So yesterday I had a brilliant idea; a way to get more cardio exercise into my day without taking up so much time after work. I absolutely abhor ("abhor" implies much more than "hate" I think) getting up early. I get up at 7:00 a.m. for work (okay, more like 7:06 if you must know), but I have these moments of thinking, "I'll just get up a little bit earlier and workout before I get ready for work." I'll even set my alarm early, wear my workout clothes to bed and all. Then the alarm goes off and I want to cry...so I hit snooze...or re-set it for the regular time. Well, the other morning I woke up at about 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep right away. I didn't even feel all that tired. I thought to myself, "Hey! I could totally get up right now and do one of SparkPeople's 10-minute cardio workouts and then go back to bed for a couple of hours!" And then I promptly fell back asleep. Well, I thought about that all day and decided I was going to try it! I could get up at 4:30 or 5:00, workout for ten minutes or so and then go back to bed. Then I'd only have 20-30 minutes of cardio left to do after work. It was a brilliant idea (hence the title of this post)! I know what you're thinking, "Oh, but Kerry; it's not a good idea to workout and then try to sleep. Exercising in the evening can make falling asleep difficult." But, trust me. Falling asleep has never been much of a problem for me so I wasn't worried about being able to fall back asleep at 5:00 a.m. So last night I set my alarm for 4:41 a.m. I wore my sports bra and workout pants to bed, I set my laptop up in the workout room so I could access it quickly and went to bed. Fast forward to 4:33 a.m. I woke up before my alarm went off. Checked the clock. Chuckled to myself. Re-set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. Turned over and went back to sleep.
So, that was my brilliant idea. Smart right?
4 comments:
Funny thing is I have had that idea as well!! I wake up a lot around 4-5 am and feel more awake than I do any other time of day. Then, my actual wake up time comes around and I can barely pull myself out of bed. Truthfully, I've thought it, but never have I been able to implement it either. Maybe someday.
I think I may know why. I think when it's time for us to get up our REM sleep is getting interrupted. I think I read somewhere that REM cycles last about 4 hours. So maybe when we wake up at 4 or 5 a.m. that's at the end of our REM cycle. Then when my alarm goes off at 7:00 I'm in the middle of an REM cycle so I want to cry!
Well, it was a good thought, but 4:00 or 5:00 am is CRAZY. The only way I would get up that early is if I was on a plane bound for Europe.
I have thought many a time about getting up a little earlier. Crap, I could get up at 7:00, workout for 30 minutes and still be earlier to work than I am now. A friend of mine gets up at 4:30 everyday to run. FREAK! But alas, it has never happened. However, I like to workout at work, breaks up the day. And I'm going to start working out after work too a few nights a week. I am on a mission. Josh
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