Self-Motivated?
Get Started On Your Fitness And Health Journey Today!
Use these daily workouts to get yourself started on your fitness journey. These will help with self-discipline and to build your confidence. You can always add ankle weights, dumbbells or resistance bands to these simple exercises to make them more challenging. I kept the reps low on the sheets for beginners, but if you're more advanced and can do more reps, go for it!
I've included a few sheets that will help you track your workouts. Use the one you're most comfortable with. Remember, it's the small changes that add up. Below you have workouts for Monday through Friday. You can create your own schedule that works for you or you can do all days. Early morning, in my opinion, is best to get a short workout in. These workouts will be ten minutes at most, so you can run through them twice for a 20 minute morning workout. Add a jog around the block or jogging in place to get the muscles loosened and warmed up.
I've included a few sheets that will help you track your workouts. Use the one you're most comfortable with. Remember, it's the small changes that add up. Below you have workouts for Monday through Friday. You can create your own schedule that works for you or you can do all days. Early morning, in my opinion, is best to get a short workout in. These workouts will be ten minutes at most, so you can run through them twice for a 20 minute morning workout. Add a jog around the block or jogging in place to get the muscles loosened and warmed up.
Click the images below for the printable file.
Let's Review Why Morning Workouts Are Beneficial To Our Health
Ten Reasons To Workout In The Morning
1. Improves Metabolism
Our metabolism is sustained throughout the day when we exercise in the morning. Your body will continue to burn calories. Getting in an early workout will help give your body the energy it needs to metabolize the food you eat. Metabolizing food is quite a hefty process and requires energy, produced from physical activity, rather than a rested state, to do it's job.
2. Reduces Blood Pressure
Studies have shown that morning exercise can be a great preventive measure against spiking blood pressure. They've also shown that people are most likely to get a heart attack early in the morning. This study published in the Vascular Health and Risk Management set out to investigate exercise timing on blood pressure. The results? The group that did the early morning exercises (7 am) reduced their blood pressure by 10 percent. This reduction was sustained and in some dipped even further to at least 25 percent.
3. Reduces Stress
Stress is reduced by the feel-good endorphins that are released on the brain from physical activity. When we exercise, our body releases serotonin on the brain, the "happy hormone". This hormone contributes to our well-being and happiness. The physical movement, especially if you jog before or after your exercises, will help loosen tense muscles as well. This relieves pressure off the nervous system, allowing us to relax.
4. Reduces Risk of Diabetes
How is morning exercise, before eating breakfast, connected to diabetes? It helps improve insulin resistance, reducing diabetes risk. When we are not fasting (eating carbs, etc.) our body is busy breaking down food into sugar that goes to the blood, increasing blood sugar levels. The pancreas are then signaled to produce insulin so our cells can use the blood sugar for energy. In other words, eating food keeps you in a constant state of insulin production.
Belgian researchers carried out a study and found that people who exercised without eating any food beforehand showed an improved insulin sensitivity.
5. Burn Body Fat More Quickly
In this study, researchers wanted to learn the impact of exercise and meal timing. The participants were put into these groups:
no exercise at all (control)
60-minutes exercise before breakfast (morning)
post-lunch exercise for 60-minutes (afternoon)
60-minutes exercise after dinner (evening)
The study confirmed that the group exercising before breakfast had an increase in fat oxidation (burning fat as fuel). And that burning body fat as fuel (instead of food) is linked to weight loss. A couple more studies- here and here
also confirmed this, along with showing people who exercise in a fasted state can eat a high-calorie diet with no significant impact on weight gain.
6. Improves Mood
Again, this is due to the serotonin that's released on the brain. Along with this happy hormone, other neurotransmitters and hormones, like dopamine, norepinephrine and endorphins, are released on the brain. Dopamine is another feel-good hormone that benefits our well-being and exercise is one of the few ways we can get these hormones released on our brain.
7. More Energy and Alertness
Researchers at the University of Georgia found that jogging or regular low-intensity workouts can boost energy levels by 20 percent, as well as decrease fatigue by 65 percent. Sounds better than coffee, right? From this study, and several others, we know that exercise directly impacts our central nervous system by boosting energy and reducing fatigue.
8. Boosts Confidence
Naturally, when we discipline ourselves with a fitness routine and healthy eating habits, we have more energy and feel better, but we also look healthier and fitter. This helps us in social settings, as well as every day life. Feeling stronger will radiate from you, because it's energetic. You've put in the energy to better yourself, you feel strong and confident in your ability to set and accomplish goals. This ultimately will boost your confidence.
9. Sleep Better
A medical director at Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep states that "moderate aerobic exercise increases the amount of slow-wave sleep you get. Slow-wave sleep refers to deep sleep, where the brain and body have a chance to rejuvenate." The National Sleep Foundation states that people who do aerobic exercise at 7:00 am are more likely to sleep longer and sustain deeper sleep cycles than people who workout later in the day. So if you're having trouble sleeping, a morning workout could help you get a full nights rest.
