The prospect of being an early riser who works out before heading to the office is extraordinarily appealing, until you realise it involves not hitting snooze repeatedly on your alarm clock and waking up before the sun is up to ensure you have enough time to exercise, eat, and look presentable enough for your 10:00 am meeting the same day.
Here’s everything you need to do to make sure you’re able to hit the gym, without all the stress and pressure, so that you too can be smugly say: ‘Oh me? I’m just naturally a morning person, I guess’. No one has to know you have a history of breaking alarm clocks.
1. Get all your prep out of the way the night before
Have clothes for the gym, the meal you’ll be eating before work, and your office attire all ready and set so that once you do get up, you don’t have to think about anything except changing and getting out of the house. It’ll cut your time getting ready down in half, and make it that much easier to get out of bed in the morning.
2. Do not give yourself the option to hit snooze!
Those of us who have a love/hate relationship with our alarm clocks know this all too well: the temptation of that extra five minutes in bed is sweet and pretty irresistible. Try circumventing this by setting up multiple alarms to ensure there’s no escaping waking up.
3. Eat a healthy and energy boosting snack
If you’re feeling completely drained of energy as soon as you get up, chances are it’s because your body’s just woken up from its rest mode. Rather than forcing yourself to push through the pain, try drinking water and rehydrating, or eating a snack like a banana or apple to give yourself that extra burst of energy you need to ensure you’re feeling up for exercise.
4. Find something you enjoy doing, and commit
The one thing that’s harder than getting out of bed early in the morning is getting out of bed early in the morning to do something you don’t enjoy. The hardest part about working out, especially at the start, is simply showing up, and you can’t show up to something you don’t want to. Figure out what works for you, and you’ll find yourself (miraculously and against all odds) actually looking forward to going to the gym.
5. Create work out playlists that get you in the zone
Making a playlist of your favourite songs, or just music that gets you in the mood to start moving, can do wonders for your motivation when actually at the gym. Curate a playlist of your favourite songs, and you’ll find your productivity at the gym will suddenly soar, and you’ll start looking forward to exercising a whole lot more.
6. They don’t say early to bed, early to rise for no reason
Giving yourself plenty of sleep the night before waking up early is an essential part of being well rested enough for a work out. Ensuring enough time to rest is critical to making sure you’re alert and awake for a stress free session at the gym the next morning, so make sure you don’t skimp on the snoozing.
