I’ve always been a morning person.
I’m sure I received that trait from my parents. Ever since I can remember, they were always awake before the sun rose, even on the weekends. They preferred getting all of their errands done earlier in the day, rather than sleeping in (which I hear is impossible to do when you have children, anyway).
I started following this pattern at a young age. When I was still in school, I often went to sleep early and woke myself up at 4am or 5am to finish my homework. I was never the type of kid who could pull an all-nighter in order to study. In college when I went out on Friday or Saturday nights with my friends, I would go to bed at 1am or 2am, and then wake up around 7am. Sleeping in, I think, is just not in my genes.
Because of that, I love early morning workouts. It leaves me with extra time after work to relax and walk my dog before I cook dinner. I don’t have to worry about missing a workout because I got stuck at work late, or had to unexpectedly take care of something else in the evening.
I still work out at night every once in a while. Let’s face it, waking up at 4:30am every day still sucks even if you are a morning person. But if I had my choice, I would definitely pick an early morning workout over a late-night one.
By this point, I’ve got my early morning routine down pat. If you’re trying to become a morning person, below are a few tips I’ve come up with over the years to make my early morning workouts more successful:
1. Go to sleep early.
I’m usually in bed by 9pm and fall asleep around 9:30/9:45 so I can wake up at 4:30am. My body naturally follows this schedule now, but if you’re normally a nighttime person, it might take you a little while to get used to it. Until your body adjusts, I suggest not having caffeine in the evening, eating dinner a little earlier, and no TV, laptop, or phone while you’re in bed.
It might also help if you ease into a new schedule. Start by waking up 15-20 minutes earlier and do some kind of physical activity. Even if it’s just walking a couple of laps around the block, that’s okay. It will help get you into the habit of waking up and moving your body early in the morning. Once you’re more used to it, you can transition to full morning workouts.
2. Make sure your nutrition is on point.
Eat a good meal the night before, and if you can manage it, something small in the morning before you work out. I used to be able to work out with just some coffee and water first thing in the morning. Now that I’ve been following Renaissance Periodization, I sip on my workout shake before I get started. Before RP, if I felt like I needed an extra energy boost, I’d eat a couple of dates or a small container of applesauce just to have a little something in my stomach. This is largely individual though and will probably take some trial-and-error. Keep experimenting until you find something that works for you.
I also like planning a tasty post-workout meal to motivate me to work out first thing in the morning. When I have a good breakfast prepared, I’m less likely to fall back asleep. I know I won’t get that yummy breakfast if I miss my workout!
3. Prepare everything the night before.
This includes the outfit you plan on wearing to the gym, clothes to wear to work (if you go straight to the office from the gym), and your meals for the day. You don’t want to be fumbling around your closet early in the morning, especially if you live with other people who are still sleeping.
I also prepare my workout shake the night before and prep my Keurig so all I have to do is turn it on in the morning. It’s much easier to get out of bed when I’m not facing a list of tasks that I have to complete before I can even start my workout.
4. Leave some extra time for warming up.
Warming up properly is always important, but even more so when you’re working out shortly after rolling out of bed. It’s tempting to skip the warmup when you’re already short on time in the morning, but this is when it’s most important. Your body needs time to wake up before you start throwing weight around. Aside from preparing myself physically, I find that the extra warmup time in the morning helps get me more mentally alert as well.
5. Set realistic expectations.
After you first transition to an early morning workout schedule, you’ll likely feel sluggish. You may notice that you can’t lift as much weight. This is normal, since your body is going through a transition and needs to adjust to a new schedule. It gets better over time, but you still might never be able to lift as much weight at 5am as you can at 5pm. Even after several years of working out in the morning, I still feel like my strength is only at about 85-90% in the morning, and I can tell there’s a difference when I do work out in the evenings.
If you do find that your lifts lag a little bit first thing in the morning, don’t feel discouraged. You haven’t lost all of your strength overnight. It may take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust, so be patient. Don’t give up too quickly just because the first couple of 5am workouts didn’t go so well.
