’s not easy for a consistent workout routine to coalesce with your day job. Someone working from 9 AM is probably not a big fan of getting up before 7 in order to work out and get to work on time.

However, many people realize over time that there are definite benefits to putting your running shoes on early in the morning. If you give this schedule a chance, you will start loving the motivation and energy working out early in the morning gives you.

Even if you’re not much of a morning person, we recommend you think about this. Sure, it may seem utterly impossible now, but you may actually grow to love a workout as a way to jumpstart your day and wake yourself up.

Why It Rocks

In all seriousness, there are concrete benefits to getting up early, both in terms of the way you structure your day and in regards to your health. Sure, it will require a lot of personal discipline — but on the bright side, it will also help you grow personal discipline as well. Yes, actually being effective during a morning workout will require a degree of focus — but you will end up being more focused throughout the rest of your day too. There are many ways in which this will help you, and we’ll start with the way it affects your metabolism.

Metabolism Enhancement

If you’ve been a part of the fitness sector or you’ve been in seminars and personal training sessions, you’re likely to have heard about excess consumption of oxygen after a workout. The acronym for this is “EPOC”, and it’s become something of a buzzword in this industry. What does it mean, though?

Basically, it’s building your workout routine around the fact that your body doesn’t just spend calories when you’re working out — but long after you’re done with the exercise as well. Even if you’re driving around town after the workout or doing your job at your desk; your body will continue spending energy. In fact, studies estimate that people can burn around 200 calories in the 12 post-exercise hours by doing nothing at all!

If you think about this, you’ll realize that this fact means that morning workout routines are definitely the most beneficial. Once you get up and do your workout, you will give your metabolism the kickstart it needs to be healthy and active throughout the remainder of your waking hours. Once that’s done, you’re free to eat and go to work — and you’ll still be losing weight as you do all of that!

Help With Consistency

Let’s take a step back and look at how people work out in the evening. Once you’re done with your nightly workout, you go back home, take a shower, and go to sleep. But chances are that you’re still pumped up from the workout, so you take longer to fall asleep. As a result, you’re either less energized at work, or you run the risk of sleeping in and being late.

That’s another reason why a morning workout suits you better — your daily schedule will face less of an interruption. Let’s be honest, once you’re already awake, the chances of being late for work are significantly lower.

For people who work out constantly, exercise is a major part of your day. And having such a crucial obligation in the morning helps establish the consistency of your entire daily routine. If you know you’re getting up every day to work out, you know that you can manage to structure your work hours better as well.

And honestly, we’ve all felt more exhausted after a long day of menial labor or meetings; more so than after doing a heavy workout. If you leave your workout for after work, you’re more likely to skip it entirely. But when you’ve specifically woken up early to have a run or go to the gym, chances are lower that you’re going to do anything else at 7 AM or earlier.

More Energy

Working out is just like having a cup of coffee in the morning; only healthier. It will give your body the most natural wakeup call it can get. If you take a look at the human daily routine over our species’ evolution, you’ll realize that physical activity in the morning is something we’ve done for most of our existence.

That’s why waking up in the morning can be a great energy source for you. And science has also shown that you can achieve more focus when you perform mentally challenging tasks if you have some physical exercise before that. Your mind will be fully prepared to take on anything work can throw at you during the day; as long as you wake up and workout regularly before that.

Self-discipline

As we’ve mentioned in passing before, self-discipline is something that you need to have if you want to maintain a regular exercise routine; regardless of whether you’re doing it in the morning or during the day. But as you work on developing this habit, you will also notice that your self-discipline is improving in other aspects of your life as well. You will be less likely to put off boring work tasks, or other chores that you find yourself procrastinating before.

Sleeping Better

We’ve left off one of the biggest reasons why a morning workout rules for the last part: a good night’s sleep. Quite simply, if you wake up early and jog or do some pushups, or whatever else you’re into — you will sleep better the following evening. The chances of not being able to fall asleep will be much lower, because a combination of waking up earlier, physical intensity, and the rest of your day will produce a decent amount of fatigue, certainly enough to put you to sleep when you’re supposed to be sleeping.

Studies show that people who start working out at 7 AM enjoy a night of much better sleep than those who have a lunch-time run or do it in the evening. And it’s not just about how long you’ll be sleeping too; it’s about the quality of your sleeping cycle.

We’ve already said that working out in the evening means you’ll be more “pumped up”. And as a result, you may find it difficult to fall asleep. But why is that? Just like any physical work, exercise is just another type of stress. And there are a series of hormones your body releases when it is subjected to stress — including adrenaline. That’s why working out gets your heart pumping. And that’s a good reason to work out when you get up, rather than before you go to bed. Stay safe, guys!