Morning exercise

suzzer99 · #1 05-16-2007, 10:26 AM

I've been doing a boot camp workout program at the beach for the last 5 weeks. MWF 6am-7am, and it's pretty brutal. I measure the workouts by how often I feel like I want to puke. Before this I think the earliest I've ever exercised is 11am. (There are actually a lot of people out running and stuff this early. Who knew?) I haven't felt this good in years. After I workout I'm almost euphoric for the rest of the day.

Obviously it's way too early to tell, but I really hope this turns out to be at least a minor life changing thing, if not major. I've felt like [censored] physically for most of my adult life. I really want to pull out of that and never look back. That's the hope anyway.

I already signed up for another 6 weeks. Then after that there's an A-group you can move up to that looks really really though. I know over time this buzz will start to diminish. But I'm hoping if I keep pushing myself it will go on for a while, at least until it becomes a habit.

I'm curious if anyone else has undergone a transformation like this, and if so how it ultimately turned out.

turnipmonster · #2 05-16-2007, 10:37 AM

what time did you go to bed before, and what time do you go to bed now? do you get up at the same time every weekday, or earlier on MWF and sleep later on TTh?

my wife started lifting last year and we used to go in the morning, it was brutal and I hated it. about once every two weeks I naturally wake up at 5am, and usually go for a run and it feels great although I am more tired in the afternoon. I've always felt more energized working out after work, but it also cuts into evening time a little more and makes going out for drinks after work a pain.

suzzer99 · #3 05-16-2007, 10:52 AM

Well when I played poker for a year, the only constant in my sleep schedule was that it never stayed in the same place. In March I got a job where I usually go in between 10:30-11:30. So for a while I was sleeping in. But I just happened to start getting up earlier right before the boot camp, which made the transition a lot easier obv. Basically adjusting my sleep schedule is never too tough for me, since I'm used to it being all over the map anyway.

I wake up between 7 and 9 on the other days, including weekends unless I'm hungover. I'm also getting the zone diet delivered so sometimes between being weak from the diet and worn out from boot camp I'm pretty wiped out physically. But I've been cheating on the diet way too much to be really wiped out.

As far as working out after work, I'm usually leaving work between 7 and 8, which is really late for me to try to get motivated to work out. Also when I do work out at night, I tend to dread it all day. Maybe a flashback to when I used to dread football practice at school. So I have to have these little battles with myself all day to psych myself up for it. With working out at 6am, I pretty much only dread it for the 30 minutes I'm up before I go. But that is 30 minutes of fairly intense dread.

I've been drinking a triple espresso and a half an ephedrine to help with my early morning energy level. Only drawback to that is that by 6pm my brain is pretty much mush, which isn't good for doing programming.

nyc999 · #4 05-16-2007, 11:37 AM

I've never been able to work out in the morning, although I'm sure it would be beneficial if I could make the adjustment.

I'm curious...what does the boot camp involve?

suzzer99 · #5 05-16-2007, 12:29 PM

It's different stuff every time. A lot of running on the beach, up and down steps, aerobic stuff with balls and bunjee cords, dragging tires on the beach, ab stuff, pushups. Some days it's more cardio and some days like today it's more working muscle groups.

DeezNuts · #6 05-16-2007, 01:34 PM

This sounds really cool. I'm trying to exercise more and eat healthier, with mixed results. Definitely the dread part being shortened is key, although I would probably think about it the night before and just dread it all night.

Good luck, hope you stick with it at least for a few more weeks.

SamIAm · #7 05-16-2007, 02:00 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I already signed up for another 6 weeks.

[/ QUOTE ]
This sounds like it's not self-run. What's the program like? Do you really have drill sgts yelling at you?

suzzer99 · #8 05-16-2007, 02:02 PM

They are ex-army guys dressed like drill-seargents. But they try to motivate only positively. They don't yell at you. I was wondering about that before I started. I really like our instructor, he's one of those boundless energy guys and it just rubs off on you.

private joker · #9 05-16-2007, 02:21 PM

I'm considering signing up for a summer tennis program in West Hollywoood. It's on Saturdays at 10am, and for me 10am on a Saturday is brutally early -- given that I'm usually up until 3 or 4 Friday night. And I hate exercising early anyway. But I'm thinking this will be good for me anyway, so I'll probably give it a shot. And if it gets me playing tennis more often, then cool.

reedy · #10 05-16-2007, 04:21 PM

The boot camp sounds great.
I tend to work out alone and have been doing sets of hill sprints 5 days a week for the last 7 weeks in the am. These paired with plyos have allowed me to drop around 15lbs and feel great/more productive throughout the day.

If your looking for a change in workouts i would recommend hill sprints for 20-30 mins 2-3 times a week to break up the monotony of a weekly workout.