Life and Fitness Coach in Toronto: 10 Reasons Morning Workouts Transform Your Life

Hi, I’m Roman Mironov, a life and fitness coach in Toronto.

I’m a strong believer in morning workouts.

Do you have a hard time waking up in the morning?

That’s good!

It means you have untapped potential for transforming your day by working out in the morning.

No, seriously!

My own experiments with morning workouts as a life and fitness coach in Toronto

I am an early morning person.

And I‘ve been experimenting with earlier workouts since 2007.

As a morning go-getter, I saw a host of benefits almost immediately.

It felt great to be at the office at 8:30 am, with my sweat session for the day already completed.

I also felt energetic while many of my colleagues were reaching for the second or third cup of coffee.

I also felt strong as a result of exercising the discipline that I needed to wake early and hit the gym.

So, as a life and fitness coach in Toronto, trying morning workouts is now one of my first recommendations to weight loss clients.

Benefit 1: I don’t have to worry about my workout all day.

Completing my workout in the morning frees me from thinking about it during the course of the day.

For example, I’m not a fan of leg days.

Whenever I had a leg workout later in the day, I kept thinking about it all day.

And I’d rather save mental energy for more important tasks.

After all, there is a limited supply of that energy in our brain, as Caroline Webb explains in her book How to Have a Good Day.

Benefit 2: Make workout a priority.

Doing it in the morning means my sweat session a priority for me—just as it should be.

If I put it off till the afternoon, I might skip it because I might forget about it or get tired.

Can you imagine going to the gym for a leg session after a stressful day at work?

To me, that would be a nightmare.

Benefit 3: Create momentum for the day.

I love to start my day with tackling a challenge like a workout session.

My morning training creates momentum for a productive day.

When it gets too difficult, I remind myself that this is the most difficult moment of my day.

Everything is downhill from here.

This is a powerful reframe—make sure to try it.

Benefit 4: Feel happier, thanks to endorphins.

A morning workout also makes me feel great because my body releases “feel-good” chemicals.

A study from 2012 suggested that this was a natural drug, producing euphoria.

I think of it as my body’s way to thank me for honoring it with exercising.

Working out and getting these chemicals released in the evening sounds like a sort of waste to me.

Unless you’re an owl, that is.

Benefit 5: Raise your standards.

My morning sweat session is a foundation for a powerful morning ritual.

It’s a combination of positive things that I do to energize for the entire day.

They can include working on mindfulness, studying self-help materials, practicing affirmations, or journaling about my goals.

I learned about the value of rituals from Tony Robbins.

He explains that having rituals like this morning ritual raises my standards.

Standards are what I identify myself with.

The key here is that my subconscious mind helps me stay consistent with my standards.

So it requires little or no willpower.

When I spend my morning doing good for my body and mind, I know that being healthy and fit is my standard.

So throughout the rest of the day, I make choices that honor my health more easily.

Benefit 6: Take advantage of high energy in the morning.

We tend to have more energy in the morning and less in the evening.

Following that pattern for our workouts seems a logical thing to do:

• In the morning, we can make more reps, lift bigger weights, or run longer. This might bring the best results.
• In the evening, we are tempted to skip that last rep that is the most important. The training might be less effective.

Benefit 7: Eat more in the morning and less in the evening.

Consuming a larger part of our daily calories in the morning rather than in the evening might help lose weight.

A study from 2013 showed that the overall daily glucose, insulin, and mean hunger scores were significantly lower in this scenario:

 

Yet, another study confirmed that eating 50%, 30%, and 20% of kcal at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, respectively compared to eating 20%, 30%, and 50% of kcal led to greater weight loss and regularity of sleep onset and wake times:

Waking up earlier for an exercise session makes me eat more for breakfast and lunch.

That aligns my meals with my natural cycle.

But if I work out in the evening, that means I’ll eat less in the morning and more in the evening.

That might not be honoring my natural cycle. (By the way, it’s called circadian rhythm.)

For me, this is a big reason I don’t like working out in the evening.

I remember how I used to come back home after weight training and eat a lot to build muscle.

I hated that! I wasn’t hungry because I had already consumed most of my calories earlier in the day!

Benefit 8: Morning workouts might be better for health than evening ones.

Given our circadian rhythm, morning exercise might be more healthy than evening exercise.

A study published in 2011 showed evening exercise might affect cardiac autonomic control of heart during the first sleeping hours:

This is still a hypothesis.

So I think it’s a good idea to test it for yourself.

Take me for example: I’ve experimented a lot and found that working out earlier in the day is best for me.

Benefit 9: Sleep better.

By getting up earlier for a morning workout, I indirectly increase the quality of my sleep.

It’s because when the evening comes, I am tired and want to sleep naturally.

This helps me make my bedtimes regular and sleep well.

And it also makes it easier for me to get out of bed in the morning.

This was confirmed by a sleep regularity tudy conducted in 2017:

Sleep regularity is one reason why I don’t sleep in or have trouble falling asleep.

And it has such a positive effect on my well-being.

Benefit 10: Feel good about yourself.

Last, but not least, a selfish benefit!

I feel good about myself when I am working out while everyone else is still sleeping.

I know this is an egoistic thought!

But hey, when I run on an empty, sleeping street, I just can’t help giving myself a little pat on the back.

Disadvantage 1: You need to wake up early.

As a weight loss coach, I’ve seen great results in clients who switched to morning workouts.

But it’d be fair to talk about some of the disadvantages as well.

First, I’ve had to train yourself to wake up early to fit in your sweat session before work.

Aside from the actual workout time, you need time for a pre-workout meal and some time to let your body digest it.

As a morning go-getter, I love exercising the discipline to wake up early. And having the time for my morning routine.

But this is definitely not for everyone.

Disadvantage 2: Early bedtimes aren’t conducive to social life.

When I wake up early, I have to go to bed early as well.

Watch this video for my best tip to

This might be good for me physically but is often an issue socially.

My partner or friends might be unhappy about that.

They want me to hang out with them whereas I’m heading toward the bedroom.

My best recommendation as a life and fitness coach Toronto: experiment!

I’ve found that morning workouts are best for me.

But I realize that we all have conflicting priorities.

For example, I myself love working in the morning as well because this is when I can concentrate most.

So do I work in the morning or hit the gym?

That’s a question everyone should find their own answer to.

I do encourage you to work out in the morning, but it’s important that you try first and see how it goes.

Here’s what I want you to do:

Commit to morning exercise for the next 3 weeks. You might love it so much that afternoon or evening workouts will be out of the question for you.

One more thing to get you started: your training doesn’t have to be extremely intensive.

What matters more at this early point is regularity—developing a habit.

A study of exercise for the clinically depressed showed that regularity was more important than duration or intensity in this sense:

So start small with this transformation.

Do yoga, for example.

Get results in weight loss by working with a life and fitness coach in Toronto

If you need help losing weight and getting healthy, feel free to contact me.

I am a life and fitness coach in Toronto helping clients lose weight and get in shape in a sustainable way.

I offer a free clarity session where we’ll meet each other and understand your needs.

I’ll explain to you both the physical and mental components of weight loss.

You’ll walk away from this session with a clear understanding of how I will support you as a life coach on your way to losing weight.

Book this free introductory session now and see for yourself.