Why should you exercise in the A.M.?

The early bird gets the Burn….

I am not an early bird; my natural tendency this time of year is to listen to the birds through my open window more than greet them with a smile and my running shoes. However, in my 10 years’ worth of experience in the Health and Fitness field, my clients that get up with the sun have a higher rate of success towards their fitness goals. This does not mean that they present to me at their first session with a natural alarm clock in their head that will not allow them to sleep past 6am. Most have to learn to love the morning through the formation of consistent habits that lead the way to their end goals.

Here are just a few examples of reasons to sweat with the sunrise;

90% of consistent exercisers do it in the morning

 Morning workouts help you stick to it!! By getting your exercise in before the distractions of your day you are far less likely to “skip it” or get side tracked by other people and responsibilities.

Morning exercise cuts Cravings

In the course of a Brigham Young University study, 18 normal-weighted and 17 clinically obese women were followed for two full days. On the first day, they exercised for 45 minutes, walking briskly on a treadmill, and then looked at 240 photographs, 120 of which were food (the other 120 were a control: flowers). The researchers then tracked the women's food intake and activity level for the rest of the day. On the second day, one week later, the women were shown the images without the workout. Again their food and exercise choices were tracked. Researchers found that both the obese women and the women at a healthy weight had a lower brain response to the images of food and moved around more following the 45 minute morning workout.

Early exercise can jump start your brain

 Raising your heart rate earlier in the day gets the blood flowing to your brain, as well as you muscular system. This gives you more energy for problem solving, memory, and movement for the rest of the day.

So set that alarm clock 30 minutes earlier and catch that worm…

Early bird BURN (Equipment needed-Stopwatch)

Run/Walk 5 minutes

Body weight squats-25

Walking Lunges-30

Body weight squats-25

Run/Walk 10 minutes

Body weight squats-25

Walking Lunges-30

Body weight squats-25

Run/Walk 15 minutes

Body weight squats-25

Walking Lunges-30

Body weight squats-25

Run/Walk 10 minutes

Body weight squats-25

Walking Lunges-30

Body weight squats-25

Run/Walk 5 minutes

Body weight squats-25

Walking Lunges-30

Body weight squats-25

Make your day the best one yet! and don't forget about the "breaking out of the box" workouts HFA is offering every Monday night at 6:30pm. For more information email ghouston@mvhospital.net