How to be a better morning ‘workout’ person

By MiNDFOOD

How to be a better morning ‘workout’ person
How to stop hitting the snooze button and welcome morning workouts.

Would you consider yourself a morning person? For those who are blessed with the ability to rise from the sheets with ease, morning workouts are an amazing way to start the day. Kick-starting your metabolism, getting your mind going, and most importantly – getting your exercise quota over for the day, these are only a few of the amazing health benefits of rising with the sun.

But for those of us who shudder at the thought of getting up at dawn, or not being able to snooze through at least half an hour of alarms, all is not lost.

Granted, the cooler weather and crummy conditions of Autumn/Winter can have you feeling reluctant to face the day, but these top tips will have you jumping out of bed and into your workout clothes in no time.

You are a morning person!

By constantly telling yourself (and others) that you’re not a morning person you are cementing that belief further into your subconscious. Learning to get up early won’t happen over night, but we all have the ability to reset our body clocks. Start by telling yourself that you are a morning person and that you can get up early. Eventually this mantra will start to inject itself into your belief system and will dramatically improve your morning outlook.

Related: 5 reasons to exercise outdoors this winter

Prepare the night before

By taking a few minutes to prepare the night before, your morning routine can be cut in half, or even transformed into mere minutes. Want to really make sure you’re ready in the morning? Some people say that sleeping in their workout gear motivated them to get out of bed and straight into exercise. Want to stay in your cosy clothes? Lay out your workout clothes on a chair next to your fully packed gym bag. Make sure it contains everything so all you have to do in the morning is grab it and go. After all, there’s plenty of time to wake up on the way to the gym or during your outdoor workout.

Enlist a buddy

Whether you’re heading to the gym, or just to your local park for a morning workout, making plans with a friend to meet you there will increase your motivation and help you stay committed. You are far less likely to keep hitting snooze if you know your friend is awake already and waiting for you.

Related: How to prepare for cooler-weather workouts

Weather is not an excuse!

Rain, hail or shine, if you have committed to a fitness routine, weather should not determine your attendance. It might make it that tiny bit harder to prise yourself out from under your duvet when the rain is falling and it’s dark outside, but push yourself to get up and see how good you feel when the workout is finished.

Related: 5 tips for when to exercise during cold & flu season

It’s a state of mind

So you’ve set the alarm and you wake up… just to turn it off. You tell yourself that you didn’t get enough sleep, and that the next 40 minutes will help you in the long run. In reality, you turn off your alarm and lie tossing and turning, half awake until your next alarm goes off.

If your brain is awake enough to turn off the alarm and convince you to go back to sleep, then your body is awake enough to get up.

Just do it

The easiest way to ensure you meet that morning workout head-on is to simply put your feet to the floor. As soon as your alarm goes off, get out of bed. Once you’re up and about, then decide if you want to exercise, if the answer is yes, or even maybe, then you’re up and ready to get straight to it!

And if you decide to stay inside…

Here are some of our favourite at-home workouts.

Strengthen your core,  improve your posture and learn how to flex with these simple Barre poses. 

Strengthen your core and stay injury-free with the flowing but dynamic movements of Pilates

Resistance band workout

Video: Yoga to Tighten your Tummy

What are your best methods for waking up in the morning?

 

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