Wake Up to the Treadmill!47 lbs LOSTso farJanuary 28, 2008 by IronGuru | 13 comments
Ever feel tired and sluggish through the day? I do, a lot. I’m a very unmotivated and lazy person, I’ll admit it. But, I force myself (or my workout partner forces me to do it), and the best way I’ve found to keep my energy up through the day, was to do something unorthodox … creative … original.
OK, so it may not be any of those things but it does keep my metabolism high through the day. I feel a lot more energetic, and less likely to procrastinate. By now you’re probably tired of hearing me talk about my day, and want to know what I do! Well, it’s pretty simple. When I wake up, I try my best to hop on the treadmill right after I wake up. I roll over, through my cell phone against the wall for waking me up, then smack my alarm clock which goes off about 30 seconds later … and by now, I’m out of bed good and mad.
I grab my water from the fridge, throw back some green tea caps, ALRI Venom, and some cayenne pepper extract and hit the treadmill. I’m a firm believer in low-impact, high-intensity cardio. I crank the incline all the way up (15% grade on mine), and walk at a brisk pace. I worked up .1 mph every day until I was at a comfortable pace (which is 4.5mph for me, any faster and I feel like I’m jogging), and do this for at least 45 minutes.
I’ll be writing more on the topic, but the basic theory behind this is that the body takes about 20 minutes to burn it’s first-supply of glycogen (sugar). This comes from the liver, after that has been used, the body starts converting fat into energy. This is what sheds the pounds, and takes the waistline down. When you do this right after waking up, on an empty stomach, the body will skip right past the liver (as it used that energy to sustain life while sleeping) and start converting fat stores.
If I happened to lose you through that, I’m sorry. Basically … your body starts burning fat FASTER when you do cardio after waking up and on an empty stomach, then it would if you hopped on the treadmill after having even a simple meal! Aim for more than 30 minutes to really make your cardio session effective, and work at a brisk comfortable pace.
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When i go on my health kicks thats what i do, tredmill and weights in the morning before I eat (the weights arent to try and build muscle so much as accelerate fat burn) then for Brekky I have weetbix and a protein shake
Cool, I do the same. I do it in the morning because it gets it out of the way.
Good call. I love the gym first thing in the morning too.
It leaves the door open for if I want to have a second workout in the afternoon, too.
Sorry, I don’t buy all of your logic. Yesterday I read this article by Alwyn Cosgrove: http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2008/01/january-q-iii.html
Alwyn is constantly beating the interval pulpit, and I’ve read quite a few of the studies that he has pointed at over the past few years and tend to agree with most of what he says.
The main reason that I thought of his article after reading yours, though, is because whether you have an empty stomach or not doesn’t really make a difference in how many calories it takes to walk for 45 minutes. (That, and I read it yesterday.)
Of course, getting the workout in early is great from other perspectives, including extra workouts in the afternoon and also for fully waking you up and energizing you for the day.
Yes, I have another tip for if you are feeling yourself tired. Think about nice things or nice things you will do later on the day or in the weekend which are making you excited, so if you are excited you don’t feel so sad and tired.
you might be interested in my latest post Israel.
Thanks John, I will check that out.
lost 44 lbs so far, your weight loss is going great. I prefer p90x over treadmill though.
I work in the fitness industry and I have to say the treadmill by far is the most popular piece of fitness equipment. There is a reason for that. There is a new piece of equipment that comes out every other week (it seems) and the one that is most talked about is the treadmill. That’s because it works.
No workout is complete without some type of cardio and the morning time is usually the best time to get that exercise. It can certainly help throughout the day.
i agree with you ; the first 15-20 minutes the body consume blood sugar and after that it goes for the fat.
Hi,
Great idea. I’ve been reading a bit about outsourcing our lives and getting a virtual assistant from India. It’s an interesting way to live. We get to free up our time to work on things which are more “important” or worthwhile.
Thanks.
dave
Spot on!
That is true - working out after waking up is the best time to do a workout, especially if you want to lose weight. (Even testosterone levels for men are higher so weight training is better too).
Otherwise it is always preferable to train on a empty stomach.