Morning exercise. Why?

Morning exercise is one of this year’s resolutions. Nothing unusual, like many other existing goals that anyone could set. But anybody could feel curious and ask me: Why should I change it to mornings? Are there any real benefits of waking up earlier for doing workouts?

But, before answering these questions, I might go to the resolutions post. There’s a personal goal here. Last year I achieved an awesome goal of being consistent with exercise at home with the help of the Freeletics App, mainly doing the workout in evenings or nights, and only in the morning on weekends.

The reason to move this to the morning as a daily routine is very easy to understand: is to free evenings for other purposes. This year, like the past ones, I want to read, to write, to spend time with family, to learn new things, and this means TIME.

This may be a strong purpose for reaching this goal, but it is not the only one. There were other “sources” that influenced this decision.

Let’s check what can tell us Google about the “benefits of morning exercise”. One of the firsts health blogs on Google search results say:

• Morning workouts enhance your metabolism. In general, studies demonstrate that the body burns more calories after exercise when compared to another one who doesn’t exercise at all. In the morning you have higher metabolic needs, and this doesn’t occur later.
• Cultivate consistency. Doing exercise in the morning doesn’t interrupt your work schedule or daily tasks. So there are fewer excuses (delays, work, whatever). Seems easier to be consistent.
• Improves physical and mental energy. Has been shown to improve focus and mental abilities. It also wakes up your mind, and studies show that it is better than coffee!
• Helps developing self-discipline. As said with consistency, working on this habit enhances your personal discipline. If you can do it, you can do whatever you want :)
• Help to get better sleep. Another study demonstrated that not only improved the length of sleep, but also the quality of sleep by promoting deeper sleep cycles.
• Allows You to Reach Your Fitness Goals Faster. It is said that starting the day with success, with this kind of commitment, subconsciously prompts you to work harder and achieve goals.

It is easy to find benefits from lots of health and fitness pages, but I wanted to include also examples from well-known people who recommend and include this habit in their daily business and personal life.

Those are my picks for this post.

Robin Sharma is a world leadership expert, trainer, and best-selling author, known for “The monk who sold his Ferrari” and other books. As seen on his personal page, his work is embraced by rock stars, royalty, billionaires, and many celebrity CEOs.

In his last book “The 5AM Club“, Robin introduces many ideas but related to the main topic we can find waking up at 5 am and the 20/20/20 formula. The idea behind the book is to share “how great geniuses, business titans and the world’s wisest people start their mornings to produce astonishing achievements“.

As a leadership and elite performance expert, this routine helped his clients maximize their productivity and activate their best health. So the book recommends to wake up earlier to “own your morning“, and the first 20 minutes of the day should be dedicated to exercise.

Spend your first 20 minutes in intense exercise. Sweating releases BDNF, a brain chemical that actually grows neural connections. Working out also releases dopamine (the neurotransmitter of motivation) and serotonin, which makes you feel happy.

Jim Kwik is an international speaker and a memory & speed-reading expert and a celebrity trainer. He has an awesome story. He was known as the “boy with the broken brain” due to a child injury, and after working on himself, he rebuilt his brain and broke his limits, unleashing his superbrain.

Jim has different podcasts, posts, training, and courses, but I recently saw one video from Mindvalley where he shared “10 morning habits geniuses use to jump-start their brain“.

In the 8th position, you could find “doing the workout”, because “what is good for your heart, is usually good for your brain”. He recommends some HIIT workout or calisthenics. While the heartbeats, more blood oxygen is sent to the brain.

As Jim usually says: Moving your body grows your brain.

So this is my challenge, the reasons behind this new year’s resolution, and some benefits behind this new habit.

What do you think? Maybe you could include it in your daily routine!

Believe me, if I can do it,  you can too.

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Thanks for reading!

Also published on Medium.