How to Make Early-Morning CrossFit a Habit That Sticks

If your schedule only allows you to work out at 5:30 or 6:45 in the morning, this one's for you.

When your alarm goes off at an hour that should be illegal, skipping class can be awfully tempting. We've seen how difficult it can be for newer members to adjust to an early-morning workout schedule. Here are a few things that can help.

Build a Routine That Starts the Night Before

1. Protect Your Sleep

If you have to wake up at 4:30 or 5:00 AM, you can't expect to stay up until 11 PM and feel great during your workout.

Most adults need at least seven hours of sleep, and many benefit from eight or more. When you're regularly cutting your sleep short to exercise, you're making it harder for your body to recover and for yourself to get out of bed the next morning.

Aim to be ready for bed by 10 PM at the latest, and earlier if you're attending the 5:30 AM class. If your alarm goes off at 4:30 AM, you'll likely need to be in bed by 8:30 or 9 PM to get enough rest.

2. Eat Dinner by 7 PM

Late dinners can make early bedtimes more difficult, especially if you're eating a large meal shortly before lying down.

Aim to finish dinner by 7 PM. Eating earlier gives you time to digest before heading to bed. An occasional late dinner isn't going to ruin your workout, but making earlier dinners a habit can help you get to bed on time.

3. Skip the Alcohol the Night Before

That glass of wine or evening beer might help you feel relaxed, but alcohol can interfere with your sleep. Even when it helps you fall asleep faster, it can disrupt sleep later in the night, leaving you feeling poorly rested.

When your alarm goes off before sunrise, you don't have much room for compromised sleep. Skip alcohol on the evenings before your scheduled workouts. You'll have a better chance of waking up feeling rested.

4. Plan Your Training Days Before the Week Begins

One of the easiest ways to miss a workout is to leave the decision until your alarm goes off. You're tired. Your bed is warm. You start negotiating with yourself about whether you really need to go today.

Make that decision ahead of time. Look at your schedule each week and decide which days you'll attend class.

At CrossFit Downtown Atlanta, we recommend training five days a week. Our programming is designed around regular attendance, giving you opportunities to build strength, improve conditioning, and develop skills throughout the week.

If you're new to early-morning workouts, though, you don't have to jump straight into five days. Build up to it. For example:

• Week 1: Two early-morning classes during the workweek, plus Saturday's 9 AM class.

• Week 2: Three early-morning classes, plus Saturday.

• Week 3: Four early-morning classes, plus Saturday.

If you need more than three weeks to work up to five classes, that's fine. Just keep moving toward the goal.

5. Stop Cherry-Picking Workouts

We all have movements we love and movements we'd happily never see on the whiteboard again. But if you start checking the workout before deciding whether to attend class, you're setting yourself up for trouble. Maybe you skip because you don't like running. Then another day because there are burpees. Before long, you've missed most of your planned workouts.

There's a reason we program movements you might not particularly enjoy. Avoiding the things you're not good at means missing opportunities to improve them.

And remember, you don't have to be good at a movement to come to class. Our coaches will help you modify movements and scale the workout to your ability.

Choose your training days based on your schedule, not the workout.

Make Your Morning as Easy as Possible

When your alarm goes off at 4:30 AM, the fewer decisions you have to make, the better.

Before going to bed, lay out your workout clothes, pack anything you need for the gym, and have your water bottle ready. If you drink coffee before class, set that up the night before, too. Nobody wants to spend five minutes looking for their gym shoes at 4:30 in the morning.

For many of our members, early morning is the only time that fits their work and family responsibilities. When you've planned your week and prepared the night before, there's a lot less standing between you and your workout.

Get yourself to the gym, and we'll take care of the rest.