How do you motivate yourself to get out of bed early and go to the gym?

I used to do this, and I'd get up at 5:30 to be at the gym for 6:00... then workout and shower and be at my desk by 8:30. But I can't seem to do it now! All I want to do is sleep, and I'm going to bed at 9 or 10 p.m. So I need some way to kick myself out of bed. I would go to the gym at night but I work long hours and usually get too exhausted and hungry by the time I get out at night to then workout for 1.5 hours and then drive home. Any suggestions?

I feel this way too, sometimes, but probably for a different reason.  First of all, if you're at the gym for 1 1/2 hours, you're probably burning a ton of calories.  What's your calorie intake each day?  Remember that you need at least 1200 calories each day, and more if you're exercising.  A multivitamin and/or iron supplement might help, as well.

I'm not sure how to motivate yourself but as abbie has noticed it seems to be that you don't have enough energy. Try eating a fruit before you go work out I do that usually and it gives me the little energy boost I need.

Also do you like working out at the gym? If you don't maybe that is why you're blocking yourself from doing it and it's time to do something else instead?

Going to bed at 9 or 10pm should give you enough sleep to get up at 5:30am. I think you just need to do it. Get all your stuff ready the night before and go get out there.

The only thing standing in your way is you yourself!

I work out three times a week usually from 5:15 to 6:45am and if I feel like it I'll go at night but oftentimes like you said I'm not in the mood to do so after a day at work.

i would like the magic solution to this one too! My fiance does it...he's outta bed by 6am and heads straight to the gym. When I ask how he does it, the answer is, "I just do." Ok, well that doesn't help me. I have managed to do it a couple times, but I can't get into a regular schedule. I am a SNOOZE hitter -- I will set the alarm early, intending to get up and go to the gym, but when it starts buzzing, I end up hitting the snooze six or seven times. I am ok with going after work, I would just rather go before so that I have my entire evening...

Oh sazino, you've hit it right on! That deadly snooze!

I eat a lot, probably too much, to the point where I gain a lot of weight if I don't exercise and don't lose any no matter how much I work out. So I doubt it is from lack of energy from not enough food. I even pack up my stuff in advance so I don't wake up my partner when I'm shuffling around before the crack of dawn to get out the door. And I always make sure to eat breakfast before I go. My problem is that initial step, the part where I hit that darn snooze button until it's two hours later!

Hey there, if you have enough energy you need to realize that you are stopping yourself from going by hitting snooze continuously.

I think it's quite clear from what you've posted that you keep yourself from "just doing it".

Try putting your alarm on the other side of the room and sleeping in your workout clothes.  When you wake up, wash your face with cold water.

in the beginning you need the motivation but after a while it just becomes a habit. so get to it. its never easy in the beginning but just imagine how much better you will feel and how much ease you will have throughout the day knowing that you have exercised. endorphins will be pumping.

Getting up at 5:30 am comes naturally for me. I even do it on weekends! I don't think it's because I'm more motivated, I'm just a morning person. My wife is a late night person so we get a lot of time alone. :-)

I agree with sabineyyr that you might want to work on getting more energy. Then you could simply do your workout after work. I have been through the same problem and kept tinkering with my meal plans until I got relief. It really helped.

I also think that everyone is so different that there is no one "right" way. (Well, there are some immutable laws but within those laws, there's a lot of individual customization.) What I find useful is to do what you are already doing. Finding out what works for others and trying some that make sense to you. If it works, great, if it doesn't move onto something else.

i have no motivation in the mornings.

i workout right after dinner (well, 20 minute digestion time is required) and that's when i have the most energy.

For me, I got no problems for mornings either. I go to bed around 10 and wake up at 6 every morning. I just got use to it over the months. As for working out, the trick is, I don't go to the gym. I do my cardio outside and the rest of my workouts at home. Got some dumbells and researched the excercises to target what muscles I wanted to work on, online.

I can never stay motivated if I have to go to the gym. So staying at home to excercise, I find it menageable to do every day.

Nigth before, I prepare my workout clothes beside me and set my alarm clock (cell phone) at a item basket at the foot end of my bed. The first  thing I put on in the morning is my work out clothes.

What makes it easier to wake up for me, I'm up a bit before my alarm clock because I drink tea before I go to bed. lol, you know what drinking tea does to you.

I know this sounds crazy, and I've never tried it, but it makes some sense.

