Waking up early to work out can be challenging. You may have a family to manage, a hectic work schedule, or you may just not be a morning person which can make getting up early to hit the weights or do cardio feel out of reach.
However, once you start doing it and make it a regular part of your routine you’re likely to see a lot of positive changes occur in your life. You may notice you have more energy throughout the day or that your mood improves dramatically.
I started attending a group training gym at 5:45 a.m. every day of the working week and I noticed my life took a turn for the better. I loved socializing with the other people at the gym and being motivated by the trainer. The workouts changed every day which helped keep me excited about attending. It’s been seven months since I started this workout routine and I am still going strong!
Luckily I am a morning person so simply setting one alarm was enough to get me up and going—well, that and a cup of coffee. I ultimately found that 40 minutes to get up and going before having to drive to the gym worked better for me than 20.
Here's why I recommend seeing if you can make a morning workout part of your routine.
How working out at 5:45 every morning improved my life
1. I was more productive
After working out at 5:45 a.m. I felt pumped up and ready to get the day started. In fact, there were many times that I woke up and thought I'd go straight back to bed after my workout, yet I never did. That’s because the endorphins were flowing and I felt proud of myself, and my body was geared up to move rather than lie back down.
In the summer I found myself mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, or meal prepping once I got home because the workout started my productive day and I wanted to keep it going. Being productive also led me to feel better about myself and improved my sense of self-worth. I felt proud of myself when I got things done and it motivated me to set and work towards new goals.
2. My body composition improved
When I started working out consistently I started to see changes in my body. Seeing those changes increased my confidence and motivated me to keep doing the early workouts. While the workouts themselves definitely played a role in those changes, the positive emotional effects that were a result of those workouts also played a role.
I also tended to cope with stressful times by eating or sitting around binge-watching shows, but I noticed that I became less likely to do that since my mental state improved when I was working out first thing in the morning.
I also noticed that I was more motivated to eat healthier since I didn’t want to feel like I was throwing away my hard work by eating poorly. I also didn’t want to pay the price for my poor food choices by feeling bogged down at the workout the next morning.
3. My mood improved
I honestly started feeling happier, overall, when waking up and accomplishing so much before many people had even started their days. I also felt really proud of myself for sticking to something and excited about the physical changes I started seeing which boosted my confidence.
Crushing a workout before I'd even started the tedious tasks of my day made it easy to feel unstoppable. Also, the lovely endorphins that were released during exercise encouraged all the feel-good emotions to start flowing and primed me for my day. Even during times that I’d been struggling due to life events, working out early was something that I looked forward to because I knew I would feel better after.
