Greetings from North Hollywood!
Do you want to workout at 5am? I mean, who doesn’t want to be that person. Up and at it – crushing a hard morning workout and then crushing the rest of the day?
Obviously not everyone. Some people just admit it’s not their thing. And to be honest, it’s not my thing either. But, if I had to, I would, and sometimes… you might have to.
Let me illustrate something I see all time…
Person A walks into the gym. Signs up, and they’re joining the 5am Crew. #dedication.
Then, they make three 5am sessions, and they vanish. I’ve followed up with people in this position and overwhelmingly heard something like, “It felt great, but I was just too tired”…
Person B walks into the gym. Signs up, and they’re joining the 5am Crew. #dedication.
Then they make the 5am every day for 6 years.
I’ve asked myself why this is over the years why is this?
And I think I’ve figured it out, and I’m going to share it with you.
There is 1 fundamental reason, and then a few things you can do to increase the likelihood your 5am routine sticks.
Commit to the 5am Lifestyle
I’m sorry to say it. I wish it was less obvious. But your lifestyle has to match getting up at 4:00am. You might stunned how many people seem to think that getting up and working out at 5am is just willpower – keep going to bed at 12:00am but just get up and train… forever. It never, ever works this way, and can’t. Even if you did manage to only get 4 hours of sleep per night and go to the gym consistently you wouldn’t improve at all. 1) That’s just how important sleep is. 2) You wouldn’t be able to recover or actually have any energy to put into training. And when you’re tired, you eat lots of junk food… before I go into this too much here is a list of a few things you can do to really get that 5am Lifestyle!
Thing to do #1: Go to bed WAY earlier
Get enough sleep, and remember – getting 8 hours of sleep generally requires 9 hours in bed. So if you can manage to wake up at 4:30am and get to the gym by 5am, this means being in bed, attempting to fall asleep at 7:30pm. Can you commit to that? It’s a really serious question. Could you get away with 8:00pm or 8:30pm, sure, but it probably won’t be optimal. You might be shocked at the number of people trying to workout at 5:00am that go to bed at 11:00pm and wake up at 4:00am. That’s 5 hours in bed – which is probably more like 3.5-4 hours of sleep. That’s just not going to work.
Thing to do #2: Do everything WAY earlier
If you are going to bed between 7:30pm-8:00pm your evening needs to match that type of lifestyle. Again, you’d be stunned at the number of people that think they can eat dinner at 9:00pm, start winding down at 10:00pm, and get in bed at 11:00pm and make the 5am. If you’re doing the 5am, this means everything needs to happen earlier. This means having dinner at 5:00pm. It means finishing work at 3pm. It means starting to wind down for sleep at 7:00pm. If you can’t do these things you either need to change your lifestyle so you can, or you need to choose a later time to train!
Thing to do #3: Go to bed at the same time 7x/week
I see people regularly give themselves shift work disorder, or jet lag themselves. M-F they’re up at 5am and in bed at 8pm. Then, on the weekends, they’re up until 2am and sleeping until 11am. Let me tell you first hand, this is miserable and so suboptimal for health and fitness it’s not worth doing at all. If you really want to crush life (health and fitness style) go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every single day. The benefits of this cannot be overstated. For the 156th time – your lifestyle has to match a 5am workout routine. This means going to bed early, all the time. (or 95%+ of the time).
Thing to do #4: Make waking up convenient
This means having EVERYTHING ready the night before. Clothes out, quick and light breakfast you can eat in the car on the way to the gym, keys, phone, wallet, all ready to go. Anything you can do to reduce the amount of time it takes you to get ready you should do. If you can sleep until 4:40 and still get to the gym at 4:59am, this is going to be more sustainable than having to wake up at 3:30am.
Thing to do #5: Make 5am friends
If all of your friends stay up until 1am, there is absolutely zero chance you being the 5am person you want to be. This doesn’t mean to cut people off, but it does mean that if you want increase your chances of sticking to your 5ams, you’ll want to associate with people that do the same thing. This way, when they want to hang out on Saturday night, you’ll know that means hanging out at 3:00pm and heading home at 6:00pm. You can meet these people at the gym, coincidentally, at 5am.
Thing to do #6: Get on the same page as your spouse
5am lifestyle takes work. Especially if you have kids. The people with spouses and kids that make the 5am lifestyle work plan out their days/weeks with the 5am workout in mind with the full, complete support of their spouse. Make to get on the same page and talk about what the looks like for you, and how you’re going to commit to making the 5am a lifestyle, vs a phase.
If you want to make the 5am workout lifestyle work for you, then you actually have to adopt the lifestyle! Go to be earlier – heck, do everything earlier – make it as easy as possible, surround yourself with friends that are on the same page, and communicate/plan with your spouse!
You can’t just take a “Stay up late, 5am workout, no sleep” lifestyle. It just won’t work long term, and you’re probably going to hate it in the short term. If you want to make the 5am work, make these adjustments to maximize your chances of success!
ALSO…
If you do want to join a 5am Crew… we’ve got one. Book that consultation!
Coach Connor
Find me on instagram @connorgreen3000 and the gym @sparkfitnessla
Find me on YouTube here @connorgreen3000 and the gym here @sparkfitnessla
