No Excuses! Try the Early Morning Workout

The number one, biggest reason I hear from moms as the reason for not fitting in a workout is, “I don’t have time.”  I hear this from moms who are full time corporate employees, part time consultants and those who stay home with little ones not yet in school.  All of these women insert their day job into the round-the-clock job of being mom.  So between the morning madness of lunch prep, sock finding, driving to school and the evening madness of homework, dinner prep, bath time and bedtime, who can find time to fit in a 30 minute, let alone 60 minute, workout?  Doing so takes determination and drive, but most simply, it just needs a plan. My plan for success is simple, the easiest way to fit in a workout is to get up early at 5:00 a.m. to fit it in. Yes, pull back the cozy warm covers, wipe the sleep from your eyes, move away from the cuddly one asleep next to you (husband or baby!) and force your sorry ass out of bed. The hardest part is the getting out of bed in my opinion.  It may take a setting of the alarm every 15 min. from 4:30 to 5:00 a.m. to get you started. But once you do, you’re halfway there!  There are numerous endorsements out there proving that getting up early to work out actually increases creativity, productivity and generally makes you a happier person!  There are so many benefits, how can you say no?

 

At that point, you have two simple options: Work out in in the house or exercise outside the house. 

• Working out at home: If you don’t have anyone else at home that early to stay with the kids, then your choice is simple. Your focus is the at-home workout. And it comes in many forms.  You can actually use that dinosaur of a cardio machine in your spare room. Or, you can buy a plethora of different DVD fitness videos from experts like Jillian Michaels, Brooke Burke-Charvet (also a mom, and of 4!) or David Kirsch(Heidi Klum’s personal trainer after each of her 4 kids).  There are also the current trend workouts available on DVD such as P90x or Insanity.  A combination of these workouts is key so that you don’t get bored and so that you work out your entire body in the course of one week.  The average woman who works out thirty minutes per day, five days per week should ideally spend three of those days doing cardio and two of those days on weight/strength training. Here’s a sample schedule:
  • Day 1: Cardio on your Elliptical machine one day a week
  • Day 2: Upper body Weight training video on Men’s Health magazine website
  • Day 3: Power yoga DVD with Jillian Michaels
  • Day 4: Lower body/abs weight training DVD with 3, 5 or 7 lb. weights
  • Day 5: Zumba DVD
  • Exercising outside of the house: If you have someone else at home with the kids, you are free to leave the house for a workout.  You may choose to head to the gym, the yoga studio or the local indoor swimming pool.  Joining a boot camp at a local community field is another popular option.  Assuming you like variety, here’s a suggested outline of a workout week:
    • Day 1: Cardio machine at the gym
    • Day 2: Weight training on the circuit training equipment at the gym
    • Day 3: Spinning class (cardio) at the gym
    • Day 4:  Boot camp (cardio and strength training) at the local community track
    • Day 5: Power yoga class (cardio and strength) at the yoga studio

There are many more fitness activities you can swap in and out to keep things interesting. Others I consider are Pure Barre classes, Zumba classes, specific-focus classes like ab workouts or strength-training classes.

Now that you have an idea of a workout to do, you may wonder how to actually schedule it into your morning.  Many fit people I know who also work out early in the morning say they find success by keeping the same routine during the week and adding in variety only on the weekends.  By routine I am referring primarily to the time of day. At the gym I go to, I see the same group of 20 or so people every day. They pack their bag the night before with work out clothes, set the alarm for 4:30 a.m., arrive at the gym when it opens at 5:00 a.m., workout for one hour, shower and change at the gym, drive to work and arrive by 7:00 a.m. (This advice absolutely supports other proven data about how successful, accomplished people often start their day early and arrive earlier than everyone else at the office, but I’ll leave that topic to someone else!). I personally arrive early to the gym, then have to be home by 6:30 a.m. to get the kids up, fed, ready for school and out the door by 7:30 a.m. Only after I’ve dropped them off can I come home yet again to get myself dressed and off to arrive at work by 9:00 a.m. On the days I need to be into work right after I drop off the kids, I hand off prep duty to my husband from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. while I get myself ready instead.

Experts say that after 30 days of doing something, it becomes habit and I believe it’s true.  Thirty days of forcing yourself out of bed and you’ll start waking up much more easily when 5:00 a.m. comes around  And your sleep cycle changes because you’ll naturally fall asleep earlier at night as well, making it easier to get up.  Give it a try – you can do it! Just dedicate yourself to those first 30 days!

No Excuses! Try the Early Morning Workout