The 4 Secrets to Becoming a Morning Workout Person

I know the drill. It’s 9pm and you’re getting ready for bed, thinking about your morning. Of course I’ll workout in the morning. It’s going to make me feel so good. I’m going to start this week off right. I got this. 

Beep. Beep. Beep. (Or light classical music in my case…thanks Alexa). 5am. Andddddd snooze. 

Believe me, I know it too well. Right-before-bed-Chelsea thinks Morning-Chelsea is going to be so ok with getting up early and going to the gym. I mean, Right-before-bed-Chelsea even laid out all of gym clothes and packed the gym bag ahead of time. Morning-Chelsea does not want to hear it. She just wants to sleep.

Hitting the snooze and telling yourself you’re going to do it later usually only pans out about 50% of the time. At least in my experience. 

Here’s what I do to guarantee that I get my butt out of bed and do it. And now 5 out of 5 weekdays when my alarm goes off at 4am (that’s right, 4am- I start work crazy early), I get my butt up and I do it. Morning-Chelsea isn’t always as pumped about the idea as Right-before-bed-Chelsea is. But she still gets it done. 

The Secrets

Get You A Workout Buddy. Sadly, it’s easy to not show up for ourselves. But stand someone up who also got up to meet you at 5am? Yeah, you’re likely not going to bail on that promise. Or they’ll be pissed. And I hope they tell you how mad they are so that maybe you get up the next morning. But really, when I moved to my most recent duty station and realized I was only showing up for myself about 2-3 days a week, I needed someone else to make me accountable. So I found someone as crazy as me and she agreed to meet me at 5am. Half the time, the only reason I got out of bed was because I didn’t want her to know I wanted to bail. Now, even though her schedule has changed and she can’t come to the gym, I’m in such a habit that I drag myself out of bed anyway. 

Have A Plan. Have you ever gotten to the gym and been like “ok, now what?” That is not what you want to do at 5am when you’re brain is barely functioning. Have a plan for what you want to do at the gym the night before. Whether it be following a training plan, getting a WOD from a free app, or finding a free workout video (fitnessblender.com has the best free workout videos), go in there knowing what you’re going to do. That way, you don’t leave feeling like you’re missing out on sleep and barely accomplished anything. 

Find Your Why. This cannot have anything to do with food, the scale, inches, etc. That will not wake you up in the morning. At least it didn’t for me. And honestly, we shouldn’t work out just so we can eat/lose weight. So dig deep, think about your non-scale victories, and figure it out. For me, I work out in the morning so that I feel awake for the day. If I skip my morning workout, I’ll feel sluggish all day long, feeling like I need caffeine to make it through. When I workout, I’m awake, I’m refreshed, and I go to work with a much happier attitude. And physically feeling good and not having a mental fogginess all day is my true motivator. Just this past week, my alarm went off, I rolled over and said to my husband “I can’t do this” and he just mumbled back “You’ll be exhausted while seeing patients all day if you don’t.” He was right, and I hate feeling like my brain is in a haze all day. I rolled back over, stumbled out of bed, and did it. Maybe it’s different for you- maybe you have goals to run a 5k/10k/half marathon, maybe you want to have a clear head so you can be a better parent, maybe you want to beat your spouse’s step goal. Whatever it is. Find it. And when your alarm goes off, remember why. 

Give Yourself Grace. I think this might get a whole blog post of it’s own but long story short my mantra is: Some Movement is Better Than No Movement. So when I get up and plan on going for a long run and it feels extra mediocre and I ran pretty slow- I don’t mentally punish myself. I honestly just say- Well, some movement is better than no movement. A crappy run is better for me than laying in my bed. Because if you beat yourself up over it, why would you want to get up tomorrow? I wouldn’t want to wake up early for someone to tell me that I suck and could have done better. So why would you say that to yourself? And even if you don’t believe it, say it anyway. Because then you’ll still show up for you the next day. It works, I promise. 

Which Morning Workout Person Secret helped you out? Let me know in the comments below!