Three tips to be a "morning workout" person

I am the POSTER CHILD for morning workouts! Here are three tips straight from psychology and habit research to get you out of bed and moving your body.

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I’ve been waking up 5-6 days a week at 6 AM to work out for the last 25 years. Twenty-five! Since I got out of rehab for the second time, and decided the healthy person with healthy habits I desperately wanted to be would go to the gym at 5 AM. Was I a morning person before this? Absolutely not. Had I ever gone to the gym before? Nope, not once. Did I turn this vision into a consistent habit that I’ve been able to effortlessly maintain for decades? I sure did.

I’ve had numerous DMs lately asking me for morning workout tips. One person wrote, “I used to be a morning workout person, but now I’m finding it hard to get up and get moving.” Another wrote, “I want to move my workouts to early morning, but it’s so hard to get out of bed.” Still another said, “I'm so impressed that you have the discipline to work out so early. I am lacking in motivation or discipline. Any advice?”

You don’t have to, but you might want to

Let me first say this: You don’t have to be a morning workout person. If you prefer to exercise mid-morning, at lunch, when the kids get out of school, or after work, that’s great! The best time to exercise is when you can fit it into your schedule and show up consistently. If you’ve never been a morning person, prefer to use your mornings for other things, or already have a hectic A.M. schedule, you don’t have to force it, okay?

Having said that, there are a few reasons why exercising in the morning can be a beneficial practice:

• You get it done before competing factors get in the way. It’s easy to skip a P.M. workout, because things always seem to come up. Prioritizing exercise as soon as you wake ensures you get it done.

• You start your day feeling proactive, not reactive. Waking up and purposefully choosing healthy movement (whether for 15 minutes or an hour) instead of getting sucked into email or work can boost your mental health and reduce stress.

• Morning workouts may help you sleep better. Cortisol (a “stress hormone”) peaks shortly after you wake and drops off in the evening to help you prepare for sleep. Early evening workouts, especially high-intensity workouts, may throw that cycle off.

So if you want to be a morning workout person, but haven’t found a way to make it a consistent practice, here are three tips from my own life (and science).

Tip 1: Never hit snooze

Never hitting snooze was my #1 rule when I started going to the gym, and it’s something I still swear by today. If you want to be a morning workout person, you need three things:

1. Go to bed early enough to get a decent night’s sleep

2. Set the alarm for the actual time you need to be awake

3. When your alarm goes off, get right out of bed

Why is this such a powerful strategy? Because snooze is your morning workout arch enemy. Picture this: You set the alarm for 6 AM, because you need to be up around 6 AM to fit your workout in. It goes off, but you hit snooze for 9 minutes. (It’s only 9 minutes, right?) It goes off again at 6:09, which is still not that late, so you hit snooze for another 9 minutes. It goes off at 6:18—and now you’re actually late. Basically 20 minutes late. You probably can’t even get out the door in time at this point, your brain says… so you might as well skip.

During those 18 minutes of snooze, you’re not even sleeping well. Sleep psychologists say that during snooze time, your brains can enter a new “light sleep” cycle. This fragmented sleep disrupts the natural sleep-wake cycle, leaving you feeling groggy and disoriented when your alarm goes off again. It’s also stressful! If these alarms are repeated, your body perceives it as a threat. The disruption triggers a 'fight or flight' response, elevating your blood pressure and heart rate.

Let’s recap: You trade your entire morning workout for 18 extra minutes of fitful, stressful sleep that leaves you feeling even groggier? That’s a crappy bargain, and you know it.

Solution: Never hit snooze. Never, not once, not ever. If you need to be up at 6:00, set the alarm for 6:00. If you can actually make it with enough time to spare if you wake at 6:09 AM, set the alarm for 6:09. Count backwards to the amount of sleep you need to feel at least pretty good, and set a strict bedtime for yourself. (Or as close as you can get if you have kids—but no Netflix or doom-scrolling past your bedtime, okay?)

Then, when the alarm goes off, turn it off and GET OUT OF BED. It doesn’t matter if you feel like a zombie. It doesn’t matter if your joints sound like Rice Krispies. It doesn’t matter if you stumble your way through the bathroom, getting dressed, and tying your shoes. You’re up! In time to work out! Keep doing that.

TL;DR: Never hit snooze. This becomes easier if you stick to this on weekends too (if you use an alarm on the weekends). If you need extra incentive, charge your phone across the room so you have to get up to turn it off. Sorry not sorry; remember YOU came to ME for help.

Tip 2: Take advantage of pre-commitment

Pre-commitment is a fancy way of saying, “Make it so easy, you can’t not do it.” (From a behavioral science perspective, it’s defined as “blocking out some of our future choices, in the knowledge that we will not have the willpower to resist them later.”)

