When it comes to physical health people want to know the best, fastest, and easiest ways to improve their health. Fad diets and new workout plans are constantly trending as more individuals become health conscious. Most people are aware that exercise is one of the most effective ways to stay healthy.
We browse lifestyle blogs to find celebrity diet and workout regimens in hopes of weight loss and toning our bodies, but there is no real need for such a demanding routine. Starting your day with a simple, easy to maintain, and non-demanding morning workout comes with a plethora of long-lasting health benefits.
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The Morning Workout
This does not have to be a complicated task you need a gym for. You could go for a 20 minute jog, accelerating your heart rate, releasing endorphins, boosting energy, and melting fat. Yoga is a highly recommended morning workout, as it is low-intensity and involves meditation which has been known to help with mental health.
Engaging in a few reps of basic exercises such as pushups, squats, and sit-ups burns fat, helps strengthen your muscles, and tones your body nicely and evenly. If these previous activities feel a bit demanding, especially if you are a beginner, simply going for a morning walk, or just stretching once you get out of bed proves to be incredibly beneficial for our everyday health.
Moving your muscles still stiff from sleep gets your heart rate going and blood flowing. You will find that doing something simple every morning will get you ready for the day and improve your overall physical and mental health.
Energy
When we wake up in the morning, a lot of us feel drowsy and tired and all we want to do is go back to sleep. Most of us feel like we can’t even leave our house unless we have a nice dose of caffeine. By implementing a simple workout into your morning routine, not only will you feel more awake and have more energy, but your mind will be alert and ready to take on whatever tasks you have lined up the day.
Movement can be a tremendous source of energy, which we could all use to tackle our busy days. There have been several studies that showed that a casual, low-intensity morning workout can boost energy levels by 20 percent and decrease fatigue by 65 percent. Furthermore, a morning exercise regimen has been shown to significantly improve focus and mental abilities for the duration of the day.
Discipline
This one is quite obvious. Waking up a bit earlier to exercise takes incredible willpower and sticking to it on a daily basis takes discipline. If you start your day with a task that takes a lot of discipline, it will pay forward and spill over into all areas of your life. Discipline is one of the most lucrative skills you can possess.
With a consistent morning exercise routine, you might find that you will be more productive in your day because you begin working harder, reducing bad habits such as procrastination, which is one of the key things employers look for, hardworking individuals who get the job done. You will notice that you also have a boost of energy and focus you did not have before you started working out in the morning.
It is also quite common that people who work out in the morning tend to pay more attention to their overall health. You might find yourself being more conscious of the food you eat, sticking to a healthier diet. In addition, you might see an improvement not only in your physical health but your mental health as well. A simple morning workout can therefore be tremendously beneficial to your mind, body, and soul.
Sleep and Physical Health
Many adults have trouble sleeping at night. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder, and according to the Sleep Foundation, about 30 to 40 percent of adults suffer from insomnia. Studies have shown that individuals who work out in the morning have the healthiest sleep pattern. A morning exercise regimen not only improves the length of your sleep but also your quality of sleep by promoting deeper sleep cycles.
When you exercise in the morning, your body will enjoy a healthy sense of fatigue at the end of the day allowing you to fall asleep faster and experience deeper sleep. Deeper and longer sleep reduces overall stress, fatigue, mental fog, and improves your quality of life by reducing health issues.
It is a known fact that a low-intensity morning workout improves metabolism. When starting your day with a boost of calorie-burning, it sustains your metabolism throughout the day, meaning you will be burning a healthy amount of calories all day long. A morning workout also helps reduce blood pressure. Studies by Vascular Health and Risk Management showed that early morning exercises reduced blood pressure by at least 10 percent.
Daily morning workouts also help reduce migraines, strengthen your immune system, and help with depression and anxiety.
Tips
Here are some useful tips that can help you begin incorporating a morning exercise regimen into your daily routine:
- Alarm clock: don’t put your alarm clock right next to your bed, move it further away so you are forced to get out of bed.
- Keep moving: once you are out of bed, do not sit down or lay back down, the odds of you getting back up are slim to none from that point on.
- Start easy: there is no need to dive into a demanding workout, it will be a shock to your system and increase the risk of quitting.
- Keep it short: your morning workout should not exceed 30 to 40 minutes (ideally it should be around 25 minutes). You want to do something simple that gets your heart rate going, and not exhaust yourself.
- Enjoy yourself: do exercise you enjoy. If you hate running, don’t force yourself to do it, you will just end up quitting. You want to make this a part of your everyday routine so make sure you are having fun. Play music or listen to a podcast, or if you can, find a workout buddy. This shouldn’t be a horrible grueling experience, you want a good start to your day.