Morning Training?

[natenator]

Who here trains in the morning?

How long did it take you to adapt to morning training and how early do you train?

I'm considering adjusting my training schedule to 5:30am sessions.

[Aaron_37]

Took me a single day to adjust to heavy SL/SS training at 7:30/8AM fasted... can't speak for really early though... I'm a university student who needs late nights to cram and procrastinate haha.

[MMASTAR]

I lift at 6 every morning, i am up at 430 to eat, then off to the gym for 6. Takes about a week to adapt and your fine, just adjust what time you go to sleep accordingly. Make sure you have some quick carbs to get you going and some slow ones to make you last, i like bananas and oatmeal.

[faller]

I'm a morning person and i have a lot more energy in the morning, plus my job is a bit physical so i tended to be a bit tired at the end of the day. Main reason for early morning training for me was the crouds in the later part of the day drove me nuts. In the morning there tends to be more serious trainers and pretty much always the same people.

[natenator]

I lift at 6 every morning, i am up at 430 to eat, then off to the gym for 6. Takes about a week to adapt and your fine, just adjust what time you go to sleep accordingly. Make sure you have some quick carbs to get you going and some slow ones to make you last, i like bananas and oatmeal.
running keto right now so carbs are a def nono :)

I think I;ll give it a shot tomorrow with a leg workout

[ubcpower]

hey nate, ive been training between 6am-9am for the last 5 years, used to be a pm trainer before that in high school. some things that i found helped,
1. wake up atleast 1.5 hrs before you hit the gym
2. get in atleast 1.5 litres (not including your shake)
3. No heavy sauces(ketchup, bbq) or oils (fish, olive, flax)

Yes youre strength may go downa bit, but its all relative because you wont know what your pm strength is after a year of training a.m.
Also the metabolic effects are awesome for the rest of the day

[gingerbreadman]

I've always trained mornings between 5 & 7AM. Training after work too tired then wired & can't sleep

Used to rely heavily on ECA though

[natenator]

hey nate, ive been training between 6am-9am for the last 5 years, used to be a pm trainer before that in high school. some things that i found helped,
1. wake up atleast 1.5 hrs before you hit the gym
2. get in atleast 1.5 litres (not including your shake)
3. No heavy sauces(ketchup, bbq) or oils (fish, olive, flax)

Yes youre strength may go downa bit, but its all relative because you wont know what your pm strength is after a year of training a.m.
Also the metabolic effects are awesome for the rest of the day
thanks bud!

I'll keep those things in mind :)

My only concern is if I can get my body to loosen up enough before I hit the gym. I'm pretty achy in the morning lol

[faller]

I'd spend about 10/15 min. on the elyptical, i'd get a nice sweat going and loosened right up. I'm a little achy first thing as well.

[ubcpower]

yeah get your heart rate up and a light sweat before you get in to the weights.
along with my 4 points i forgot to add in, be prepared for a huge energy fatigue crash at about 230-430pm....you feel like its 9pm at night and you could fall asleep for the rest of theday.....this will be compounded if you take stims for your training session too. just fyi

[noneck73]

430 to 615 here. Just getting theres half the battle. Once yer there its quite easy to get at it!

[natenator]

yeah get your heart rate up and a light sweat before you get in to the weights.
along with my 4 points i forgot to add in, be prepared for a huge energy fatigue crash at about 230-430pm....you feel like its 9pm at night and you could fall asleep for the rest of theday.....this will be compounded if you take stims for your training session too. just fyi
only stims I use are coffee

[natenator]

430 to 615 here. Just getting theres half the battle. Once yer there its quite easy to get at it!
I fear this will be my problem.

Good thing I have my alarm clock (other than my BB alarm) in my living room so I actually have to drag out of bed to turn it off. Think I;ll start setting the timer on my coffee maker too lol

[Talo]

Being on shift work I would train at 4:30 some days . I never did get use to it because I wasn't doing it consistanly enough. I did find that I woke up about 45-30 mins before hand AND get atleast 9 hours of sleep my strength did not suffer.

I'm weaker at night , after working a 12 hour shift. So I think if your going to adapt to mornings than go to bed earlier.

[rated_rko]

it takes about 3 work outs to get use to....when i get in a groove...ie. winter time....im up at 5am ...eat and hit the gym by 6:15am....i like it and plus i get to eat and space out my meals a lot better this way of thinking...

[steve_d]

I'm usually up by 6 and at the gym by 8. Wife is up by 5 and gym by about 5:45. I think her workouts aren't suffering at all since her lifts are still going up. On the rare occasion I go in late afternoon, and don't notice any difference at all in terms of energy or strength. I think as long as you're not one of those awful morning people (like I used to be) and you feel "awake" and warmed up (10-15 on the cardio) then I think morning is as good a time as any for your workouts.

[Forever]

A couple years ago for about 2 months I was getting up at 5:30, work at 6 (small contract cleaning a bank, only took about a half hour), gym by 7 and in school for 8:30. Maybe not all that early, but I'm not a morning person so it felt really early!

It was ok but I felt like I had problems putting in 110% that early. I never really seemed to get used to it so I stopped, but if I had a schedule that made it ideal I would try again.

Weirdest part was when I went to an for 8:30 class. I had been awake for 3 hours,I had been to work, I had been to the gym, I was as wide awake as I could possibly be and working on my second breakfast, take a look around and most people are still half asleep drooling on their desks lol. Felt like I was from another planet or something.

