By BLAKE and GWEN BECKCOM | Fitness Together

If you are ready to get your workouts done in the morning, you’re making a great decision. There are a lot of benefits to working out first thing in the morning. In this article, we will talk about how doing this can benefit your quality of life and what you should do to get started and make working out in the morning a habit.

The first and most obvious benefit to working out in the morning is that you get it over and done with. You don’t have your entire day to make up excuses to skip your workout or have something else come up that takes your time away from you. If you wake up just a bit earlier than normal, you can get your sweat session out of the way and then go on with the rest of your day.

Once you start doing this, you will probably find that it is actually easier to work out in the morning than it is to save it for the end of the day. You aren’t working out on a full stomach, nor are you starving and anxiously awaiting dinner. Your stomach is relatively empty, versus completely barren as it is after work, in most cases.

Plus, if you exercise in the morning, it will help you improve your sleep. Working out too close to bedtime keeps you up at night and will lessen your quality of sleep, making you even more tired throughout the day. But if you work out in the morning, not only will you sleep better at night but you will have more energy during the day.

So how can you coax your body into getting up even earlier and actually getting out there to exercise?

First, you need to start by setting a strict bedtime and sticking to it. You want to get about eight hours of sleep every night, so depending on what time you need to wake up to get your exercise in, you need to go to bed accordingly. Doing this for a few weeks will help get your body into the routine, and eventually you won’t even need to set an alarm for the morning. You will just naturally get tired at the same time every night and your body will wake up at the same time every morning.

But before you get to that point, you will want to set a loud alarm that doesn’t give you the option to hit snooze. Keep your alarm across the room so you actually have to get out of bed to turn it off when it goes off. This will help ensure that you are up when you need to be.

Set out everything you need for your workout the night before. Get your water ready and put your keys by your headphones so you can just get up and go. One pro tip that you can do (if it is comfortable) is to actually sleep in your workout clothes. Most workout clothes are pretty comfortable and allow you to move around, so they are similar to your pajamas anyway. This way, you can literally get out of bed and leave.

Make sure that you have a playlist that you are excited to listen to in the morning to get you going. Start with your favorite song, and if you have to get in the car to drive to the gym, listen to your playlist in the car to get you pumped up.

If you don’t think you will be able to get yourself up every morning alone, either find a workout buddy to keep you accountable for your exercise or sign up for an early morning exercise class. You are less likely to let other people down who are expecting you to do something, than you are to let yourself down if you really just want to go back to sleep and put your workout on the back burner. Also, if you spend money on a trainer or a class, you won’t want that money to go to waste.

Once you start working out in the mornings, you will find that it is easier than you thought and you will stick to it. It will become a habit that is part of your daily routine.

— Fitness Together Mission Hills offers personal training with qualified professionals by regular appointment in private suites. Exercise y nutritional programs are custom designed to fit your needs and abilities. Call 619-794-0014 for more information or to schedule a free fitness diagnostic and private training session. See what others are saying about us on Yelp.