Quite a lot of people enjoy being an early-riser and getting their exercise done early on in the day – some mornings you might only be able to get in an hour of cycling Conwy, but it’s quite important to try and do something every morning to create that positive habit! So, why mornings?
No Traffic
In the summer months, the sun can rise as early as 4:30am, if you plan ahead and choose a route that uses quiet back roads, you will be able to train in peace and quiet, able to avoid the majority of cars until rush hour begins.
Consistency
Over 90% of people who exercise consistently, choose to exercise in the morning. So the odds are in your favour if you exercise first thing. It starts your day right, and it leaves you feeling smug that you’ve already chalked off a workout before the day has really begun.
For a lot of people, they begin to look forward to that specific time in the morning that they have allocated for exercise – it’s a time they’ve put aside for themselves. If finding the time to put aside in the morning for self-care and exercise is difficult, consider getting up either 30 or 60 minutes earlier, and then going to bed earlier.
Metabolism
When you exercise early in the morning, it can help to jumpstart your metabolism and can keep it elevated for hours. That means that you’ll effectively be burning more calories all day long just because you exercised in the morning. You’ll also feel energised and ready for the day ahead when you exercise in the morning. People have also found that morning exercise regulates their appetite for the day – that they aren’t as hungry and that they actively make better food choices.
Circadian Rhythms
If you get up and exercise at a similar time every morning, your body’s endocrine system and circadian rhythms adjust to it. Physiologically, your body begins to prepare for waking up and exercise as it “knows” it’s about to happen. It gets used to the daily routine and you’ll benefit in a number of ways:
- It’s much easier to wake up. When you wake up at different times everyday it confuses your body and it’s never really prepared to awaken.
- Your hormones and metabolism begin to elevate while you’re sleeping. So you’ll feel more alert, energised and ready to exercise when you do wake up.
Schedule
Getting your daily exercise done and out of the way early in the day means that you won’t have to reschedule or change your plans later on if something comes up unexpectedly. When you have a particularly hectic day, exercise usually takes a back seat and is forgotten about or moved to another day and then not done.