I had no idea what pre-commitment was when I started working out in the morning, but I did know that if I had to fumble around in the dark at 5 AM looking for my workout clothes, my work clothes, and my lunch, I’d probably just go back to bed. So I began prepping for my morning workout the night before.

I’d lay out all of my gym clothes, right down to my underwear, socks, and shoes. I’d make sure my outfit matched, was clean, and included a sweatshirt if it was chilly out. Then, I’d prep my lunch for the office and pop it in the fridge so I could grab-and-go. I’d also prep my outfit for work, hanging it all (including bra and underwear) in a neat, ironed package, complete with shoes and belt. Finally, I’d pack my bag to shower and get ready at work, with shampoo, soap, hair products, and makeup.

Sound like a lot of work? It’s actually the same amount of work. You’d get dressed in exercise clothes anyway. You’d make lunch anyway. You’d shower anyway. You’d get your work clothes ready anyway. You’re just doing it ahead of time, in one well-organized swoop. (Also, this quickly became an easy routine. And if you don’t work outside of the home, you can skip the lunch and shower prep part!)

The benefit of pre-commitment is that when you wake up groggy and tired, you don’t have to think AT ALL. You stumble into your gym clothes, grab your lunch, grab your work bag and clothes, (maybe you’ve pre-programmed the coffee pot too!) and you’re out the door in fifteen minutes. Before you can justify skipping “just this once” because you don’t have a lunch packed. Before you can say, “I can’t find my sneakers.” Before your brain can even think of an excuse to just not.

TL;DR: Plan your entire morning out the night before. Try to think of everything! Make a list, if it helps. Batch-prep your lunches or work clothes on Sunday to make your work days easier. Think of it as a gift to Morning You.

Tip 3: Make the goal tiny

This tip is from Dr. B.J. Fogg’s book Tiny Habits, which came out 20 years after I adopted this strategy for myself. Knowing the gym felt daunting and hard, knowing I wasn’t a morning person, I basically tricked myself into going each day.

I told myself, “Melissa, all you have to do is wake up and put your gym clothes on. All of them, right down to your sneakers and ponytail. If you don’t want to go to the gym after that, you don’t have to. You can’t go back to bed because you’re already dressed (duh), but you can do something else if you really want to.”

I held myself to that promise, I really did. The thing is, by the time I woke up, brushed my teeth, put my hair in a ponytail, and put on my gym clothes, I felt pretty dumb just standing around in sneakers and leggings. It was 5:15 AM, for goodness sake. There was nothing else to do. Plus I was already mostly there! I was dressed, all my stuff was packed and ready… I might as well go to the gym, right?

This trick didn’t fail me once. Five mornings a week, I’d wake at 5 AM, put on my gym clothes, and feel too silly to do anything but go to the gym. After about a month, I no longer needed the trick. I was waking easily. I had my evening and morning routines down pat. I had made friends at the gym; other women who also went at the same time. I had officially become a morning workout person.

TL;DR: Make your goal so tiny, you have to win. Maybe it’s putting on your gym clothes. Maybe it’s “exercise for three minutes.” Maybe it’s “all you have to do is walk to the end of the block.” Whatever it is, make it so tiny, it’s easy to be consistent. Allow your momentum to carry you into doing more, if that feels good.

Disclosures

In 2020, when I started this practice, I didn’t have a kid, and I worked a 9-5 job. I also had a flexible work schedule where I could start anytime between 7 AM and 9 AM, which allowed me to spend as much time at the gym as I wanted, or arrive a little late if my morning routine hit a snag.

You may not have this level of freedom, access to a close-by gym, or the budget for a membership. Set your morning workout goals accordingly. You don’t need to work out for an hour. Can you do 45 minutes, half an hour, 20 minutes?

You don’t need to go to a fancy gym. Can you dedicate a room, part of a room, or a garage to your workouts? Can you make do with whatever equipment you have, and add to it gradually? Can you follow YouTube videos or a free workout app?

You don’t need any equipment at all! Can you use a towel as a yoga mat? Can you walk, run, or ruck? Can you repurpose household stuff (like a backpack with books, or stairs or a bench as a “box”)?

If the goal is to become a morning workout person, it matters far less what you do, and more that you wake up and do something consistently. If you already exercise, carve out as much time as you can and set the necessary boundaries to shift your workout to the morning. If you haven’t worked out in a while, just do something, but do it consistently for at least a month. Groove the habit, and the rest will come, I promise.

There are so many other tips that could be helpful here: not checking your phone in the morning before your workout; making a playlist you look forward to listening to; buying cute leggings or new sneakers for motivation; using a calendar to check off the mornings you stuck to your commitment; getting a morning workout buddy for accountability—the list goes on!

If you are a morning workout person, what is your best tip? If you want to become a morning workout person, share your commitment in comments! My morning routine has been such a grounding, calming force in my life. I know it can do the same for you—and I know you can get there.

XO, MU