Girlwithnoname – Fitness at Home

Happy Monday, gang!!

Another exciting week ahead.

Woot. Um… Whew…

Ugh… I wish I felt that way today… but I’m a bit dragged out….

Good lord, I had to get up early this morning… I have a client I usually speak to every Monday morning but today she had some scheduling difficulties so unless I got up earlier we weren’t going to be able to connect.

So, faithfully I set my alarm to make sure I could be there for her.

And, of course it went off right in the middle of a fantastic dream adventure.

Rats.

Let me remind you just in case you may have forgotten this tiny detail about me:

I am NOT a morning person.

Blech.

Sunrises, who needs them?

I’ll take a beautiful Sunset instead, please!!

Anyway, so when it came time for my own workout, I found myself kinda dragging. And it got me to thinking even more about energy since my “What Energizes You?” post.

What time of the day do you work out, anyway?

I usually hit it about an hour after I wake up and I don’t wake up early, like a lot of you do. That just happens to be when my energy level is jumping like a Mexican bean, so I can usually get a pretty energetic session in (except for today, which was a minor struggle… sigh…).

However, I get that scheduling can be a bit of a problem in today’s world (hell, I fell victim to it myself this morning right?), but if you aren’t working out when your personal energy is jumpin’ then you may not be getting the maximum benefit from your training session.

I know a lot of people who go to the gym first thing in the morning (like bright and early before the sun rises).

However, these people aren’t morning people and they’re literally dragging their butts into the gym because they feel like they just want to get it over with, off their mind and get on with their day.

But their energy is low because they’d rather be in bed (like me).

These same people feel a surge of energy at the end of their workday but since their workout is already done, don’t bother to take advantage of this surge.

I’ve trained people for whom the complete opposite is true.

They have barrels of energy first thing in the morning but feel that the time they have to spare only exists at the end of the workday, at their lunch hour or later in the evening.

I’ve also come to realize that many people feel a huge drain of energy once the sun goes down so trying to work out in the evening in the dark (even in a lit room) can be very exhausting.

If they’d only worked out when their personal energy level was high, upon waking, they might have found out that they can pour a lot more into their efforts and get a much better workout as a result.

I even have one friend that prefers to do her training session at MIDNIGHT.

Sure, she sleeps til 10am, but her best energy just isn’t there until much later in the evening.

So she works out right before bed.

**Be careful with this tactic though, because many people find that a really late workout ramps them up too much to get to sleep afterward.

Like I mentioned, I’m not a morning person, but I also find that a workout before the workday starts gets me a good hard energetic training session and also gets me ramped up for a great workday with my brain firing on all cylinders.

So, I sleep a little later, workout mid-morning, and my workday is officially from about 1pm until about 9 or 10pm.

Sure, I’ve got the luxury of being able to schedule my workday around when my personal energy levels are optimized.

And, I realize not everyone is able to do that.

Some people hold jobs that expect them to be there from 9am until 5pm (or whatever shift work might be dictated).

To those people I can only suggest to keep an eye on when your personal energy levels are at their highest, and then adjust your personal schedules around your workday so that you can get your time at the gym in when you can optimize for the most energetic workout possible.

For instance if you’re a morning person who’s been working out at the end of your workday, get up earlier, hit the gym and get it going on.

If you’re an evening person who’s been dragging your butt into the gym first thing in the morning, sleep later, go to work and hit the gym afterwards or later in the evening.

It’s ok if you stay up a little later, because now you’re sleeping later. Right?