Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Morning workout FAIL

I've always been an early morning exerciser. Even in college I'd be waiting outside the gym for it to open at 8am, and my sophomore year I would even run on the track at 7am (college 7am is the equivalent of adult 4am). The past few weeks I've been majorly failing though. I think if I would just stop setting my alarm, only to turn it off in the morning, I could call it "taking a break" instead of "failing" and it would improve my self esteem.



Source: someecards.com via Kim on Pinterest



I'm actually really ok with it. All this travel has totally messed up my sleep schedule, so I've been going to bed later. I'm on break from grad school for one more week, so I have the time. Working without air conditioning means that I'm soaked in sweat by the end of the day anyhow, so it makes sense to just roll right into a workout. Showering in the morning before school is a major waste of time once the heat hits.


The YMCA doesn't really have many classes in the morning, so procrastinating until the evening means I've actually done stuff like bicep curls and push ups recently. 


For example, we didn't get home from the beach until 10pm on Monday night, so I slept in and went to the gym after work. Tuesday night I did the some quality magazine reading on the elliptical, followed by a class called Cardio Blast. The class was bootcamp style, and I lifted weights and jumped and used all sorts of new muscles.


I also did my first workout of week 2 in my Ab Challenge with Emily. I'm easily motivated. 


Do 20 minutes of core work before you start your actual workout? Hell no. 


What if you get to put an X under your name on a Google doc? That sounds great!


We are designating an ab workout each week, and aiming to do it three times that week, whenever we can fit it in. So far the workouts have been 20-30 minutes, and we are keeping it to things you can do with no equipment. I made up one in the car on Monday, using the highly scientific method of choosing 5 ab moves that I'd done in random exercise DVDs and decided to do them for one minute each. I tried to pick really hard ones that would get our heart rates up, and I seem to have succeeded, since I almost died yesterday. 


The point of the challenge isn't really to get ready for bikini season or anything, more just to get stronger in an area we both usually avoid working on. Plus, it's already bikini season, Emily's abs are ready year round, and no amount of sit ups will help me because my stomach is so blindingly white that no one can really see it anyway.


Do you prefer morning or evening exercise? Once JFK training starts this summer, I'll have to stick to early morning if I don't want to die from heat stroke.


Do you work on your abs?

13 comments:

  1. Ugh, I prefer morning exercise but like 8-9am which poses a serious problem with work! Typically I workout after work is done, but I don't like it!

    And no, I don't do jack for my abs and it's a problem. As in, my back sometimes gets sore when I run because I have such a weak core!

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  2. So your idea of being lazy is working out for 90 minutes after teaching kids all day...without AC. The rest of America should try being half as lazy :)

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  3. You are a weirdo. In college, I'd hit up the gym at like 10pm because I wanted to sleep as late as possible. I'm up earlier now, but I'd still rather work out at night or in the afternoon. My legs always feel awful in the morning.

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  4. It's a toss up. I hate getting up, but I stress all day that I won't get everything done if I don't do one in the morning.

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  5. While it may have been a morning workout fail you still seemed to have gotten in plenty of exercise! I find if I wait until later in the day any attempts I make are pretty half-assed.

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  6. I've been a slacker with ab workouts but I am swearing to do better with those this summer. I flip flop between morning and evening. Getting it over with in the morning is a great feeling but I worked out for so long at night after work when we were still in Auburn that I got in the habit of working out at that time of the day.

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  7. ha - my stomach looks like someone is holding a black light up to it! even if i had a 6-pack, you couldn't see it.

    cut yourself some slack on the AM workouts - you've been racing non-stop lately. you'll get out of bed when JFK training starts with no problem. because the alternative is unbearable!

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  8. ugh i have been an ab fail lately! actually I have been a motivation in life fail....I need to work on this...

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  9. I always do better with morning workouts but it is a serious challenge for me to workout first thing. Lately I don't have a choice because it's so hot, so morning it is.

    I do ab stuff in bursts - like, 3 times a week for a month, and then none for 11 months straight.

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  10. I prefer to do my workouts in the morning. It's too easy for something to come up and give me a reason to NOT do it in the evening.

    I need to challenge my abs. :)

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  11. How funny that you were an early riser in college - you've done it backwards, my friend. I like to mix things up - some mornings, some evenings. Keeps things interesting...especially when an evening is followed by a morning!

    So we're both doing JFK...awesome!!!

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  12. I hate exercise after 10 AM. I just won't do it if I haven't done it by then. And how the hell do you teach in MD without AC? That's just inhumane. I couldn't teach or learn if my brain was boiling in my head.

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  13. I usually jump-start my day with my just-out-of-bed workout.

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