The Newly Discovered Benefits of Morning Runs
Hey Angels and Alphas,
If you’ve been dabbling with the idea of scheduling a morning run a couple of days out the week, you should know that another good reason to do it just came up.
A recent survey of about 1,000 office employees discovered that those who worked out in the morning before they headed off to work tended to experience higher creativity, productivity, and work focus during the day! Training earlier basically eliminated the afternoon slump in most people.
And even though this study discovered that *any* point of the day was a good one for exercise, the effects were just more visible when it came to the early risers!
And sure, getting your workout done early in the morning is a pretty great feeling, especially since countless people have missed afternoon workouts due to work emergencies, rescheduled calls, or just plain old fatigue.
Exercise has always been linked to better decision-making altogether, but now, we know that this can also happen on a daily basis!
HERE’S HOW TO DO MORNING RUNS RIGHT
Here’s the advice we’ve compiled from morning runners around the web who have shared their experiences on how best to approach morning runs. Maybe these approaches aren’t the most popular or fun, but they will help you start (and maintain) a habit of morning runs!
- “Put your running clothes on as soon as you wake up… or sleep in your running clothes.”
Yes, you heard that right. Depends on the time of year, of course, but springtime running attire isn’t really anything more than a T-shirt with shorts, same as a pajama set. That being said, you can still opt to sleep in whatever you like, then just lay your running clothes right there by your bed so you can step into it as soon as you wake up.
- “Say goodbye to your late-night social life.”
Bedtime is something you have to commit to if you’re going to be running early in the morning. And you don’t have to go all-out, just make it reasonable.
If you want to set your alarm for 5:00 AM and wake up feeling ready to run, you’ll need to have rested quite a bit.
If you’re in a work-from-home situation right now, this could be the perfect opportunity for you to kickstart this habit as a lot of people aren’t really enjoying a late-night social life anyway.
Whatever the case may be, make sure you’re getting at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep every night if you want to be ready to hop out of bed and go for a run.
- “Get a coffee pot… one with a timer!”
This is absolutely life-changing when you realize it – many standard coffee machines come with an option to time your coffee so it’s ready as soon as you wake up. Imagine how much easier it would be for you to get up (and get up excited) to go for a run if you know you’re going to have a hot cup of coffee ready for you as soon as your eyes open. Not to mention, the smell of freshly-brewed coffee is enough to get most people out of bed.
- “Go with a friend… and make sure they’re someone who cares if you bail out!”
When it comes to developing a habit of morning runs, as with pretty much any other habit, it really helps if you have someone there to hold you accountable. Accountability to a running group, or just someone you choose to go running with, makes it so much easier to drag yourself out of bed.
You don’t want to be the friend who left another friend stuck on a solo run out on a chilly day, right? Even if you do choose to join an accountability group, sometimes the entire group might have problems with accountability.
If this is the case, simply start a chain text that wakes everybody up and confirms their participation. This also guarantees that you don’t sit around waiting for someone, not knowing whether they’re going to show up or not.
But overall, running in a group or with a single friend is a great way to make it a more competitive activity, or just a less-overwhelming activity. Very soon, you’ll start to enjoy it, and you’ll be waking up every morning thirsty for that endorphin rush. That’s a promise!