Move Every Morning In March

Starting the day with exercise improves your productivity, mindset, energy levels and overall fitness. So why is it so hard to do?

We’ve all had the experience of going to bed with great intentions to get up early and go for a run or a bike ride or attend the Fit My Day early bird class. And yet when the alarm goes off, the idea of an extra hour sleep is too much to pass up. The great news is that undertaking as little as 5 minutes of movement has many of the same health benefits that an hour of exercise will achieve, along with some fantastic improvements to our state of mind.

Moving your body for as little as 5 minutes has immediate and long-reaching effects, both physiologically and mentally. Movement will:

Increase blood flow and oxygen supply to your muscles.
Increase your heart rate, strengthening your heart and circulatory system.
Warm your body up from the inside out.
Improve digestion (and therefore regularity!) due to increased activity in your circulatory system.

And the positive effects don’t end there. Exercising in the morning will:

Improve your ability to focus.
Increase your productivity levels.
Encourage you to make better nutrition choices.

Apart from all the health benefits, achieving something at the start of the day puts you in a positive mindset, which has a flow-on effect throughout the rest of your day. It doesn’t have to be a 10km run. Something as small as 5 minutes of exercise or simply making your bed can set you up for a great day. Naval Adm. William McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command explains this idea perfectly:

“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”

To tap into all these positive effects, our challenge for March is to start every day with 5 minutes of movement. You can choose what you would like to do, as long as the movement gets your muscles moving and your heart pumping. Here are 3 simple ideas: