Morning workouts provide mental and physical benefits, improve mood, self-confidence, and energy levels.
Establishing a morning workout routine involves consistency, avoiding the snooze button, and practicing intermittent social media fasting.
Bodyweight training with minimal equipment and cardio-sthenics are effective ways to incorporate morning workouts within a time-efficient schedule.
Deep dives
The Benefits of Morning Workouts
Working out in the morning provides mental and physical benefits, such as improved mood, self-confidence, alertness, and energy levels. Morning workouts can be more convenient for individuals with busy schedules as it ensures they actually have time for exercise. Consistency in workout time and creating a morning routine help make morning workouts a habit.
Creating a Morning Workout Routine
Establishing a morning workout routine involves setting a specific wake-up time and being consistent with it. Avoiding the snooze button and getting up instantly can provide a small win to start the day. Practicing intermittent social media fasting in the morning, by delaying internet connection until after the workout, can help reduce distractions. Pre-workout nutrition can consist of a small snack containing simple carbs, fat, and protein. Setting up the environment the night before and practicing mise en place, or being tidy and organized, can streamline the morning routine.
Warming Up and Overcoming Morning Stiffness
Warming up is crucial for morning workouts and should include light static stretching, dynamic stretching, and mobility drills. This helps loosen muscles, joints, and reduces stiffness. A brain startup routine that includes a countdown, simple actions to stay on your feet, hydration or breakfast, suiting up, and tuning up can help overcome morning grogginess and mentally prepare for the workout.
Bodyweight Training and Circuit Workouts
Bodyweight training can be done using minimal equipment, such as a pull-up bar or gymnastic rings. A circuit-style workout that targets different muscle groups can be performed. This consists of doing sets of exercises with minimal rest in between, gradually increasing the intensity. Each circuit round can start at 50% intensity, followed by 80% intensity, and the last round can be at full intensity. This allows for a time-efficient and effective workout within a 30-minute timeframe.
Combining Bodyweight Training with Cardio
Cardio-sthenics is a hybrid approach that combines bodyweight training and cardio. Instead of resting between exercises, individuals can incorporate low-intensity cardio, such as jogging or brisk walking, for a minute or two. This provides a cardiovascular benefit while still completing the strength workout. Additionally, separate cardio sessions or other forms of cardio, like sprints, can be included in the overall weekly routine.
Working out at any time of day is great. But my guest says there are distinct benefits to doing it in the a.m., and he's going to walk you through everything you need to know, from mindset to habits, to become a morning workout person.
Anthony Arvanitakis is a bodyweight training coach and the author of The 7 A.M. Workout Edge: Wake Up, Work Out, Own the Day. Today on the show, he offers concrete tips for overcoming the challenges of working out in the morning, from getting out of bed to finding the time to do it before work, including his "Brain Start-Up Routine" for shaking off the just-woken-up inertia to get going. In the latter part of the show, Anthony details how to do a highly effective at-home bodyweight workout that can easily fit into your morning routine and requires minimal equipment and only 30 minutes. We also talk about how to combine bodyweight training with cardio to do something he calls "cardiosthenics" that's great for fat loss.
Resources Related to the Podcast
Anthony's previous appearances on the AoM podcast:
