You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? Mine were to get back on my 5 am workout schedule after I finished physical therapy so that I could focus on teaching and personal training sessions in the evening. How quickly things change. The plan was to start last week and I managed to get up and exercise one day. One measly day! And to think I used to be up at 5am every day when I lived in Memphis. I would like to blame the weather/snow/never-ending winter but I’m not going to lie. That really has little to do with it. It’s not like I’m going outside to run or that the weather impacts my ability to exercise indoors at all. Nope. It’s just sheer laziness on my part. I mean who wants to get out of a warm, comfortable bed at the crack of dawn just to sweat? Oh, that’s right. I WANT to do that but that doesn’t mean I WILL do that.
So all of this led me to coming up with ways of motivating
myself to get out of bed in the mornings and thereby motivating YOU to get out
of bed in the morning and workout! I
know, I know. You would rather workout
at night and there’s no possible way you could get up any earlier than you do. Believe me, I feel the same way. I’m so not a morning person. If I hadn’t been able to make the transition
myself a few years ago, I wouldn’t believe me either.
However! I will tell
you that when I do manage to get up out of bed that early in the morning and
get my workout out of the way, it really makes for a more stress-free day. I’ve got those endorphins flowing. I have more energy. I can make plans at night and not stress out
about fitting in a workout. I mean there
really isn’t any downside to working out in the morning. Well, okay so maybe I go to bed a little
earlier now. But by maybe 30-45 minutes
earlier. I mean is there anything that
you or I absolutely have to do during that 30-45 minutes late at night that
can’t wait until the next day? I’m
guessing there probably isn’t.
In the name of science (or perhaps this blog), I am going to
commit to testing a few motivational tactics and report back my findings. Then it’s your turn. Try a few and see how they work, keeping in
mind, of course, not every tactic will work for you. That’s why we experiment. I will admit to this not being a truly
scientific experiment with controls groups, etc. I don’t have patience for all that. It’s just a try and see type experiment. Here are the motivational tactics I am
trying:
·
Sleep in
my workout clothes – I have read/heard from numerous sources that this is a
great way to motivate yourself when the alarm goes off. You don’t have to worry about getting up and
changing clothes. You just roll out of bed
and go down the hall/down the stairs/to the gym. (I will post pictures of this and so should you!)
·
Set my
alarm clock on the other side of the room – I know folks that do this every
day anyway because they have such a difficult time getting out of bed at their
normal time. I’m not one of those people
so I am guessing it will have the desired effect.
·
Set up my
workout equipment/cd player/yoga mat the night before – this may sound
weird but it’s one less step I have to worry about in the morning. I’m not 100% confident in this option but I
am going to try it.
·
Change my
wake up tone on my alarm - I use my phone as my alarm so I have plenty of
options here. I think if I pick an
upbeat song (may try Pharrell’s song “Happy”), I will spring out of bed ready to
go. Okay, maybe not spring out of bed
but you get the picture.
·
Post my
plans on social media – I’m already doing that with posting here but I will
also post on Facebook and Twitter. If
you follow me on one of those platforms, feel free to challenge me the next day
and ask if I got up. It holds my feet to
the proverbial fire.
·
Schedule
the time – I schedule (and you probably schedule) everything else in my
life, why wouldn’t I schedule my workouts?
I can even set the reminder to go off at a certain time so that will
wake me up as well.
·
Make a
date – This one might be more difficult for me as I don’t really know anyone
else that gets up early to workout. If
you do, though, I highly encourage this option.
That was one of the reasons I was able to get up at 5am in Memphis. I had a running partner 3 days a week and a
personal trainer the other 2. So I was
always accountable to someone. Worked
like a charm!
·
Reward
myself – Okay this one is my favorite right now. I mean I don’t generally need a reason to
reward myself but this seems like a legitimate reason. This will be the coup de grace if I successfully
complete all 7 of the aforementioned tactics.
It’s a win/win really!
There you have it: my motivational tactics for waking up and
working out for the next 7 work days. I
throw “work days” in there because I already know I won’t be getting up at 5am
on a Saturday or Sunday. But I will get
workouts in as soon as I wake up! That’s
my other plan.
Check back to see how I’m doing. I will post daily updates if I can. Otherwise I will post a summary of my
experiment. If you want to play along
with me, I will be testing them in the order written.
BE BOLD! BE YOU!
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