You’ve probably heard that a consistent fitness routine is healthy. Aerobic exercise, even 30 minutes a few times a week, helps us live longer, sleep deeply, and improve our quality of life.
What’s the difference between a morning run before work and an afternoon or evening workout? Is morning running better?
This article explains why dawn exercise benefits runners and other athletes. Learn why you should wake up early and how to start a morning exercise regimen.
Morning Running Benefits
Aerobic exercise is healthy. This is what the doctors say, and studies and historical study prove it. A steady running workout regimen will be healthy, logically. What makes a morning run special?
- Success
42% of Britons told The Sun they couldn’t exercise. Another study suggests that half of Americans are time-crunched. By the time busy workers get home and finish their chores, kids, and dinners, many will disregard their running shoes.
If you set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, you can do short morning workouts before the day gets crazy. In the beginning, you only need 30 minutes to run in the morning.
Start with a 20-minute jog so you have time to shower and get ready. Never again!
- Nutrition
Morning runners made healthier eating choices throughout the day, according to studies. A 2018 study indicated that college students who did three 30-minute morning runs or cardio each week ate healthier. Less fried food and less meat.
Morning runs may give you a healthier mentality. This is tied to a morning workout schedule. If you exercise in the morning, you’re less likely to skip a run.
- Improved daytime mood
Spending time in nature improves our tranquility, focus, and spirits. Add the fact that you’re starting your day with a workout, and you can see how you’ll feel energized.
Two hours in nature can improve mental health, studies show. Shinrin-yoku reduces mental health symptoms.
Morning runs might help you have a better, calmer day. Moving your body in the morning releases endorphins or, according to current study, endocannabinoids, which make you happier. This is linked to the “runner’s high” sense of reduced tension and joy after exercise. What better time than the morning to ensure a good day?
- Fuel efficiency
There are benefits to jogging on an empty stomach, despite contradicting research. Before breakfast runners deplete glycogen stores (after dinner, our bodies use up some of the carbs stored in our muscles and liver while we sleep). Early morning runs without feeding cause our bodies to use fat instead of carbs, according to various research.
There are limits to the potential benefits for fat loss and runners wanting to boost endurance performance (by diversifying their food source). First, undertake low-intensity fasted runs to shift energy to fat storage. A dawn exercise may harm female athletes’ hormones. According to Dr. Stacy Sims’ research, persistent jogging with high cortisol levels (a stress hormone) can harm reproductive health.
A low-intensity morning jog with a little snack (such an oatcake with honey and a glass of water) will give you a slight energy boost and tap into glycogen stores.
Consistency
Morning runs help us build a steady workout routine. Because you prioritize jogging, you’ll be more devoted, your mind will be clear, and you’ll finish every session.
This can help people reduce weight or reach fitness objectives. Both activities require consistency.
Better sleep
Studies show that adults who exercise early in the day sleep better and have less trouble falling asleep. Whether it’s the fresh air or light exposure that enhances melatonin at night, morning running stimulates deep sleep and helps people sleep more consistently.
- Healthy habits improve health
Combining consistency, healthier eating choices, and morning exercise can enhance overall health. Running reduces high blood pressure, which affects 1 in 3 Americans. The same 2014 study found that prehypertensive persons who ran in the morning had lower blood pressure than those who ran in the afternoon or evening.
A 7 am run was more effective than an evening one.
Physical activity manages type 1 diabetes. Morning workouts minimize this risk, according to a 2015 research in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology. Morning runs may raise cortisol levels. Morning runs may be preferable for individuals at risk of type 1 diabetes because of this hormone.
- Focus
Exercise improves mental alertness and focus at any time of day. A morning run improves attention, visual learning, and decision-making, a 2019 study found.
Many of us run in the early to experience nature alone before distractions arrive. Many associate this time with enhanced creativity and productivity as they organize their thoughts and prepare for the day.
Cooler weather
Finally, exercising in the morning will get you out of the house during the day’s coldest hour. Thanks to the recent attention on cold water swimming, much has been published about the benefits of cold temperatures on mental health, blood circulation, and more.