I was reading a website by some guy who was trying to get through life by sleeping only 4 hours a day or some such.  In any event, his plan was to "practice" getting up every time the alarm rang.  He "trained" by laying down in his PJs in the middle of the day, setting the alarm for 3-4 minutes later, and then practicing getting up each and every time it rang - he'd do like 5 reps 3-4 times a day.  According to him, it "trained" him not to hit the snooze and get up immediately (kind of like a Pavlov dog thing).  Who knows, it might work! :)  Practice getting up, putting on your workout clothese and getting out the door.

I used to get up at 4:30 every morning and then make it to school by 7:30...ah, the luxury of being in college now, when class does not start til' Noon...but that doesn't mean I do not KICK myself out of bed in the morning to work out!When my alarm goes off I JOLT out of bed: I mean it! Exercise has to be of great importance to you to get motivated to get out of bed, and for me it is!! I get up @ 7:45 every morning to go to the gym, even though class isn't until noon! It is great to start off the day with a nice, good, long & hard work out! 

It really is gias. Makes the day feel more accomplished.

hello ained,

Have you thought about doing classes at the gym rather than working alone? If there are morning classes you might feel more encouraged to go, perhaps you will meet friends there and not want to let them down by not showing up? Or, as you have booked the class, you might think "Damn I booked it, now I better make sure I go".

This could work for an evening class as well, though I see that's tough for you as you work long hours. The sociable atmosphere may help though, to beat the "workout blues"

I do a lot of classes (yoga/pilates, Combat, weights, boxercise) and found that I am not much of a fan of working out alone but I get really motivated as part of a class.

Haha I pay for classes at the gym, but they're at night, and I don't always go... I've been losing my motivation a lot lately. And I honestly LOVE my kickboxing class, but I still don't go. I don't get it...

I don't like to work out at night though because I'm generally exhausted, and because I wake up when I exercise, which means I get to bed late, and the next day I'm even more exhausted... so I'd rather get it done in the morning so it's DONE and not something I can put off another day later on when I'm leaving work.

I tell myself a few things in the morning:

• first of all I need a shower anyway so I need to get up early anyway
• The traffic is always worse later in the morning but the roads are really quiet that early in the morning so its easier to get to work.
• I need to kick start my metabolism in the morning, it helps me through the day
• I'll only regret it later if I don't go and feel like I need to go at night but if I get up in the morning I feel I can miss the night class if i don't feel like it because I've worked out in the morning
• I also make sure my bag is packed so its just a case of getting up and going.
• I never hit snooze, its the worst thing I can do in the morning because I know I'll lie there and think of all the reasons I shouldn't go to the gym so as soon as the alarm goes off I get up and go.

 I think if you make sure you are prepared to go to the gym in the morning and have a few reasons to go you can persuade yourself, I hate getting up so early, its dark in the UK at 6.00am and everyone else in the house is still sleeping but I know I'll feel better once I've been.

Yay for spam....

Here's how I solved the snooze alarm "problem":

• I have 2 alarm clocks. One is near my bed and set for about 20 minutes before I get "have to" get up. The other is across the room and can't be snoozed without getting out of bed and is set for the time I "have to" get up.
• When the 1st alarm goes off, I snooze it (I often don't even remember doing so).
• But by the time the 2nd alarm goes off, I'm awake enough to realize that I  have to get out of bed to snooze it, so I get up and shut it (and the other alarm) off.

Works for me....

the article zarelha talked about is on Steve Pavlina's blog:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how- to-become-an-early-riser/

He has a lot of good ideas and motivational articles; I'd check it out.

His method is what I used to get up early. Until this fall, I swore to anyone I was just not "made" to wake up and exercise early. I used to go in the afternoons and evenings which it made really convenient to push aside or make up excuses, or to just genuinely be too busy with stuff that came up. I started setting my alarm for 7am and went to bed when I felt tired, regardless of the time. It worked, and now I run as soon as I wake up. I seriously would never have thought I'd be "one of those [crazy early morning exercise] people"... but I'd never go back now. It's so awesome to work out first thing, be done with it, and feel good all day :)

I also put my alarm on the other side of the room, so I have to get up to turn it off. By then I'll rarely dive back into bed, since I want to pee and drink a glass of water and all that. Also, turn on all the lights/open the curtains. I read somewhere once that you want to get the most light into your eyes as quickly as possible. Splashing water on the face works well too.

It was hard for me to get up the first week or so.....but I've been doing this everyday (only 4 three weeks though) but like others have said, if you don't get it out of the way first thing, I found that when I exercised in the evenings, things came up so I didn't make it to the gym.

Now exercise gives me the jolt that I need to become fully awake in the morning.

After I've exercised, it feels like the equivalent of drinking 3 jolt colas.  So I get up because then it's out of the way, and I know by the time I'm finished it will have woken me up fully.

Just what others have said :)