I have never been a morning person. It has never been easy for me to get out of bed early in the morning, and I have always confidently believed the mantra of I AM A NIGHT OWL. Is that a mantra? Maybe not. Either way, I am definitely someone who thrives at night and my preference of working out in the afternoon/evening is no different.
But today, something happened. I dragged my sleepy self out of bed at 6:15 A.M. and was at the gym by 6:45 A.M. I managed to shock my entire family, as both my mom and sister texted me around 8:30 asking if I was ok/dead/mentally stable since I wasn’t at home in bed. Yes family, don’t worry…I am just at the gym. As per usual.
As hard as breaking my pattern of staying up late and sleeping in is, I think it might be time. While I hate to give up precious sleeping hours (it’s recovery! Essential to working out!), I will admit that I enjoyed a few things that my early morning provided me.
- The obvious…working out. While I don’t feel like I was at 100% during the workout, I didn’t feel nearly as terrible as I had anticipated.
- The lack of traffic that early. There was still traffic, but not that bad.
- Seeing my friends early in the morning. And then going out to breakfast with them after. I HAD TIME FOR BREAKFAST AT A RESTAURANT!
- Getting home after said breakfast and realizing I had 4 hours before I had to be anywhere. SO MUCH TIME FOR THINGS!
I know that a lot of people workout early in the morning. I applaud those people, but am convinced they must not like sleeping very much…or they just have more discipline when it comes to going to bed in the evening. Probably the latter. I will say the day has felt very long, which has been nice; there have been a lot of days that I feel fly by and I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. I always look forward to my time at the gym in the evenings, but it was a good feeling to know that I already had my workout done and I had the evening free to myself to run errands that I usually put off. My level of guilt for sitting in bed eating cereal is at an all-time low right now!
Another major thing I’ve noticed is my increased water intake. I don’t know if I have mentioned this previously, but lately I have been feeling very dehydrated. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I am a coffee drinker, and religiously drink my coffee before anything else in the morning. Before I know it, it’s 12 P.M. and I’ve had zero water; by working out at the butt-crack of dawn, I have felt thirsty all day and have drank way more than I normally do.
So, now I know why so many people get up early to workout. I won’t lie, I still prefer my evening workouts, but I was pleasantly surprised at how the morning one went. Like I said, I didn’t feel as though I was at 100%, mainly because I prefer to have more time to eat/drink fluids/wake up, but I enjoyed how good I felt all day. I enjoyed it so much, I think I’ll try again for the 7 A.M. class again tomorrow, and then come back for the weight lifting class in the evening – hooray double days!
Also, while the workout itself was challenging and provided some new bits and pieces I need to work on, I did enjoy it, and thought I’d share:
Skill: Front squat
5 at 65%
5 at 75%
5 at 85%
WOD: For time
500m row
40 wall balls (14# ball)
30 toes to bar
20 hand stand push ups
10 chest to bar pull ups
What is your preference on what time to workout? Are you a morning person, an evening person, or a “whenever I have time” person?
Reps for Becks 