If you often wake up feeling tired, sluggish, and stiff; exercise and hydration could be exactly what you need in your morning routine. Many people often wake up feeling tired, even after getting plenty of rest. Most of us think that it had to do with the quality of our sleep, or the length, some even opting to fall back asleep in attempts to fight against this. When in actuality we often just need to get ourselves warmed up and hydrated.
Newtons third law “An object in motion stays in motion” applies to many things in life, including us. When we have been lying in bed for eight hours, we want to stay. Understanding this makes the solution clear though, and that’s movement. Any kind of movement will work as our main goal is to just get the body running warmer. Once the body is warm and blood is flowing normally, energy levels will rise. So, just remember as soon as you wake up, move. This can be stretching in your bed, crawling out of it slowly, whatever it takes to get you going.
Now the answer is probably obvious at this point but, what do we need to allow for proper blood flow early in the mornings to compliment the movement? The answer is H20. When our body is depleted of water after an eight-hour rest our blood actually becomes less viscous. For those unaware, viscosity is essentially the thickness of a liquid. In this case that liquid is our blood, and the more viscous our blood, the harder it is for our heart to pump it all around our body. So, flooding the body with water as soon as you wake up is essential for waking up and staying up.
Now that we’ve made our way out of the bed, and taken a couple sips of water, you’re probably feeling a little more awake than usual. So, lets really get going with some actual exercise. I recommend a full body movement routine, that can be completed in less than 20 minutes. I look for an exercise that can get the whole body warmed up, like jumping jacks, followed by more targeted exercises to loosen my joints. My routine usually looks something like this: Jumping Jacks-20 reps, Neck Flossing- 10 reps each plane, Shoulder Windmills- 20 reps, Reverse Plank- 45 sec hold, Good Mornings- 25 reps, Jefferson Curl- 25 reps, Cat-Cow- 25 reps, SL Touchdown- 20 reps, Deep Squat- 45 sec hold, and that’s it. I can usually get this done in under 20 minutes, making it convenient for me to get it in before my day really starts.
Now your routine does not have to look like this but, it should be similar to it. This is also not a set-in stone routine, it changes as I learn more exercises, and based on how much time I have in my morning. Be open to change, do whatever you can, and I guarantee your mornings will be infinitely more enjoyable, and productive.