Early Morning Workout Devotee
I have been working out at 4 AM for about 25 years (ever since residency after medical school). There are so many reasons I have chosen to make early morning workouts my norm:
No one really needs me between 4 and 5:30am. This was especially true when I had young babies. When I tried to work out in the afternoon, I always felt so guilty about taking time away from the kids! Now, my babies are teenagers, but thankfully they still "need" me, and they like to workout also. So, I get up early (even on weekends) to exercise in our home gym so that everyone can have time in the gym later in the day.
I really prefer to workout on an empty stomach. I have tried to workout between breakfast and lunch (on weekends), but honestly, there is about a one hour window when I don't feel too full to exercise AND at the same time, I don't feel too hungry to delay lunch.
By working out in the early AM, I arrive to work (0630) fully awake, already feeling accomplished, and satisfied that I have done something good for my own health..and then I can concentrate on the health of others all day! Plus, I am trying to set a good example for all of the 20-something-year-old residents I work with! They are awesome, and when they know I can fit working out into my life, they know they have no excuses!
When I have a really good workout in the morning, I am much less likely to over eat/ eat junk. Why mess up all the good I have already done by eating an Oreo? The flip side is that if I skip my morning workout, I feel kind of slug-like and I am more likely to eat junk.
On the weekends, it is the hardest to set the alarm to get up and work out. Sometimes I start a little "pity party" a la "why should i have to get up early on the weekends to workout? Well, I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that the later in the day it gets without exercising the less likely I am to exercise at all. So, I get up because it works!
The most important element to success in early morning workouts for me are:
Make sure I am going to sleep early enough so that when the alarm goes off at 4, I feel rested, and it isn't a struggle to get up.
Set my workout clothes and shoes out the night before in the bathroom. So I roll out of bed, go to the bathroom and change..no thought process involved.
Decide the night before which workout I am going to do (I usually decide this as I unwind right before getting into bed). I have to say that the workouts I least look forward to are the days I need to lift weights (both upper and lower body on the same day). So, when the alarm goes off, if I just cannot bear the thought of hoisting weights, I let myself do something "easier" like 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer and then a few weights just to keep jello from forming.
Probably the best advice/ encouragement I have is don't wait until you feel like getting up to exercise. When that alarm goes off, and you are in your warm bed, you are never really going to "feel like" getting up. Just get up, get dressed and get going. If after a few minutes of movement, you still feel like "this isn't a good morning", show a little forgiveness to yourself and do a mini workout or just stretch. The key is to make yourself get started, and then do what you can.
Good luck with the early morning workouts. I love them!