Most exercise programs are designed to be completed in the evening or during the afternoon, which means that these workouts have specific body requirements and nutritional implications. On the other hand, those who are forced to work out in the morning often have problems with the traditional training and nutritional concepts. If you're one of the athletes who go to the gym in the morning for whatever reason, we've got just the workout for you.
Summary
main goal - Muscle building Workout Type - whole body target group - Beginners Training days per week - 4 Equipment used - barbell, dumbbells, body weight, machines Suitable for - Men and women
Rules for training
No area of power sports is completely without rules. Accordingly, it is also important to note some rules at this point, which may well be familiar to you. On the other hand, you will have to get used to other rules first. 1 - Nothing works without dynamic warm-up Especially in the morning, you do not have all the time in the world, because you finally have to go to work, to school or to university. As a result, it would not be smart to run a sprawling static warm-up program. However, since the training without an adequate warm-up program brings significant performance losses and injury risks, it must not be waived in any case. However, you should resort to dynamic warm-up, which consists of exercises with your own body weight, such as pushups, squats and burpees. 2 - Start with the abdominal muscles In the morning, your spine and surrounding muscles are still cold due to the lack of activity, so the risk of injury increases significantly in the context of sudden stress from heavy weight training. Although dynamic warming already partially addresses this problem, it is still far from sufficient to bring the fabric up to operating temperature. Consequently, every morning workout starts with the training of the abdominal muscles. 3 - Get the maximum out of your warm-up sets Once your body is at operating temperature, you can start with the actual weight training. Since you want to save time, of course, you should refrain from completing your warm-up sets too half-heartedly. In fact, you should not only be careful that the weight you use during warm-up is not too light, but that every single repetition is done with maximum concentration. As a result, as much of your muscle fibers as possible are recruited, which increases the blood flow to the muscles, providing improved potential performance. 4 - Train mainly with moderate weights Of course it is great if you use high weights to gain strength. However, developing your muscles is much better when a lot of your training volume is in the hypertrophy area. So it's best if you set a rep range of 6-12 for most exercises and adjust the weight accordingly. 5 - Persevere This last rule is by far the most important, because the training before dew and day is for most athletes, at least in the short term, a big problem. It is therefore of utmost importance that you consistently pull through your morning workout for a few weeks, because only then do you get used to the early morning strain of body and mind. But once you've made friends with the situation, you will not want to miss out on the benefits of training in the morning.
The workout
As already mentioned, every workout starts with a short dynamic warm-up program that optimally attunes your body to the upcoming training load. The individual workouts are carried out once a week in the given order, whereby the selection of the days is naturally left to you. The sentence pauses are 60 to a maximum of 90 seconds. heat up 3 × 10 pushups 3 × 10 squats 3 × 10 crunches 3 × 10 lunges (with each leg) day 1 Inclined bench press - 3 sets of 4-6 repetitions Flat bench press - 3 sets of 4-6 repetitions Pull-ups in the upper handle (with additional weight) - 3 sets of 4-6 repetitions Barbell rowing in the lower handle - 3 sets of 4-8 repetitions Military-Press standing - 3 sets of 4-8 repetitions Upright rowing with the barbell - 3 sets of 4-8 repetitions Hanging-Leg-Raise - 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions of crunches - 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions day 2 Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 4-6 repetitions Tight bench press - 3 sets of 4-6 repetitions Leg press - 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions Squats - 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions Romanian deadlift - 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions Calf raises Sitting - 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions Incline Sit-Up - 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions Day 3 Dumbbell presses with dumbbells - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Flat bench presses - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Inverted Row - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Rowing on the cable in the parallel handle - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Lateral raises sitting - 3 sets à 8-12 reps Shoulder presses while sitting - 3 sets of 8-12 reps Incline Crunch - 3 sets of 15-20 reps Hanging Knee Ups - 3 sets of 15-20 reps Day 4 Scott Curls - 4 sets of 8-12 repetitions Nosebreaker with dumbbells - 4 sets of 8-12 repetitions Bulgarian Split Squats - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Squats or Leg Press - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Leg Curls - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions standing calf raises - 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions Hanging-Leg-Raise - 3 sets of 15-20 repetitions
Rules for the morning diet
Needless to say, to be able to optimally exercise in the morning, it is also necessary to adapt the diet, because if you have too much, wrong or no breakfast at all, you will not even be able to test your performance limits in the gym. 1 - Beyond your mental block You should first get rid of the idea that you need a big and elaborate breakfast before you can go to the gym. More importantly, your post-workout meal is high in energy and nutrients, as your body needs the nutrients it needs, especially after exercise. 2 - You need less than you think As mentioned in the previous section, you need significantly less food before you workout in the morning than you might think. A small meal is enough to provide your body with an adequate amount of carbohydrate without putting too much strain on your stomach. If you eat too much, your body needs too much blood for the underlying digestive processes, so that just that blood is not available to supply the muscles, which has a negative effect on your performance. 3 - Eat light and low in fat So what should you eat before training? Quite simply, avoid large amounts of food and high-fat foods that occupy your digestive tract much longer than those with a low fat content. A natural yogurt with a bit of fruit or a whey protein shake with a scoop maltodextrin is usually enough to provide you with the best possible workout. 4 - Decide how much food you need How much food you need in the end can not be said all-inclusive, because this factor is very individual and depends primarily on your personal feeling. It's similar after the workout. However, depending on how much time you have left after completing the workout, you should plan to prepare your breakfast in advance so you will not lose time at this point. A post-workout shake made with whey protein and maltodextrin can also be very useful here to cover a portion of your energy needs quickly and cost effectively. 5 - Be patient The need to get used to the morning workout can be easily translated to the change in eating habits that are inextricably linked to morning exercise. So take some time here to get used to the new routine. Maybe this will help you to set up a specific nutrition plan. An example plan for any morning could look like this: Pre-workout (right after getting up) - 1 Scoop Whey Protein - 1 piece of fruit of your choice Post-workout (immediately after training) - 1 scoop whey protein - 1 gram of maltodextrin per kilogram of body weight breakfast - 100 grams of meaty oatmeal mixed with a teaspoon of peanut butter, some cinnamon and water. - Scrambled eggs (3 eggs) - 1 small greek greek yogurt And now fresh to work!
