Exercising
in
the
A.M.
Jason Grimes C.P.T. (f3)
The Benefits to Morning
Workouts
1. Exercising early in the morning “jump starts” your metabolism, keeping it elevated for hours, sometimes for up to
24 hours! As a result, you’ll be burning more calories all day
long—just because you exercised in the morning.
2. Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not
to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing you’ve done something disciplined and good for you.
3. Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases
mental acuity—a benefit that lasts four to ten hours after
your workout ends. Exercising in the a.m. means you get to
harness that brainpower, instead of wasting it while you’re
snoozing.
4. Assuming you make exercise a true priority, it shouldn’t
be a major problem to get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier—especially since regular exercise generally means a higher quality
of sleep, which in turn means you’ll probably require less
sleep. (If getting up 30 to 60 minutes earlier each day seems
too daunting, you can ease into it with 10 to 20 minutes at
first.)
5. When you exercise at about the same time every morning—especially if you wake up regularly at about the same
time—you’re regulating your body’s endocrine system and
circadian rhythms. Your body learns that you do the same
thing just about every day, and it begins to prepare for waking and exercise several hours before you actually open your
eyes. That’s beneficial because:
Your body’s not “confused” by wildly changing wake-up
times, which means waking up is much less painful. (You
may even find that you don’t need an alarm clock most
days.)
Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating
blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc.
Your metabolism, along with all the hormones involved in
activity and exercise, begin to elevate while you’re sleeping.
As a result, you’ll feel more alert, energized, and ready to
exercise when you do wake up.
36
|
Winter Garden Magazine
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march 2015