Ok ok ok , so now that you have your why, you are probably trying to figure out what’s the next step you are gonna take. Let’s start with what‘s the best time for you to get that workout in.
Morning?
Lunch?
Right after work?
Or in the evening?
Or right before you go to bed at night?
Truth be told, it is simply going to come down to what works best with your schedule & lifestyle. First, I tried in the morning. I would get up and make the hour commute to work and go to the gym at our work facility. This was going pretty good until one morning after I had finished my workout, showered, shaved & as I’m getting dressed, I realized I forgot my belt that goes in my dress slacks. At lunch, I ran out to the local Target to get a belt after having to hold my pants up all day.
Next, I tried going around lunch time for a few days but I felt like I was being rushed to get a decent workout in, rush to get dress, and rush to get back to my desk eat lunch and continue working. I figured this just wasn’t going work out.
Then, I thought about getting the workout in immediately after work a few days a week. Then I realized that I have two kids that are in recreational sports where I would need to get home and get them to practice that is probably on the other side of town. I thought about it but I figured this wasn’t going work either.
So, I figured maybe it would be better for me to go after the kids are done with practice. Dinner would be done, kitchen would be cleaned, and everyone would be settling in for the night. I could go by the gym and get me a quick hour in. Well, I did and I came home “wide awake” and couldn’t fall asleep to around 11:30 or midnight. For someone that is already at work by 7:00 in the morning, this was a bit too late for me.
Confused and not sure what to do, I checked the times at my local gym where I lived and found out that they actually opened up at 5:00am in the morning but I was like “Ain’t no way in the world that I’m gonna wake up that early in the morning to go to the gym”, I already had an hour commute, I wouldn’t be able to make it to work time.
My first thought was, “I’ll go and get a great thirty minute workout in and still have time to go home get showered, changed over, and still make it to work in time.” So, that night I got a good night sleep, woke up early, and made to the gym at exactly 5:00am only to find people already breaking a sweat and out of breath. I completed my thirty minute workout and still had enough time to make it home to get cleaned up and make it to work by 7:00am.
Seeing that a few folks were already at the gym breaking a sweat, I figured that tomorrow I would try and get there around 4:45ish and see if I could get a few extra minutes in on the treadmill. The next morning I got up a few minutes earlier and made it to the gym at exactly 4:45am only to find that those same 10 or 12 folks already into their workout. So now, I’m convinced that maybe this place is opening up at 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning.
Anxious to figure what time they really open, the next day I got to the gym at 4:15am and it was dead as a door knob. Quiet, dark, and no one were around. A white Toyota Prius pulls up around 4:20, then this grey Jeep SUV swings in around 4:25am along with a caravan of other vehicles. At 4:29am, the girl that works the front desk opens the gym and everyone come swarms the entrance to get in.
I got it; the gym opens at 4:30am not 5:00am. This means I could work out from 4:30-5:30, head home to get clean up and still be out of the house by 6:00am just so I could make the hour commute and be at work by around 7:00ish.
I told myself “I would officially give this early morning gym thing a try. I reminded myself of once quote and that was “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” Nine months later, I’m still getting up early to get that work out completed before the break of dawn. I quickly realized that it wasn’t about how early I had to get up, it was actually more to do with what time I was going to bed at night.
Bottom line is, I went through some trial and error to come up with a good time to work out but I figured it out. Mornings ended up being the best time for me. Regardless, if it is early morning, at lunch, or after work, you will have to figure it out what best fits your schedule.