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Waking up with a Run: Why Morning Exercise Works

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Running is one of the most popular forms of morning exercise, and can help you to start your day in a good mood. If you are not usually a morning person, running early in the day will help you to maintain discipline. You will have to go to sleep early the night before, so you have enough energy to run in the morning.

Benefits of a Morning Run

When you arrive at work after a morning run, you will already be wide awake. Being alert in the morning will allow you to better focus on the tasks at hand, which will increase your productivity. You also do not have to rush home after work to run, since your workout is already finished for the day.

Running in the morning can also help you to lose weight faster. A run will jump start your metabolism early in the morning, so your body burns calories at a faster rate throughout the day. Because you go to bed earlier to have enough rest for the morning run, you probably will not snack as late in the day. The reduction in calories will help you to reach your weight-loss goals faster.

Tips for a Morning Run

Leave yourself plenty of time to run in the morning, because you do not want to be late for work. For example, if you want to run for 20 minutes in the morning, allow yourself 30 minutes so you can cool down before taking a shower. Make sure that you wear a watch when you run in the morning so you know exactly what time it is. If you notice that you are running behind schedule it is fine to shorten your workout, but try to run a little faster to make up for it.

Before you run, lay out the clothes that you are going to wear to work. If you run on an empty stomach, get your breakfast partially ready in case you are a bit behind schedule. Take care of any household duties the night before or right after you wake up, so when you run you do not have to worry about anything except getting a good workout.

If you run at a school track, you can never be certain how long your drive time will take due to possible traffic or car problems. You may want to allow at least 30 minutes of extra time when you are not running in your neighborhood. If you happen to wake up late, just run in your neighborhood instead of driving to the track.

Once you increase your fitness level, you may want to run in the morning and then train with weights in the early evening. This is known as a two-a-day workout, and will boost your weight loss. You do not have to do this type of routine every day, but if you can find the time to do at least one of these double workouts each week, you will be well on your way to reaching your weight-loss goals.

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