[ubcpower]

A couple years ago for about 2 months I was getting up at 5:30, work at 6 (small contract cleaning a bank, only took about a half hour), gym by 7 and in school for 8:30. Maybe not all that early, but I'm not a morning person so it felt really early!

It was ok but I felt like I had problems putting in 110% that early. I never really seemed to get used to it so I stopped, but if I had a schedule that made it ideal I would try again.

Weirdest part was when I went to an for 8:30 class. I had been awake for 3 hours,I had been to work, I had been to the gym, I was as wide awake as I could possibly be and working on my second breakfast, take a look around and most people are still half asleep drooling on their desks lol. Felt like I was from another planet or something.

LOL, i can relate. I used to wake up at 445am. Prep my meals, head to the gym for a 6-7am workout. Shower there and drive 45 mins to the school where I taught. Prepare lessons for 45mins, school bell rings at 9am (im eating second meal), the kids and teachers straggle in to the school so exhausted having woken up like 20 mins before the bell.

[vakker]

I tried doing this last summer but found that one of two things happened. A, I really felt weak and just hated being at the gym or B. the workout was fine but the 3-4pm crash just ruined the rest of my day.

I gave up on it, the earliest I will workout is 10-11am and thats only because parking at the gym on weekends can be tough.

[Durk]

not for me. I am 5-10 pounds weaker in the morning and I am a compulsive snooze button hitter. I will crawl to the other side of my room and hit the snooze buton for 2 hours straight.

[#8]

^^ LMAO

I couldnt have said it better myself. I will never be able to train weights in the morning ever. I just cant do it.

[Papa Het]

Interesting thread. I fall in and out of love with early AM training. I have been considering going back to do it again for awhile, as I am currently training during my lunch break at work and feel rushed recently, due to time constraints.

How did it go, Nate?

[natenator]

So yesterday doesn't really count since the gym didn't open til 7am but I was there for it. Workout went well. Cardio was good. Energy suffered a bit during the day but all in all strength was fairly decent.

Today was the real day. 5:30am workout. Was up at 4:30 to eat, grab my shit and bolt to the gym. Body did NOT want to wake up but I got my ass up regardless. Strength and endurance was pretty good once again. Didn't want to overdo it but managed 295 incline press for 2 sets of 8 before dropping down to 225 for 12. Other exercises went good as well. Cardio decent.

So far I am finding the soreness/achy that I generally have not too bad. I find having a quick hot shower helps before heading out the door.

Legs tomorrow so we'll see how that goes as it's my worst bodypart to need a lot of warming up to the point where I'd started doing extensions first and leg presses second before moving onto squats.

Feeling a bit tired right now tho.

[natenator]

I tried doing this last summer but found that one of two things happened. A, I really felt weak and just hated being at the gym or B. the workout was fine but the 3-4pm crash just ruined the rest of my day.

I gave up on it, the earliest I will workout is 10-11am and thats only because parking at the gym on weekends can be tough.
the 3-4pm crash I don't think will be *that* bad for me once I get into the groove. Plus I generally take off from work around 4 anyway as I usually do some work from home later in the evening so once I get home I *can* take a good 30-45 min nap if I am feeling tired.

I just like the fact this frees up some of my evenings to actually do something instead of being a slave to the gym. Don't get me wrong I love my training and the gym but there are some other things I want to try and persue right now so I want/need my evenings free if I am going to get to them.

[natenator]

not for me. I am 5-10 pounds weaker in the morning and I am a compulsive snooze button hitter. I will crawl to the other side of my room and hit the snooze buton for 2 hours straight.
I do the snooze thing too lol and came close to doing it today. Once I'm up, I'm good but getting up take a bit of effort initally

[z83]

First meal 4:30 am...last meal at 7-7:30 pm ? Going to bed early ? I'd be hungry as fk until bed at 10-11:30 pm. You're having 6-7 meals ?

[natenator]

First meal 4:30 am...last meal at 7-7:30 pm ? Going to bed early ? I'd be hungry as fk until bed at 10-11:30 pm. You're having 6-7 meals ?
I'll stretch the meals a bit during the day to try and end my meals around 9pm and hope to be in bed around 9:30-10.

6 meals.

I expect to be a bit hungrier given training in the morning should jump start metabolism a bit. Hopefully not too brutally hungry :(

[natenator]

One drawback thus far: I'm farking starving!!!

Large diet coke time lol

[Big D]

One drawback thus far: I'm farking starving!!!

Large diet coke time lol

and 2 big macs ?

[natenator]

and 2 big macs ?
dude I wish. You have no idea!

3 actually hah

[z83]

it's when i'm starving that i'm planning saturday night refeed/cheat :p

[Big D]

it's when i'm starving that i'm planning saturday night refeed/cheat :p

so whats it gonna be this Saturday ?

[natenator]

it's when i'm starving that i'm planning saturday night refeed/cheat :p
I couldn't do that. I'd drive myself nuts thinking about it that my hunger would be worse. It's be a paranoid hunger where I'm looking around at food like a drooling crack addict. So basically, looking like most of the women Durk has banged :D

[L3]

eww am workouts

[natenator]

eww am workouts
??

[Flexxx]

I used to train at night, but hated the night crowd at the gym working on their biceps and chest, plus I am not social at the gym so hated people trying to talk to me.

Been going at 6am for a couple years and now I am up at 5am every morning without an alarm. Unfortunately I am usually falling asleep by 9pm.

I have noticed no difference in strength training AM or PM, but I did notice if I got it over with first thing in the morning then there was no excuse to pass it up later on in the day.

Has taken me awhile to get used to the schedule, but now sleeping until 7am feels like I am wasting the day.