One More Adjustment in The Morning To Make
We have worked through many of the changes you can make to your morning routine to help improve your sleep quality at night, but there is still one adjustment you can make: exercising in the morning.
1. Stress Hormones To Be The Highest In The Morning
First, when you exercise at a moderate to vigorous level, your body releases stress hormones. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because these stress hormones will help give you energy, and burn fat..You want your stress hormones to be the highest in the morning, and gradually decline over the course of the day, so they’re at their lowest level by the time you go to bed. Many people, when measured, have low levels of stress hormones in the morning which can cause low energy, and leave you feeling sluggish – not the best way to start your day. Exercising in the morning can coax your body into producing these hormones, thus restoring the natural rhythm of them throughout the day.
2. Avoid Large Compound Movements
However, there are some limitations to training in the morning. Typically, I don’t recommend loading the spine through large compound movements, like barbell squats or deadlifts, upon 1-2 hours of waking up. The reason being, there hasn’t been enough time and movement for your spine to prepare to accept significant weight. You can still train, just be mindful of what exercises you choose. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out or leave a comment. nsmitters, which are important brain chemical messengers, can wake you up, wind you down, determine your mood, set your energy levels, and motivation. We can choose different foods to help maximize the effectiveness of your brain chemistry which will make you feel better.
3. Try Working Out Early As Possible
The reason to train in the morning is the reason not to train in the evening. Exercising too late in the day can be stimulating to both your body and mind, and can negatively affect your sleep. If your schedule only permits you to exercise in the evening, then you may need to make additional changes to help offset that workout.
If you can’t exercise early in the morning, still try and get a workout in as early in the day as possible.
In general, exercise will make us more tired in the evening and has been clinically shown to increase total sleep time. You probably already notice the effects of a good workout by sleeping better that night. Now, you should be more cognizant of the reasons why.
Chris Munro
Share This Post
In this 10-part sleep series, personal trainer Chris Munro emphasizes the importance of getting enough nightly zzz's and regulating your sleep cycle. Explore how to improve your quality of sleep from the moment you wake up until your head hits the pillow.