Exercising in the Morning is Good for You
Morning exercise is considered by many as an impossible mission, for mornings can be a slow and methodical preparation process. But for some morning exercise is bliss as the advantages of it are felt throughout the day, so getting a good morning exercise is worth the “hassle” if one may call it that, thanks to all it’s health benefits.
So is exercising in the morning good for you? Yes, it is. Morning exercise has a positive effect on people’s habits, calorie burn, energy, food cravings, sleep patterns, sickness and better daily performance.
Morning exercise does require you to wake up earlier then you would usually, but as mentioned above will worth the extra mile as benefits greatly in its positivity on your body.
Morning exercise is great for a Healthy and balanced Routine
Setting an alarm clock can be a grueling task for many of us, especially getting used to a new cycle or even a slightly different one. Haven’t we all experienced the hardship of the first week at work, or returning from a long vacation?
Changing our routine can be hard but not impossible especially when it involves upgrading our wellbeing and general mood.
The following research shows that making a new habit into a well-established routine takes 66 days. Once these have passed your new habit is branded into your routine and cease from being a challenge.
Imagine the first few days after changing your routine will most likely feel like you were run down by truck but after this rough start, you will be cruising through it like a boss driving the same truck.
This is how morning exercise will feel at first, but once you get used to it, it will get much easier.
After the first couple of months, morning exercise will be part of your daily routine, which will be much more organized now that you got used to it. It will improve your whole day function and your healthier night sleep.
Better Calorie Burn during the day
Every exercise is known for its long term calorie burn hours beyond the session itself. After it has finished. This is called by many “the afterburn effect” where our body is burning calories while trying to balance itself and getting back to resting levels.
This research showed that working out in the mornings burns even more calories throughout the day. As exercising before breakfast makes the afterburn effect even longer.
As for many people weight loss is a very positive outcome for their exercise efforts and a longer afterburn effect is bliss. Meaning, taking the morning exercise routine can benefit their fitness and their weight loss aspirations.
Eat less food
In this study, we can learn that morning exercise reduces our brain reactions to food, meaning a smaller reaction during lunchtime equals smaller portions of food that gets consumed.
We all know the expression – “we eat with our eyes first”. Just think of all the times you were sitting for lunch and your mind just “told” you to order all the menu(or at least half of it) but after a few bites, you realized you weren’t that hungry.
In multiple cases, our brain tricks us to think that we must have it all whereas in reality we really don’t. In these cases, we encounter a situation when one’s not that hungry but behaves as famished and cleans the whole plate, as huge as it may be, from content. An unnecessary act and that is where morning exercise enters to play an important role.
Morning exercise keeps our brain relaxed when it comes to food quantity consumption. This way you will consume the essential calories and nutrients needed for healthy and monitored growth, and not beyond what is biologically needed or as often mentioned as emotional eating or eating for the sake of eating.
Higher levels of Energy during the day
Well, it may sound strange that our energy levels rise up after a workout but the matter of fact is that, it’s true, and with such a remarkable mechanism of the human body, it is very much advisable to put that to use.
Once our body encounters exercise it must rise up and face the challenge of supplying the required energy. With that, a whole bodily cycle starts all the way to the very fundamental part that creates a basic physical movement and muscle contraction- a.k.a partially the cell mitochondria.
The mitochondria is the part inside each and every one of our cells in charge of energy production. When our body starts to use energy these parts understand more energy is required and start to produce more energy.
As this process happens on a regular basis, at times more energy than what’s needed is actually produced and resulted in higher levels of energy in the body for a couple of hours post exercising. This will result in better vitality levels throughout your day and happens by morning exercise.
Better sleep patterns
Another research comparing sleep patterns between exercising at different times during the day. The research has found that those who workout early and especially in the mornings possess a much healthier sleeping pattern.
Sleep is where you get your strength, your body healing, and regeneration process that will serve you throughout the following day.
If you have ever suffered from sleeping disorder (temporarily or long term) you know how bad it can get. From low energy and vitality during the day to high levels of stress hormones which inevitably lead to health issues increase in a vicious cycle. Not fun and not recommended.
The benefits of early morning exercise is a deeper sleep with more healthy cycles. This leaves the body in a relaxed situation for longer that enables faster more efficient recovery of muscles and other tissues.
On top of all, there is research held these days(still in process) that determines that early morning exercise stimulates the secretion of THE royal sleep hormone called “melatonin”.
Workout early as you can for a better sleep then.
Healthier body – keeping blood pressure in check
Achieving a better state of health by keeping blood pressure low.
As you might know, high blood pressure is an increasing health problem in the modern world and some would claim as a modern world disease. Many suffer from it and most likely unattended will lead to premature deaths among human society.
One thing that improves our blood pressure and sustainability is exercise, and in particular morning exercise.
This study shows the connection between morning exercise and healthier blood pressure levels.
It proves that a 10% decrease can happen to those who train early during the day. As a result, they are less prone to getting a heart attack.
Healthier sugar balance
After many years of endless debate regarding food consumption before or after training, this study shows for the first time that fasted exercise is more beneficial to our health than fed exercising.
This study checked the correlation between the timing of meals and exercise to health outcomes. It showed that while training in a fasted state more muscle adaptations happen and improved whole-body glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in shown.
What does this all mean?
Morning training will usually mean that you will eat only after training, so effectively you will be training on the fasted stage and will earn all the benefits.
The bottom line is that training during the morning and eating afterward will improve health and make the body gain more muscles.
I do however feel it is important to mention that this is one research among many and as such needs to be taken under consideration with extra caution.
Moreover, I would recommend advising naturopath or physician before deciding to train food-free as this program may be ideal for one where less ideal for another, let alone people with health issues.
Nonetheless and above mentioned below, exercise is good for lowering blood sugar levels and that is an undisputed fact.
If one can’t or doesn’t want to train on an empty stomach it is super fine and perhaps should consider eating something light at least 1.5 hours prior to the train and only after having a proper breakfast. This can work as well.
It is worth mentioning that the study above also showed that not training at all will be more harmful than afternoon or evening training sessions, the important thing is to train. Morning will possibly benefit you more.
Wake up like a tiger without coffee
For many of us fighting tiredness is usually associated with coffee or a soda drink. However, there are many researchers who proved that even a small amount of exercise could have a better awakening impact than coffee or any sugary beverage.
For that matter, morning exercise can supply your brain all it needs for you to be sharper for the rest of the day.
One benefit that training has over massive coffee consumption or sugary beverages is that it has zero negative influence but only positive to it.
It is true that coffee has its benefits, but, still, some influences of coffee are harming the human body and as such it is less beneficial than training, especially when it involves high consumption.
It has shown that no matter what fitness intensity you perform, it will wake you up and keep your brain sharp for the rest of the day. With that said higher awareness levels will occur, the achievement will improve and good health and wellbeing will be achieved and that my friends is the jackpot.
In conclusion, morning training is great for those that wish on improving their lives with simple yet meaningful steps. It comes to show that small changes in lifestyle can have a tremendous impact on daily life and great health improvement at once.
Just make sure to enjoy the process, as most of the time is spent making our way through life to achieve our final goal of a better, healthy and happy life. And smile-that always helps…
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