I know everyone loves a good list - so here are my top 10 reasons.
1. Over 90% of the people who work out in the morning, do it consistently. So if you want to be consistent, the odds are in your favor by doing it first thing in the morning. You also don't have to think about it again for the rest of the day. Let's be honest, no matter how much you love working out....after a long, busy day - how many times are you looking for any excuse to not get your workout in at night? Do it first thing and you have so much less time for excuses.
2. When you exercise in the morning - you can feel more energized for your day. I know that when I don't work out in the morning I feel much less energy and almost feel like I'm dragging all morning.
3. When you exercise in the morning, it can help to jump start your metoblism and keep it elevated for hours after your workout (many hours). That means you're able to burn more calories all day long just because you exercised in the morning.
4. If you excercise at about the same time every day and wake up around the same time on a regular basis, your body physically adjusts to that. Physiologically things start to happen! A couple hours before you wake up, your body beings to prepare for waking up and working out because it knows that it's about to happen. Once you do things the same every day, your body prepares for it. Why is this so awesome? Because it's much easier to wake up....your body is used to it and actually knows and prepares to do so. Also, your metoblism and all of the hormones involved in activity and exercise begin to elevate while you're sleeping...so you'll feel more alert, energized, and ready to get that work out done when you do wake up. And the hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure heart rate, and blood flow to the muscles.
6. Research has shown that exercise can also increase mental acuity that can last for several hours after your workout. No sense in wasting all that wonderful brain power while you're sleeping!
7. Exercising first thing in the morning gives you a better shot of actually getting it done that day. So many times our schedules get crowded and shuffled around and we find ourselves filling our days with other important things that take priority. If you do it first thing in the morning, that can't happen!
8. Research has also demonstrated that working out regularly can result in higher quality of sleep, requiring you to need less. If your workout is actually a priority in your life, you will make time for it. Set your alarm for 30 minutes earlier in the morning and try to go to sleep 30 minutes earlier at night.
9. Working out early makes me more mindful of what I eat going forward into my day! When I work my butt off in the morning and burn all of those calories - the last thing I want to do is make all that hard work worthless by making bad food choices. This is super important because nutrition is the key to any success you want to see with making real changes to your body. I teach all about this in my challenge groups and know it first hand!!
10. You may feel less stressed the rest of the day if you work out first thing in the morning.
Whenever you decide to work out - just give it your all and push yourself! We all have different schedules and different things that work for us. I hope my list above helps you if you were trying to decide what time might work best for you!
