The importance of sleep and recovery for training.

Have you ever set up an alarm at night, planned your next day, woken up early, meditated and did some mobility, ate a healthy breakfast, and showered all before going to work? Most people would think that it is impossible or unachievable because they don’t have enough time in the morning! They cannot get out of bed, they barely have time to get caffeinated and ingest some carbs before leaving for work still half asleep. If you are one of these people, you are not alone! But what if I told you that there was a way for you not to feel so miserable in the morning and to leave the house feeling energetic and ready for the day? This comes with having a solid morning routine. 

Your morning is your opportunity to set an intention for the day and prepare the rest of your day. If you start your day rushing out of the door and swearing at the world, your day is likely going to continue in this direction. Anything that is going to get thrown at you will be received as a negative and you will catch yourself saying things like “Could this day get any worse?!” or the usual “today really sucks!”

Now imagine a scenario where you woke up a bit earlier than usual. You did not look at your phone, but instead you got up and made your bed so you would not be tempted to go back into it. You made coffee; you did some mobility to wake your body up, maybe you even dared to do 10 min of exercise. You then set up some intention for the day, you showered, and made a healthy breakfast. While drinking coffee and eating breakfast, you picked up your phone for the first time to check on some notifications and to answer some personal texts and/or emails, as well as check some accounts or read some news. You did not have to think about what you would wear today as you already picked your outfit last night before going to bed so things would go smoothly in the morning. 

Now you might be thinking that this second scenario could never be you. But it does not take much to establish a more productive and healthier morning routine. Sure, you might not start working out every day before work, but 5 min of movement is enough. 2 minutes of thinking about your day ahead and setting up some intentions is enough. 15 min to make a healthy breakfast and eating it is enough. And if you made the necessary plans the night before, you won’t even have to pick an outfit or waste time trying to find this shirt that you could swear you saw in your closet yesterday. 20 extra minutes is really all it takes to start the day on a better note and set up some positivity for the rest of the day. And if 20 minutes still does seem impossible, start with 5 minutes. Get up 5 minutes earlier, make your bed, make coffee, and set intentions for the day. And the next week try to get up 8 minutes earlier and add one thing to your morning routine. Over time you might end up waking up 20 minutes earlier or even more and start having more productive days!