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I know…I’ve confused you all with this catchy title. Because if you follow me at all you know I LOVE my early morning sweat sesh. BUT there’s a few HUGE reasons NOT to workout and I want to share those with you today!

But first – I want to talk about the benefits of morning workouts. Because I know it’s pretty “hot” to do those early morning workouts.

Why is that?

  • EPOC. E-what?! One of the top reasons for morning workouts is it fires up your metabolism. Especially if you are doing HIIT (high intensity interval training). Doing this type of workout creates post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Basically – you’ve created an oxygen deficit in your body during this intervals (aka gone “anaerobic”) and this deficit puts your metabolism into a bit of overdrive to catch up. This increases your metabolism for a period of time AFTER your workout.
  • Endorphins. The feel good hormone. Starting your day with exercise means you start your day with a hit of feel good hormones. And of course you also feel AWESOME because you’ve checked something off your to do list BEFORE most people get up!
  • Excuses. Working out before you can think about what you’re really doing means you’ll make it happen. As the day progresses it’s easy to get caught up in BUSY and find a reason to skip. If you get up and go there are so many less reasons (or less cognitive ability to formulate said reasons).

Ok, so now that we’ve covered WHY….here’s WHY NOT.

  1. You’re scrimping on sleep. Early morning workouts means you MUST go to bed early. Do not scrimp on SLEEP to facilitate an early morning workout. REST is part of the program – and if you aren’t getting enough sleep you’re not getting the rest & recuperation your body NEEDS to make performance gains. So you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot. Sleep is WAY more important to overall health & performance than any benefit you’ll get from doing your workout first thing. So you either need to COMMIT to early bed times OR find another time to workout!
  2. You’re groggy. If you like the convenience of an AM sweat, but even with an early bed time that early alarm makes you feel draggy for the rest of the day. AM’s aren’t your JAM! And that’s ok. It’s just NOT when your body likes to make it happen.
  3. Your performance suffers. If you don’t feel like you can really great working out first thing. You’ve had enough sleep, you’re properly fueled & hydrated, but you just don’t have the “go time” enthusiasm you need. You may wish to try a good quality pre-workout drink. But please be cautious in your use of these products. There are many on the market that contain questionable incredients and extremely high doses of caffiene – which I don’t agree with and can give you not so fun side-effects (hello racing heart). If you’re curious about what I use feel free to ask me about Beachbody Performance Line Energize – it’s AMAZING and not dosing you with a bunch of chemicals & caffeine).
  4. You don’t enjoy it. I don’t think any of us LOVE that early alarm (honesty), but I never finish an early morning workout and think…gee, I wish I hadn’t done that! But if YOU don’t LOVE morning exercise….and have flexibly to do it another time of the day. Listen to & honour YOU.

Side note: if you’re working on transitioning to morning workouts – be patient. Give it 2-3 weeks and focus on early bed times & play around with fueling to see what works for you. You’re shifting your natural body rhythms and sometimes that takes a bit of time. But long term, if you’ve given it a good try, and it still isn’t working for you, remember this:

The best time to exercise? When you’ll ACTUALLY do it – and ENJOY it!