Improving Productivity With Morning Exercise
Can Morning Exercise Make You More Productive During the Day?
It is no big secret that exercise, proper nutrition, getting plenty of rest and drinking lots of water throughout the day is a proven recipe for health.
Regarding exercise, is there a particular time of day when working out or staying physically active will deliver greater rewards?
The answer to that question seems to be “yes”, and the time you should be exercising is in the morning.
When you are productive in any area of your life, you enjoy less stress and anxiety, more happiness and a sense of fulfillment, and more success.
To boost your productivity, get active more often. Jogging, taking a walk, lifting weights, cycling, and performing yoga or Pilates will give you more energy than if you are sedentary, which will naturally lead to better productivity.
When you schedule that exercise in the morning, you supercharge that productivity.
Here’s how it works.
Exercise in the morning means fewer scheduling conflicts.
You never miss a workout when you wake up early, and you don’t have to push other responsibilities aside to make sure you get a workout in. This means after your morning workout, your entire day can be focused on productively knocking out your to do list, and daily responsibilities.
Waking up is hard to do for a lot of people. This means sluggishly getting through the morning and heading to work without much energy.
Exercise fires up your endorphins and cranks up your energy levels. Enjoying even just 20 minutes of physical activity in the morning can lead to energy reserves to fuel a productive day.
Early-morning fitness means a spike in your metabolism. So when you have a mid-morning snack and lunch while you are working throughout the day, you effectively burn more calories.
This means you’re less likely to suffer a mid-afternoon energy crash. Moderately intense to intense physical activity also wakes up your brain. So you start the day with a clear head, improving your chances of keeping ahead of your workload and responsibilities all day long.
As far as motivation goes, getting your workout in early gives you a boost of self-esteem. You have barely begun your day, and you have already accomplished something important. Success can build upon itself. The feel-good hormones that exercise releases make you feel good about yourself for exercising in the morning, a time when it may be tough to think about physical activity.
This successful early-morning achievement develops the proper mindset to attack subsequent goals and commitments with a lot of productive energy and positive feelings.
4 Excellent Reasons To Get Fit
4 Excellent Reasons To Get Fit
People have a hundred and one reasons why they don’t start working on get fitter today – most of which are not valid, including not having enough time, a common excuse.
Everyone can find the time to exercise and eat right. It is just the motivation to get moving has to be greater than the excuses not to.
If the not enough time issue is holding you back just start out with some form of exercise and tell yourself you will do it for 5 minutes. That 5 minutes will progress to 10 minutes, 30 minutes and so on as you begin to feel and see the benefits of your exercise plan.
Your long term goal should be to exercise for 30-45 minutes at least three times per week including some cardio getting your heart rate up to 70 percent of maximum predicted.
Your maximum predicted heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from 220, then multiplying by 0.70
So for someone 50 years of age, the maximum predicted heart rate would be 220-50= 170 x 0.70= 119
A typical scenario is a visit to the doctor reveals some health related issue that triggers something in your brain to get your act together and start doing what it takes to get fit and live a longer healthier life.
You will also experience the following benefits from your get fit program:
Lose weight
To lose one pound of weight in a week, you have to burn 3,500 more calories than you eat in that week. Most people get in trouble with their weight because they are eating far too many calories for the number of calories they burn.
Excess calories are stored as fat.
If you break that 3,500 calories per week down into a daily amount – 500 calories – it is more manageable. Eat 250 fewer calories per day and burn off 250 more calories by doing some exercise. Skip the latte in the morning or the can of pop loaded with sugar and you probably reduced your calorie count by at least 250.
Walk at 3.5 mph for an hour and you burn 298 calories. There is your 500 + calorie deficit with just those two small changes.
Following the above diet and fitness plan will help you lose a pound a week, but you will also have more energy, get toned and boost your self esteem.
Strengthen your bones
As you age, you start to lose bone density at the rate of 10% by age 50 and if sedentary, another 10% each 10 years thereafter. By including some weight training into your exercise program, you can help slow bone loss as you grow older. Weight bearing activities help in the remodeling of bone. Consider having your vitamin D level checked and taking supplemental vitamin D and calcium.
Women should be taking 1000-1500 milligrams of supplemental calcium per day.
If your bone density test reveals the development of osteopenia (thinning) or osteoporosis your doctor may recommend you take medication to help your bone harden.
Tone up muscles
With toned muscles, not only will you look better, but your balance will be better and you’ll maintain flexibility in your joints. Weight training can help build muscle which will then help you burn more calories even at rest. And if you burn more calories, you’ll have an easier time maintaining your weight.
Stronger muscles will help stabilize your joints and decrease your risk of falling especially as you age.
Reduce your risk for certain diseases
Your risk to develop heart disease, Type II diabetes and some types of cancers, including colon and breast, increases significantly if you are overweight and out of shape.
As your Body Mass Index increases, so does your risk of a heart attack or stroke due to narrowed or blocked arteries.
Narrowing of the arteries in your heart causes the heart to work harder and over time may weaken your heart muscle. The weakening of your heart can lead to congestive heart failure with fluid backing up into your lungs.
If your heart has to work harder to pump blood through narrowed passages, it increases your blood pressure, which will increase your risk of stroke, eye disease and kidney problems.
If you already have Type II diabetes and you are overweight, the effects of diabetes will diminish (or in many cases go away entirely) if you lose weight. At the very least you’ll have to take less medication and possibly get off medication all together.
Start taking action to get fit, today. Putting it off until you feel up to it or motivated may be too late.