So if you think you don’t have time, then use the time when you’re normally asleep, just think what you could achieve getting up one hour earlier every day, that’s a whole extra workday every week, that’s an extra weeks work every month. That’s really incredible, from achieving non-time-sensitive tasks to looking after yourself, boosting your energy levels and making yourself more productive. In the book by Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Body being more productive is one of the benefits you’ll gain by exercising.
Here’s a short clip of Richard Branson talking about exercise making you more productive.
Exercising in the morning has more benefits than you might realise
1. Increases Metabolic Rate for the Entire Day!
Exercise in the morning will fire up your energy systems, your metabolism will start and your body will start burning the calories it needs to meet the demands. However this is not just the result from the one hours exercise you do, it will take place for the rest of the day, this means you’ve increased your metabolic rate, burning more calories than you normally would just by exercising in the morning. It’s not hard to see how this habit can have a positive impact on our health, fitness and well being.
2. Increases Energy Levels
Doing more gives you more energy! You’ve probably heard that before and if you’ve exercised with good habits before for a short time you’ve likely experienced it for yourself too. This is linked to our metabolic rate (as mentioned above) because doing more raises our metabolic rate, we feel like we’re able to do more because we’re getting a constant stream of energy. You’ll feel like you can exercise, you’ll feel like you can go to play tennis, go for a walk or whatever takes your fancy. This is the opposite of what happens when you do less. Remember your body is a survival machine and it simply adapts to the demands you place upon it, Doing less will encourage your body to slow down, it has no need to produce a steady stream of energy as you consume very little of it.
So if you want to get things started, you just have to do something! Jogging, walking, swimming, or a bodyweight workout, just something.
3. Reduces Stress
This is not a new concept, we all know exercise has a great benefit on stress, this is normally felt because of the overwhelming opposite feeling of well-being we get post-exercise, it’s hard to feel stressed when you have endorphins pumping around your body making you feel great. Although exercise in itself is stressful in the fact it places stresses upon the body and might actually raise cortisol levels through individual workouts, the overall effect from regular exercise according to the “Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice,” studies indicate that even 30-minute sessions of moderate exercise may help reduce cortisol levels
4. Endorphins will Help you Start a Habit
To get things started, you’ll need to start moving, start doing and do it regularly. Once you get started the release post endorphins and the ‘feel-good feeling’ post-exercise will keep you doing it more often. Exercise is addictive, people are addicted to endorphins released naturally during exercise, it provides us with an overwhelming sense of well-being.