If you feel horrified at the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn to go to the gym before work, you’re not alone. I used to be too! When I started working from home due to coronavirus, though, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. Here are 10 benefits I discovered.

Why I Made This List

I’d like to start by giving credit where it’s due. The reason I wrote this list initially was not to write an article based on it. I’m very new to the whole writing gig and have been feeling my way with varying degrees of success. For that reason, I have devoured the many articles here on Medium which gives advice about how to improve. One of the most useful I found was this article by the amazing Shaunta Grimes. In it, she explains how to generate ideas for content and turn yourself into an ideas machine.

The theory is one she gleaned from James Altucher who suggested adopting a process of making a daily list of 10 new ideas. They won’t all be great ideas, that’s impossible. Some will be downright awful! It does get you in the habit though of always being in idea generation mode. If you do this for a year you’ll have created 3650 ideas! Amazing right? Not all the ideas Shaunta listed were for content, it’s just an exercise designed to get you thinking.

A few days ago I was getting ready for the gym and feeling grumpy. I was tired and wanted the extra 90 minutes in bed. I told myself I was up now and there were lots of good reasons to go. Lightbulb moment! “A-ha!” I thought. “That’s today’s ideas list.”

After the gym and the inevitable day at work, I sat down to compose my list. It was one of the easiest lists of ideas I’ve ever written. I was done in 10 minutes without the usual groping to find the last 2 or 3. I put it aside and moved on to writing. The next day though, when I came to write my next list I found myself re-reading it. I realised it was pretty compelling and just might be worth sharing. Here it is, I leave you to judge if I’m right.

My 10 Reasons To Go To The Gym Before Work

• It gets me used to waking up early. This leaves me time to do other things on days I don’t go. Mostly I use the time to write a post for Medium or my blog. This is extra time that usually I would just be sleeping through.
• Gives me more energy for the day. One of my concerns before I started to go to the gym before work was that I’d be too tired for work after the early start and my workout. To my surprise, it was the opposite. I have more energy.
• It’s nice feeling fresh after a shower just before work. As I’m working from home I don’t bother showering at the gym. Instead, I come home and have a lovely hot shower there. Washing off all the sweat and then stepping into clean clothes feels good and I start work feeling clean and invigorated.
• Waking up 2.5 hours before work means I’m more alert when I begin. It usually takes a while after waking up and a cup of tea to feel fully awake. When I’m already alert when I begin working it increases my productivity.
• Work is easier knowing I don’t have to go to the gym afterwards. As the afternoon wears on and I’m feeling a dip in my energy levels I feel even more exhausted knowing I still have to go to the gym. When I go to the gym before work I look forward to finishing for the day knowing my time’s my own.

• I’m not hungry before I go so I work out fasted. This has two main health benefits. Firstly, working out fasted lowers the body’s insulin levels. This helps improve insulin sensitivity and decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes. Secondly, your body becomes more metabolically flexible in terms of energy usage. When you exercise having not eaten for some time your body doesn’t have its traditional source of sugar for energy. It is forced to burn fat which is less efficient at than using sugars. Over time your body becomes better at converting fat when the sugar runs out. If you’re working out and you run out of fuel from your last meal your body is more practised at burning fat and can do it more easily meaning you can push harder.
• I start hydrating early. I’m terrible for remembering to drink enough through the day. I have to drink at the gym to complete my workout. Once I’ve started it’s easy to keep drinking.
• Going early frees up time in the evenings to write as well. In the past, I’d sleep later in the morning and then go to the gym after work. When I got back I had to fit in a shower, preparing dinner, eating it, housework, laundry and shopping etc. It doesn’t leave much time to fit in writing and I was always tired after a long day. I worried it affected the quality of my writing.
• It makes me go to bed at a reasonable time. Getting up at 6:30 feels early. Early enough to override my desire to watch one extra episode on Netflix, read one more chapter of a book or one more article on Medium. 8:15 felt much later so I stayed up and never got enough rest. Knowing I have to get up at 6:30 and go to the gym before work keeps me honest and my bedtime schedule on track.
• For number 10 I simply couldn’t put it better than my favourite author when I was a child — Roald Dahl. This is a quote from the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story in his Revolting Rhymes.

An early morning stroll
Is good for people on the whole.
It makes your appetite improve
It also helps your bowels move.

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes

I hope that last one wasn’t too much information! Whether it was or not though we’ve reached the end. 10 reasons it’s good to go to the gym before work. These benefits don’t just apply to the gym of course. Any exercise would work — a run, swimming, a Zumba class or even just a brisk walk.

If you’d like to go to the gym and feel worried, please check out my guide to the gym for helpful tips.

If you try it out and love or hate or find more benefits to add to the list please let me know in the comments.