Megan Devine is a licensed clinical therapist, former 1-on-1 Coaching Advisor, speaker and writer. She is also the bonus-parent to a successfully launched young man. , where she advocates for new ways to live with grief. Popular on Empowering ParentsHalf the battle of a morning workout is the part where you have to, y’know, wake up. Even though an A.M. sweat is an amazing way to get your day off to a healthy start, it can be tough to remember your fitness goals when you’re still half asleep and that snooze button is just oh so tempting.I know this struggle all too well—even though I love the feeling of working out first thing in the morning (it’s the only thing I’ve found that gives me all day energy and a positive ‘tude), I am also the ~queen~ of sleeping through my alarm. I’ve mastered the art of turning off my alarm without having any recollection of it.Even though I find myself adulting these days, it’s still a major challenge. But since my morning workout is so important to me, I’ve had to get creative with ways to get #UpNOut.
And once I am actually up (and out), I never regret it. Here are some of the things I’ve had success with (and a few I’ll definitely try):Related: 4 Running Rules Zosia Mamet Swears By As She Prepares For Her First 5KSetting your workout clothes out next to your bed is a great way to streamline your morning, and it serves as a visual reminder to get going. When your running shoes are practically staring at you from the floor, it’s hard to say no. I’ve even tried getting dressed while still in my warm bed, and the struggle of it is typically enough to wake my brain up. Wiggling into a pair of tight yoga pants under the covers is just challenging as it sounds.If you’ve put your hard-earned $$ into a workout class, chances are, you’re going to make sure you get to it—personally, I think my subconscious holds me accountable when I’ve signed up and paid for an indoor cycling or reformer Pilates session. (It’s a lot like a money-shredding alarm clock, but maybe a little less aggressive.)
Or, make a workout date with a friend or book a personal training session—whatever it is that motivates you to get a move on.There’s something about the smell of coffee that gives you a boost, so if the sound of your alarm doesn’t quite do it for you, maybe that coffee aroma will. Relocate your coffee pot to your bedroom and pre-program it to start brewing before your first alarm, or if your machine doesn’t have that feature, get it set up the night before by putting in your grinds or popping a new K-cup into your Keurig for easier access. (Sort of like the Michael Scott approach of waking up to bacon on The Office—without as much injury potential.)“Go to bed earlier.” Problem is, that’s so much easier said than done. But if you’re not getting enough sleep, waking up can be extra brutal, so it’s worth a shot. Keri Gans, M.S. R.D., author of The Small Change Diet, once gave me an awesome tip for getting more sleep: Try scaling back your typical bedtime by just 15 minutes every night until you’re up to seven or eight hours total.
Slow and steady wins the A.M. race.There’s no denying that I’m motivated by food, so having a breakfast to look forward to in the morning definitely helps my feet hit the floor. Prep it the night before or have all of your ingredients ready, whether it’s pouring your favorite granola and some honey on Greek yogurt or topping a protein pancake with fruit. Here are five ideas for a pre-workout snack to consider for your ‘first’ breakfast (because, obviously, second breakfast is a total thing after you get your fitness on).Get an app that tracks your sleep so it can wake you up at the optimal time (read: the time you’ve got the greatest chance for wake-up success). You set your phone on your bed, the app keeps a log of your movement, and it wakes you up sometime during a window of time you’ve set beforehand (say, between 6:00 and 6:30 A.M.) SleepCycle is a popular choice and some fitness trackers offer this option, too.This is my current wake-up method, and I have to say, it is equal parts annoying and effective.
In order to shut my alarm off, I have to solve a set number of math problems. You can choose different levels of difficulty, as well as how many problems you want to solve. There are several app options with this feature, but I like Mathe.Some apps will force you to take a picture of the same thing every morning to turn off, like your toothbrush or your slippers. Choose something far away so you have to get up and walk there—and whatever you do, do not get back into bed if there’s a chance you won’t make it back out in time. Try out Alarmy—it just might be the best $2 you ever spend.Sometimes, getting out of bed in the morning requires more than two or three wake-up calls. Maybe I’m crazy, but in addition to my math app, I set anywhere from 15 to 25 alarms on my phone. If I’m turning them off half-asleep, chances are, I’ll be conscious enough to know what I’m doing by the time I finish scrolling to the bottom of the alarm list. And no matter how many times you hit snooze, there’s always another alarm around the corner to cajole you out of bed.
This is one of the oldest tricks in the books, but if you get straight back into bed, it’s not always as effective as you’d like. Try using a real alarm clock (like, the kind that plugs into the wall and you can’t text with), so you can’t carry it back to bed with you like you might with your phone. Because when the snooze period’s over, you’ll be forced to get back up.This is probably the most essential step for me when it comes to getting up for an early A.M. workout. If there’s any inkling of doubt that I won’t get up, it’s game over, so it’s important me to psych myself up mentally the night before and tell myself that, like it or not, I’m getting up. I visualize my morning as I fall asleep—my alarm going off, getting out of bed, eating a small breakfast, and then heading out the door to crush a workout and get my day going in the right direction. It’s all about mind over matter with this one.You may also like: A fat-burning plyometric workout you can do at home: