How To Prepare For Early Morning Training

I am an advocate for training 2x a day for some athletes. This means that sometimes, we will have to train early in the morning (before 10am). I myself train in the morning almost every day. However, it is well accepted in the athletic community that training in the evening is superior for performance than training early in the morning. So here are some tips to prepare well for a morning workout:

1. Cortisol - Get in morning sunlight

When you wake up, your cortisol spikes and then decreases throughout the day. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that can lead to muscle fatigue. So in order to counteract this spike in cortisol, go outside and get some morning sunlight into your face. Even if you don't have much of a sun where you live, just getting in that morning air will help. This also helps regulate your circadian rhythm.

2. Eat more carbs (reduced plasma glucose levels, cortisol) in your pre-workout meal

Another way to decrease cortisol and bring it to baseline levels is to eat carbs, so include some carbohydrates in your pre-workout meal. Eating carbs also reduced plasma glucose levels, which essentially means a lower blood sugar level.

3. Melatonin spike - Coffee/Caffeine Pills

When you wake up, your melatonin levels also spike. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep, and it's why you feel groggy and sleepy even after you wake up. The best way to counteract this is with caffeine. This can either come from caffeine pills or from black coffee, but I prefer pills for the convenience. I specify black coffee sine it is the only real way of drinking coffee (there should not be so many fucking coffee types anyways). However, make sure your periodically cycle on and off of caffeine so that you do not get caffeine tolerance.

4. Warm-up

Like, physically warm up. Before you start training, you should be sweating! I like warming a hoodie during warm-ups. Warm-up by doing some light aerobic exercise and then some dynamic stretching for a total of 10, maybe 15, minutes. I have posted a good general warm-up here.

5. Hydration

Just drink multiple cups of water before you train. When you wake up, you've just spent 8 hrs of sleeping without any water, so you will have to offset that by drinking a considerable amount of water in the morning. Salting your pre-workout meal and your intra-workout drink can help with electrolyte consumption as well.

~ Prem