10. Helps Overcome Procrastination
One really great advantage to morning workouts is that you feel accomplished. Most of us have a list of things to accomplish every day. Fitting in exercise at the end of the day, when you're most likely already exhausted, will lead to a less effective workout. When you wake up and get the day going with exercise, you've already knocked out one of your big tasks on the to do list. This energizes you to get other things accomplished as well. When we laze around in the morning and wake up moving slowly, it will be tougher to get going on your daily mission. In the book, Eat That Frog, author Brian Tracy was simple but practical: do the hardest things first. Otherwise, we will put it off and never do it.
Our metabolism is sustained throughout the day when we exercise in the morning. Your body will continue to burn calories. Getting in an early workout will help give your body the energy it needs to metabolize the food you eat. Metabolizing food is quite a hefty process and requires energy, produced from physical activity, rather than a rested state, to do it's job.
2. Reduces Blood Pressure
Studies have shown that morning exercise can be a great preventive measure against spiking blood pressure. They've also shown that people are most likely to get a heart attack early in the morning. This study published in the Vascular Health and Risk Management set out to investigate exercise timing on blood pressure. The results? The group that did the early morning exercises (7 am) reduced their blood pressure by 10 percent. This reduction was sustained and in some dipped even further to at least 25 percent.
3. Reduces Stress
Stress is reduced by the feel-good endorphins that are released on the brain from physical activity. When we exercise, our body releases serotonin on the brain, the "happy hormone". This hormone contributes to our well-being and happiness. The physical movement, especially if you jog before or after your exercises, will help loosen tense muscles as well. This relieves pressure off the nervous system, allowing us to relax.
4. Reduces Risk of Diabetes
How is morning exercise, before eating breakfast, connected to diabetes? It helps improve insulin resistance, reducing diabetes risk. When we are not fasting (eating carbs, etc.) our body is busy breaking down food into sugar that goes to the blood, increasing blood sugar levels. The pancreas are then signaled to produce insulin so our cells can use the blood sugar for energy. In other words, eating food keeps you in a constant state of insulin production.
Belgian researchers carried out a study and found that people who exercised without eating any food beforehand showed an improved insulin sensitivity.
5. Burn Body Fat More Quickly
In this study, researchers wanted to learn the impact of exercise and meal timing. The participants were put into these groups:
no exercise at all (control)
60-minutes exercise before breakfast (morning)
post-lunch exercise for 60-minutes (afternoon)
60-minutes exercise after dinner (evening)
The study confirmed that the group exercising before breakfast had an increase in fat oxidation (burning fat as fuel). And that burning body fat as fuel (instead of food) is linked to weight loss. A couple more studies- here and here
also confirmed this, along with showing people who exercise in a fasted state can eat a high-calorie diet with no significant impact on weight gain.
6. Improves Mood
Again, this is due to the serotonin that's released on the brain. Along with this happy hormone, other neurotransmitters and hormones, like dopamine, norepinephrine and endorphins, are released on the brain. Dopamine is another feel-good hormone that benefits our well-being and exercise is one of the few ways we can get these hormones released on our brain.
7. More Energy and Alertness
Researchers at the University of Georgia found that jogging or regular low-intensity workouts can boost energy levels by 20 percent, as well as decrease fatigue by 65 percent. Sounds better than coffee, right? From this study, and several others, we know that exercise directly impacts our central nervous system by boosting energy and reducing fatigue.
8. Boosts Confidence
Naturally, when we discipline ourselves with a fitness routine and healthy eating habits, we have more energy and feel better, but we also look healthier and fitter. This helps us in social settings, as well as every day life. Feeling stronger will radiate from you, because it's energetic. You've put in the energy to better yourself, you feel strong and confident in your ability to set and accomplish goals. This ultimately will boost your confidence.
9. Sleep Better
A medical director at Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep states that "moderate aerobic exercise increases the amount of slow-wave sleep you get. Slow-wave sleep refers to deep sleep, where the brain and body have a chance to rejuvenate." The National Sleep Foundation states that people who do aerobic exercise at 7:00 am are more likely to sleep longer and sustain deeper sleep cycles than people who workout later in the day. So if you're having trouble sleeping, a morning workout could help you get a full nights rest.
10. Helps Overcome Procrastination
One really great advantage to morning workouts is that you feel accomplished. Most of us have a list of things to accomplish every day. Fitting in exercise at the end of the day, when you're most likely already exhausted, will lead to a less effective workout. When you wake up and get the day going with exercise, you've already knocked out one of your big tasks on the to do list. This energizes you to get other things accomplished as well. When we laze around in the morning and wake up moving slowly, it will be tougher to get going on your daily mission. In the book, Eat That Frog, author Brian Tracy was simple but practical: do the hardest things first. Otherwise, we will put it off and never do it.
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