It’s well known that movement is a crucial health habit for our body. Movement includes all type of activity, both high and low intensity and it can be any type of duration and any sort of loading or amount. The key criteria is movement.
When we move, there’s a number of responses that our body has. These responses will occur to a varying degree dependent on the type, duration and intensity of movement. And the large majority of the time, this is a great thing for your body! There is a small difference between the reactions when they happen in the morning and when they happen in the evening, so don’t think that because this article is recommending to move in the morning, that it’s detrimental to your health to exercise in the evenings. Not at all. Movement and exercise is good for your body, and it’s only a slight advantage to move in the morning because of the positive impact that it will have on your day.
The most well known response, is the hormonal output of cortisol. This is our primary stress hormone, it it’s a hormone that alerts us, it wakes the body up, it increases the cognitive function of our brain and it’s the hormone that is responsible for making us feel really good after a solid workout.
Cortisol is a misunderstood hormone, over the years, it has seemed to get a bad reputation for being ‘the stress hormone’. But it’s actually a hormone that if we have too little, we suffer, but if we have too much, we also suffer. So getting a boost of cortisol to start your day, can be a positive action. So many people really enjoy to start their day with movement and exercise because they feel energised for the rest of their days – thank you cortisol.
After lying down for 6-8 hours, our bodies are stiff. Imagine sitting in a car for that amount of time, you get stiff! That’s why, for most of us, our automatic instinct in the mornings is to have a big stretch as we wake up. Our joints and muscles can only function when there’s blood circulation and synovial fluid (a natural, essential joint lubricant) flowing. When we sleep, our heart rate is low, meaning that there’s not much circulation of blood, oxygen and nutrients. So waking up and increasing your heart rate (even slightly), and increasing your range of motion, can benefit your joints and muscles to prepare them and keep them safe during a day of work, activity and more movement.
Similarly, during sleep, our digestive system also slows down to conserve energy. By waking up and instantly moving in some way, we cause the metabolism/our engine to kick start and initiate burning our fuel sources. Without movement, our digestive system will take more time to start up for the day and this could decrease our metabolic function, but also make us feel less energised in the mornings. The intensity of your movement doesn’t have to be super high for this reaction to occur, so this is a huge benefit.
As mentioned before, there’s nothing wrong with exercising in the evening. However, if you do exercise in the evening, it could be advantageous for you to find some type of movement that you could do in the morning.
Some ideas:
• Ride your bike around the corner and back, doesn’t have to be anything more than 500m
• Flow through 3-10 dynamic stretches for 60 seconds
• Complete a TABATA of basic body weight movements
• Play with the kids or the dog in the garden
• Practice juggling or balancing on one leg
• Anything that makes you move bigger than sitting or standing!
We are humans, we are designed and made to move.
Start your day without limit.