Waking up in the mornings ! Grrrr !

rgs424

rgs424

Cathlete
I really like to exercise. I LOVE doing step aerobics (CATHE, of course!!!), but I need to do it in the morning, or else it does not get done. But my goodness, getting up early these days seems next to impossible ! This morning, I had everything all set up and ready, and I literally turned my alarm clock off in my sleep and woke up too late. It is not the fact that I have to exercise that makes it difficult for me to get out of bed...it is trying to just wake up that is so difficult !

Has anyone successfully mastered doing their workouts in the mornings ? How did you overcome that first 10 minutes of actually getting out of bed and moving ?

Any feedback is great and THANK YOU IN ADVANCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I workout in the mornings (5:30 or 6:00) and absolutly hate getting up. I find that setting my alarm 1/2 hours before i need to get up and then being able to hit the snooze for awhile sorta tricks me into thinking im getting away with sleeping later.

Good luck
 
i work out in the morning at 5a.m. i've done it for years. there has been times where i have over slept and not done it till the afternoon and i notice that i'm groggy all morning and just hate having to stop everything i'm doing to workout. i know it takes some effort to do this and get in a habit. for me i place the clock on the other side of the room so i have to get up to turn it off. i put my exercise clothes in the bathroom ready to go. the dvd is already in the player. also, don't think about how early it is. it makes it that much worse. just set yourself on autopilot and just do it. i know easier said than done. it took me about 2 weeks to make this a habit and less grueling when i first started. don't give up. the first few days you may feel really tired but once you start waking up early and going to be early, you will feel great throughout the day. its starts the day off so great.
 
The real secret for me to get to bed on time. It's hard to get up if you're exhausted, but not so bad if you got 7 hours or so of sleep.
 
>The real secret for me to get to bed on time. It's hard to
>get up if you're exhausted, but not so bad if you got 7 hours
>or so of sleep.

Therein lies the key to the early morning workout. I have been getting up at 4:45am to work out for a few years now. It's freakin' early. The only way I can do it is if I am in bed by 9:15 the night before. So, it's not so much a matter of getting up earlier, but of shifting your entire sleep schedule. After you do it for a few weeks, it will become habit. It's kind of like Daylight Savings Time. You set your clock ahead, and the first few mornings, it's horrible getting up... but eventually you adjust. :)
 
Yeah it's hard at 1st. As soon as the alarm goes off I sit up and get out of bed, change, and go workout. After 10 minutes or so of warming up I don't feel so tired.
You could always get one of these alarm clocks I saw this person invent. The ends are kind of like the end of dumbells so as soon as the alarm goes off it rolls off your night stand and you have to go chase it to turn it off. I'm sure you'd be awake by then! :)
 
I go to bed at 12am and wake up at 4:30am to work out. I make sure to move my alarm clock away from the bed so that I have to get out of bed to turn it off.

Because I only get 4 1/2 hours of sleep at night, I take a 90 minute nap later in the day (usually late afternoon). If I don't, I just sleep for 6 hours that night instead. It saves me some extra hours, which I need with my pet sitting and school starting this coming Monday!

I have been doing this for a while and I still have trouble for the first 5 minutes or so. After that, I'm fine.
 
OMG...are you serious??? That sounds both dangerous and ingenious at the same time! What didn't I think of that?

LOL!!! :)
 
I get up at just after 4:00 a.m. - but keep my clock an hour fast so seeing 5:00 instead of 4:00 isn't as disconcerting. Also - I have to remind myself that this is the ONLY time I can get in a full uninterrupted workout. After the first week or so it's not too bad. Though every now and agin my body just says NO! Then I sleep and my w/o suffers.

Lorrie

www.picturetrail.com/lsass
 
OMG I am a horrible terrible non-morning person. Have been like that for years.

So why, you might ask yourself, did I take my bootcamp instructor job that requires me to be at a park at 5:45am...

...LOL, I'm still not sure!!! But here's how I do it:

1. take as many naps as possible (yeah, right!!! but it's still good to start my list this way)
2. go to sleep early (see #1)
3. have a very kind husband who does not mind that you set your alarm's snooze button to go off every THREE minutes for 22 minutes
4. turn the radio to a non-station and turn it up loud so what comes blaring out is static/speak/ickywantittostop noise
5. get a lamp timer and set that for the actual real wakeup time so your body might sense the difference and then you'll actually get out of bed rather than keep hitting the snooze
6. train your always-hungry cat to only ask you for food, and be kind when he wakes you up with kisses and jumps on your bladder.

...um, okay... this never felt so ridiculous as it does seeing it all written down...

BUT FOR THE RECORD, I have not overslept once and I make it to the park every day of the week. ;)
 
I like the cat trick. Unfortunately, I think I have the only respectful cats in the world (they just wait patiently until I get up to feed them and my dog is the same way). They aren't so courteous around dinner time, though.

As far as my sleep patterns, I really like them. I feel more energized than I did getting 7 hours and way more than I did getting 8. The trick, supposedly, is to sleep in increments of 90 mins (a full sleep cycle). I have found this to be true for me. When I sleep under or over 90 mins, 3 hours, 4.5 hours, etc., I feel very groggy. It's when I wake up naturally before my alarm clock that I feel terrific. This takes a while to do. I have tried to encourage this behavior by setting my alarm clock about 20 mins longer. It seems to be working.

Is this dangerous? Probably not. I like to apply Cathe's "listen to your body" rule to my sleep. I have more energy and my workouts go much better (I have really noticed this while doing the intermediate rotation).

Eventually (probably the beginning of next summer), I would like to try polyphasic sleeping (sleeping more than twice during a day, usually at very short increments). Now this might be dangerous, but there has not been enough evidence to prove for or against it. I guess the only way to find out is to try it myself.:)
 
Go to bed early.

Alarm goes off at 4:45 am. I hit the snooze one time, then get up. Also, my alarm is a few feet away from the bed -- I have to get out of bed to turn it off.

I drink coffee and browse the forum for 30 minutes, then lace up my Rykas and get down to it.

It is hard just about every day for those first 10 minutes. But when I don't do it, something just feels wrong and I drag butt all day long.
 
>I get up at just after 4:00 a.m. - but keep my clock an hour
>fast so seeing 5:00 instead of 4:00 isn't as disconcerting.
>Also - I have to remind myself that this is the ONLY time I
>can get in a full uninterrupted workout. After the first week
>or so it's not too bad. Though every now and agin my body
>just says NO! Then I sleep and my w/o suffers.
>
>Lorrie
>
>www.picturetrail.com/lsass

i never quit understood this. my fiance' does the same thing. but if you know the alarm is set an hour fast how can this make it easier b/c you still know its 4 a.m. even though the clock says 5:D its great that it works though. i'm a morning person though (thank god). for instance, today is saturday and i still got up at 5 to workout even though i'm not doing anything today and i could workout at any time. i just like the feeling of getting my blood pumping in the morning.
 
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