Minor victories

Yesterday and today, I managed to exercise within an hour of waking up. I haven't done my full workout, but I've managed to do two sets of pushups and a set of other exercises.

(For some reason, starting to do pushups is the hardest part of my workout. I think it's because that's the one exercise that most noticeably leads to failure.

("Failure" is a term that refers to an inability to continue an exercise. If you're lifting weights, and hit a point that you just can't lift the weight any more, that's "failure". It doesn't have any sort of negative connotation in this context... it means you've worked your muscles as hard as they'll go, for the moment.)

I hope to hit the gym today, as well... which is the point of the early-morning workout. If I hit the gym, and do a heavy aerobic workout, I won't be able to work out as hard at night.

So, for my friends with military experience (or any other experience working out in the morning): is it normal to find that you can't do nearly as much when you first wake up? If you can normally do 40 pushups, is it normal to find you can only do 30-35 right after waking up? And does this ever get any better? (Or, hell, does it ever get easier to work out in the morning? It takes a hell of an effort of will not to sit down and get lost in LJ instead.)

I've also (finally!) acquired my SAD light. It seems to be helping, but I'm in a bit of a down spot mentally, at the moment, so it's hard to tell for sure. At the same time, if it wasn't helping, I doubt I'd have been able to force my body to exercise two mornings in a row.

Minor victories

Yesterday and today, I managed to exercise within an hour of waking up. I haven't done my full workout, but I've managed to do two sets of pushups and a set of other exercises.

(For some reason, starting to do pushups is the hardest part of my workout. I think it's because that's the one exercise that most noticeably leads to failure.

("Failure" is a term that refers to an inability to continue an exercise. If you're lifting weights, and hit a point that you just can't lift the weight any more, that's "failure". It doesn't have any sort of negative connotation in this context... it means you've worked your muscles as hard as they'll go, for the moment.)

I hope to hit the gym today, as well... which is the point of the early-morning workout. If I hit the gym, and do a heavy aerobic workout, I won't be able to work out as hard at night.

So, for my friends with military experience (or any other experience working out in the morning): is it normal to find that you can't do nearly as much when you first wake up? If you can normally do 40 pushups, is it normal to find you can only do 30-35 right after waking up? And does this ever get any better? (Or, hell, does it ever get easier to work out in the morning? It takes a hell of an effort of will not to sit down and get lost in LJ instead.)

I've also (finally!) acquired my SAD light. It seems to be helping, but I'm in a bit of a down spot mentally, at the moment, so it's hard to tell for sure. At the same time, if it wasn't helping, I doubt I'd have been able to force my body to exercise two mornings in a row.