I get asked all the time, “how do you workout so early in the morning?!”

I am that guy that you roll your eyes at because I have worked out, read a book, showered, ate, and worked for an hour by the time you see me at school or work at 8am in the morning.

There are so many benefits to working out early in the morning such as maximizing your hormone response to exercise, achieving a hard goal first thing in the morning to start the day, and the biggest reason for me is no excuses.

It is easy to come up with a hundred excuses why you can’t workout in the evening. Your tired, gotta pick the kids up, gotta cook dinner, gotta do homework, the possibilities are endless. But in the morning you only can blame yourself for hitting snooze one too many times.

In this article I thought I would break down the top 5 tips I would give to someone who wants to try to grab life by the horns and attack the day first thing in the morning.

1.     Go to bed on time!

This may seem too obvious but really though. If you want to have a successful morning workout and not back out at the last minute you need to get adequate sleep. Not only will you perform better and be less groggy but you only repair your body and get stronger with rest. So staying up late to watch another episode on Netflix or on your phone isn’t an option if you are serious about your exercise.

I can hear all the objections now,

I have kids

This is my only time to relax

I’m not tired

Look your reading this article because you want to workout in the morning. All of these objections, and anything else you throw at me can be modified. Your kids shouldn’t be up late anyway, if you workout for an hour in the morning by definition you have an extra hour in the evening to relax, and melatonin is a great sleep aid to change your sleep cycle.

At some point the excuses need to stop and you need to take control of your life

2.     Allow some time to wake up

Our bodies go through changes at night that inherently make it harder to exert yourself right out of bed.

Two biggest ones being that your body is going to be more dehydrated than usual, this will cause your joints to no be as lubricated as they normally are during the day.

This is why older adults usually wake up stiff or why any person feels the need to stretch in the morning during their yawn.

Secondly, your nervous system, which controls your movement, isn’t prime yet. This will make generating force in the morning harder until you get used to it.

Lastly, some individuals have really low blood pressure or blood sugar in the morning which can lead to lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, and other not so good things.

If you give yourself 20-30 min to wake up a little drink some water (two glasses atleast) maybe eat some simple sugars. Nothing big just things like fruit, fruit juice, or candy (don’t go crazy). You will have a better chance at having a successful workout in the morning.

If you can tolerate caffeine, it is an excellent natural stimulant to get the body ready to go. This couples well with the last point. During that 20-30min wake up window sip on some coffee to wake up your nervous system and get ready to move around some weights. Caffeine has been proven to increase strength output significantly during strength training so it should be a part of your rouine anyway.

3.     Warm up properly

You don’t wanna roll out of bed and jump on the squat rack thinking you are going to squat any significant weight and feel good about it. You may be able to do it if you’re a beast but your knees, hips and back will hate you for it.

While you don’t necessarily need to spend 10 min on the treadmill (unless you enjoy it and have the time..) 5 min of foam rolling, dynamic stretching and neuromuscular activation exercises will help you get ready to crush any workout you have in front of you.

4.     Pack accordingly

If you have a home gym or work later in the day you can skip this one. But the majority of people wanting to workout in the morning go before work. If you work a 9-5 you need to consider a lot of things throughout the day. Nothing ruins motivation more that being unprepared and messing up the entire flow of the day

Here is a list of things to keep in mind

• Shower supplies
• Work wardrobe
• Breakfast, snacks, lunch
• Any work supplies you may need

To help even further food prepping can be a huge help. At minimum the day prior or if you are a go-getter in bulk on the weekend can expedite this process tremendously.

5.     Relax in the evening

You gotta keep your eyes on the prize. For me the prize is knowing that although my day starts harder it finishes easier. I think of it as going through the day walking downhill vs uphill.

Instead of getting off from a long day of work and needing to pump yourself up for a hard workout after you are already mentally and physically exhausted. You accomplished the hardest task first and you can look forward to getting home and having time to relax or get something less physically and mentally demanding done.

I hope these tips help you out! If they do share with a friend who needs to workout in the morning!

Want help and guidence on how to strength train? I put together a FREE Ebook to give you some foundational knowlegde that isn’t shred very often on the internet. Download The Average Joe’s Blueprint to Strength Training and get 5 steps ahead of where you are today!