8 ms·
I've been waking up at 5am for the past 5 months so I can head to the gym (my first telecom meeting starts at 7am). Because no one is ever going to bother me be
by emiranda 8y ago
I've been waking up at 5am for the past 5 months so I can head to the gym (my first telecom meeting starts at 7am). Because no one is ever going to bother me between 5am and 7am, I've been able to consistently got to the gym at least 3x per week (trying to bump it up to 5x per week for the new year).
I started doing this because it was very difficult for me to consistently go to the gym after work. Things come up, I get tired, friends want to hang out, sometimes I just want to relax after work. But getting up and getting my workout done in the morning has many benefits: Being physical in the morning gives me an energy boost and is a great wake up call, I get my workout out of the way and I don't have to think about it the rest of the day, the gym in generally empty compared to the afternoon, helps me control my sleep cadence, and I feel great knowing that I already accomplished something significant so early in the morning (My whole workout usually spans between 1.5 and 2 hours, I do a lot of stretching and like to take my time). I also try my best not to use my phone aside from music and my workout/fitness apps.
Since I've had such great results from this, I'm thinking of trying to switch it up by working on my side project in the morning and attempting to do the gym in the evening.
- jimmaswell 8y agoI'm really glad my workplace has a gym in it. I use it during lunch hour daily and it works out great.
- irrational 8y agoSame here. Being able to go for a swim, lift weights, using the climbing wall, etc. when stuck on a problem is great.
- chris11 8y agoI once worked at a place across the street from the gym they gave us memberships to. I did the same thing, and worked out at lunch. It was great.
- gadders 8y agoAgreed. One thing I do is book a recurring meeting for myself in Outlook to book out the time. It doesn't completely guarantee people will book a meeting during my gym time but it definitely minimises it.
- fuddle 8y agoPretty cool, what time do you go to sleep at?
- dbingham 8y agoI could never do this. Because even with really good sleep hygene and good early bedtime habits, the earliest I ever wake up is 6:30 am. And those are rare days. More often bedtime will slip to 10 pm or later and I will awake naturally between 8:30 am and 9:30 am. I'm just not a morning person, no matter what I do. And I'm a 9 hour+ sleeper, so I need those sleep hours.
- purplethinking 8y ago> And I'm a 9 hour+ sleeper, so I need those sleep hours. Most people need at least 8-8.5 hours (as in 99.999%). He does too, just doesn't realize it.
- utexaspunk 8y ago>He does too, just doesn't realize it He didn't say what time he went to bed or how many hours of sleep he got
- Balgair 8y agoWe can estimate. Assume that the OP needs 8 hours, like most of us do. That means a 9pm bedtime for adequate sleep. The OP mentions that the first call is at 7am. Assuming a 40 hour workweek, with an hour for lunch, that's a 4pm clock-out. This gives OP 5 hours in the evening/afternoon and 2 hours in the morning before work, and an hour for lunch, for a total of 8 hours 'off'. This is a very do-able schedule for morning people. Mixing kiddos into this is not too bad when they are young, but as they turn into teenagers, this is likely to shift towards later hours as the teenagers shift too. Personally, my natural times are a 8am wake-up and an 11pm bedtime. I need the extra hour and I'm a night-owl. Couple that with a mandatory 8am stand-up and 6pm 'clock-out' time for my job's work schedule. It's ... less than fun in Corporate America.
- FPGAhacker 8y agoI do ok with 7. I’d sleep longer but my back starts to hurt if I’m in bed too long. I get up at 5am to avoid traffic.
- gentran 8y agoI've barely adjusted waking up at 6 daily, and consistently going to sleep around the same time has been near impossible for one reason or another. What is your secret
- kraig 8y agoWhat reasons? It takes some discipline but I get to bed by 10pm pretty regularly because I wake up at 6am and at the gym daily at 7:20. If I am not asleep by 10:30pm my morning suffers, so I make sure I stop myself to get the sleep I need. In general that means starting to wind down after 9pm (usually 9:30) and then doing some light reading.
- damontal 8y agoWhenever I wake up at 5 am and work out I wind up hitting a brick wall at about 10 am and have to take much more caffeine than usual to keep going.
- LawnboyMax 8y agoI heard this "energy boost" point many times and never understood it. I tried waking up at 5 AM for a morning workout for a year (with proper 8-9 hour sleep at night) and I would always feel tired for the remainder of the day, especially for a few hours right after the workout. Maybe this depends on the type of a workout. I was doing mostly powerlifting with heavyish postworkout meals. I am now working out a few hours before my bedtime and it is perfect. I get tired and physically can't stay up late after an evening workout; it really helps with keeping my schedule stable (i.e. not staying up late in front of a screen).
- pragmatic 8y agoSame. My wife does it so she talked me into it when I switched jobs and had to start work at 8 am. I was miserable. I finally decided just to do the gym on my lunch when possible. Much better.
- therealchiko 8y agoExactly the same thing I realized. Working out in the morning actually drained me of energy for the day and made me super sleepy instead. Running though, has the different effect and made me feel a whole lot more fresher and ready to tackle the day. So i guess it depends with each person what activity you do in the morning to get your body ready.
- MRD85 8y agoI'm a very busy person when uni semester is live. I work 45 hours per week, I have my kids about 65% of the hours that I'm not at work and it leaves me about 20 hours per week to maintain my house, do jobs and complete what is meant to be 30 hours of prescribed university work. My secret is going to sleep at 8pm and waking up at 4am to get uni work done. I'm refreshed and I tend to be far more productive than if I do work at night.
- madiathomas 8y agoThis is the technique I used and the reasoning was the same. I can safely switch off my phone and leave it at home in the morning and focus on working out because no-one is going to call me at 5am. Also, no-one is going to arrange a meeting with me at that time of the day. After having some success in the gym using this technique, I decided to try it for my studies. I enrolled for a 3-year IT qualification and managed to finish it in record time while working a full-time job and running a profitable side project. I was doing 5 modules every semester. Every weekday when I wake up, first thing I did, was taking a shower and study for an hour, then go to work. I was studying just one module per day. This year, I am planning to study further using same technique. I always recommend this technique for people who think they don't have time to do X. The best time to do X is always first thing in the morning when there are no distractions.
- sAbakumoff 8y agowhat kind of gym opens 5am.
- mprev 8y agoMany are open 24 hours or provide self-entry outside core hours.
- z3t4 8y agoWhen bumping training from 3 to 5 days/week, a common mistake is to increase total load to 5/3=170%. The trick is to lower the load on each day to 60-70% and advance from there.