10 reasons to get up and train early…

The rain’s beating down, it’s dark and the bed is warm. Why on earth should you get up when that alarm blasts and sleepwalk your way to the gym?

Here are my top 10 (actually, there’s more than 10, but no one titles a headline “top 11” or “top 12, or even “top 9”) reasons why you should train early- and by early, I mean at sparrows fart ie between 6-9am:

• You have to get up anyway and besides, are you really likely to go back to sleep? In our house my husband would be up and moving around, making noise- the likelihood of getting any more quality sleep after that alarm goes off is negligible.
• I’d put money on the fact that at least 80% (if not more) of the people already training when you get there would rather still be in bed too.
• No maintenance is required in the mornings. Afternoon and evening trainers tend to be made up and often with matching clobber- you don’t get as much of that in the mornings. Basic hygienic tasks only need to be completed before early morning training…and people- that means deodorant!
• Early morning training is not about socialising. Most people have their earphones on and are catching up on the early news or last nights game and just want to get the job done.
• Early morning training is not about impressing anyone other than yourself. No one cares whether you are sporting the latest logo singlet or have a full face on- it’s too flipping early.
• You don’t normally need to queue for equipment in the mornings and, if you are lucky, the two treadmills at the end of the room that haven’t been programmed to automatically cool down after 30 minutes will be free to hog for longer.
• Early morning training frees your mind for the rest of the day- the real hard work is done, so you don’t need to spend other precious hours thinking of all the very valid reasons why you should be blowing off that class tonight.
• The post exercise high takes you through at least until your first coffee and, in my experience, sets up the brain as well as the body for the day ahead. And yes, doubters, even if all you are feeling is “thank flip that’s over”, it is still a high of sorts.
• You have started the day having achieved something. Even if you have the kind of day which has you still reading emails at 5pm about some obscure outage that occurred on a telco line somewhere in India that affected some obscure part of the business over the weekend, you started the day with a box ticked.
• It is a physical outcome. In my game I often feel like I am alone on a desert island sending messages off in bottles hoping that someone will pick one up and not only read it but respond to it. I have weeks where the only physical outcome was finishing all 3 seasons of The Good Wife. At those times I can sit back and say “at least I got my training done.”
• If you make a deal with yourself that you will train after work, it will still be dark, still be cold and, if you are living in Sydney at the moment, probably still be raining. More importantly, there is dinner to be hunted down, homework to be nagged about and an open bottle of wine in a warm house. And you realistically think you will go back out into that once the heels are off, the trackies on and the wine poured? No, I didn’t think so either.

Having said all that, in the interests of full disclosure, my 14 year old does swim squad at a stupid time each morning so getting up early supports her too. My gym just happens to be open from 5am- not that I’m down there that early… so, the whole thing can (relatively) easily be made part of normal routine. And, seriously, any time that is best for you to train is the best time to train.

Oh, todays photo a day topic is “from a low angle”…