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August 20, 2007
The Five AM Club
This is just an experiment.
And it's nothing like the Mile High Club. While I'm sure some people like to have sex at five am, I can assure you that at that hour, the love of my life will be meaningfully engaged in making a salad.
I've been managing to work out just about every day, but it seems like there are still days when work goes so crazy that I never manage to get to the gym. That's bad. With the work stress as high as it's been, exercise is more necessary than ever. It's the greatest stress-reduction, anti-anxiety measure I've ever found.
So my new strategy is to get up at 5 with MR, but instead of lying in bed until 6, which I've been doing a lot lately (and sometimes later) I'm getting up and going straight to the gym. Immediately. Workout first thing, so that except on days when I have to actually leave for work at 5 am, I'll get my workout in no matter what.
I've always suspected that there was this strange club of people who work out at the crack of dawn or before, right when the gym opens. Maybe they have secret handshakes, signs and words. I'm about to find out.
Quick, I have to get out the door before I talk myself out of this and go back to bed!
Posted by april at August 20, 2007 5:01 AM
Comments
If I don't get to the gym first thing, I never do - even if I say I will later on. It's the best time to do it, the only time with my lack of willpower! (I didn't make it this morning, oh dear).
Posted by: Sara at August 20, 2007 4:08 AM
I agree, exercise is brilliant at lowering anxiety levels. But for me personally it wasn't just exercise, also taking around 1500-2000mg of vitamin C helped a great deal. There is some evidence showing that it lowers cortisol and adrenaline that you get from stressful events. Google "vitamin C Stress"
Posted by: Matt at August 20, 2007 9:02 AM
oh hmmm, I used to do the 5am thing too. My gym clothes were literally laid out in a pile right next to my bed. I would roll out and dress, the coffee would be perking. I'd stumble down the stairs, down some supps and some precooked oatmeal, grab the coffee..drink it on the way to the gym, work out (LOVE IT!!!) get back home and start the rat race. Quite a schedule. Good luck. there's def. a different breed of gym rat in the gym at 5am. It's also quiet and you can concentrate. At least that's what I found! Good luck and enjoy!
D
Posted by: Deborah at August 20, 2007 7:09 PM
be careful, April! I'm ADDICTED to morning exercise. Almost no matter what, I must do some kind of activity first thing in the AM.
Posted by: Jake Silver at August 21, 2007 5:09 AM