What’s your Morning Routine: Cardio, Training, or Rest?

morning routine

 

What you get up to in the morning has a huge impact on your energy, focus, and nutrition. Are you a morning person?

Are you an early riser or a night owl? If you prefer training in the morning, you need to think about food choices, workout selection, and how you’ll use the rest of the day to recover.

6 Benefits Of Training In The Morning

#1 You get it done!

The most obvious benefit of training in the morning is that you get it done. Everyone knows you should do the most important things on your to-do list first, and that includes your workout. If you train in the morning before the hustle and bustle of the day sets in, you won’t need to worry about delayed trains, traffic jams, unexpected deadlines, or work meetings running way over time. Whatever happens, your workout is in the bag.

#2 It energises you

Most people find that training in the morning actually gives them more energy for the rest of the day, even if it’s a tough HIIT workout or big lifting session. If you find your morning workouts leave you tired, look at your sleep, hydration, and nutrition. If you get up early to train, you obviously need to go to bed a bit early – it’s common sense. Make sure you are well hydrated before you hit the gym in the morning. As for food, some people find they can train without eating beforehand. Focus on your post-training meal, especially if you rush straight to work or college. Complete Breakfast Smoothie™ is a complete breakfast on the go – just add water! It’s got our best Whey Protein, premium Ultra Fine Scottish Oats, Psyllium Husks Powder, real freeze-dried fruit pieces and powders, plus DigeZyme®.

#3 Improved focus at work

Training before work or study helps you feel more alert and focused. This could be because you’ve got your workout done, so your mind can now avoid distractions. More likely, it’s due to brain changes after training, including a boost of hormones adrenalin, endorphins, and dopamine.

#4 Healthier food choices

Lots of people find that they make healthier food choices during the day if they train first thing. Training in the morning sets you up for a day of healthy habits and good decisions, and focuses your mind on your positive goals. You may also find that early morning training balances your appetite so you naturally avoid comfort eating or mindless snacking.

#5 More active during the day

Start the day with a workout and you could be more active during the day, getting more steps under your belt and making more active choices. This is probably because you will see yourself as an active person who has already done a workout, setting your brain up for healthy and active habits throughout the day.

#6 The gym is empty

Want to guarantee a space in the squat rack, or your ideal selection of dumbbells for a huge dropset? Get to the gym early. Let’s face it, most people train later in the day or after work. Early morning training means clearer roads, emptier gyms, fresher air, and cleaner changing rooms!

How Does Morning Training Affect Your Body?

Our hormones are primed to help us train in the morning. important hormones, including testosterone, are elevated in the morning. So take advantage of your key hormones as they peak in the morning, instead of trying to train as they drop off later in the day.

A morning workout will give your metabolic rate a valuable boost, whether you do HIIT, weights, or cardio. Of course, you’ll get the same calorie burn and metabolic boost whatever time you train. But training in the morning means you can take advantage of this energising boost all day. Plus you can enjoy the EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) for longer!

Support your body in the morning with our Sports Multi AM:PM™ multivitamin and mineral complex, which has 31 vitamins and minerals in a premium formula for morning and evening.

Cardio Or Weights AM?

The debate over cardio or weights in the morning still rages (along with the one about training before breakfast). As far as we can tell, the jury is still out – on both issues.

There doesn’t seem to be any definitive answer about what kind of training is best to do in the morning. This is real life – and it’s your life. So do whatever fits with your schedule, your lifestyle, and the rest of your week. Let’s face it, the best training schedule is the one you can do (and will stick with). So forget optimal, and focus on achievable.

Common sense tells us that you’ll need to warm up before a morning session, especially if you roll out of bed and go training without even going for a short walk. If you’ve got achy joints, it makes sense to leave your big 1RM testing sessions for a day when you have time to eat, warm up, and do mobility before training.

Summer is a great time to try out morning training (who can sleep anyway when the mornings are so light?) If you’re thinking of making the switch, stock up on quick and easy nutrition like Complete Breakfast Smoothie™, Complete Breakfast Porridge™. Chia Granola, or good old fine oats and whey.

About the Author:

Nicola Joyce has been writing for (and about) sport, fitness, nutrition and healthy living since 2004. She’s also a keen sportswoman: her background is in endurance sport but she now competes as a natural bodybuilder, most recently winning a world title with the INBF. When she’s not writing content, she can be found blogging. Follow her here www.nicolajoyce.co.uk and on Facebook & Twitter (@thefitwriter) too.

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