Pre-Workout Routine: Morning Routine to CRUSH Your Day & Workout

Pre-Workout Routine

Why should you build a routine that leads into your workouts? Why should certain parts of your days follow a pattern of actions that you can perform without thinking?

There’s a few reasons to build a solid pre-workout or morning routine.

If you regularly perform the same actions prior to a repeated event (work, training, sleep) you signal to your body that the event is coming.

If you’re looking to get to sleep more quickly and easily, create a pre-sleep routine. If you’re looking to increase your training consistency and make it easier to workout, then build a pre-workout routine.

Routines help reduce the thought and effort you have to put forth to perform the series of actions the comprise the routine.

Instead of waking up and thinking about all the various tasks you need to complete before you leave for work, you automatically begin that routine, which decreases the likelihood of you forgetting something and frees up mental space for other more important tasks.

Lastly, routines give us solid anchors each day. You cannot routinize everything – even if you’re a monk, unexpected things will arise that you’ll have to address.

These anchors help create control and peace when other aspects of our life and periods of the day come with chaos.

Pre-Workout Caffeine

Caffeine is a performance booster and for many of us something we’ve developed a dependency on. It’s something to consider including in your pre-workout routine.

A little caffeine can help bring us out of our sleepy stupor and provide a boost in the morning or before a workout.

For some people, the acidity of coffee does not sit well on their stomach. You probably want to avoid soda and other heavily or artificially sweetened options. For some, tea (hot or iced) could work. Another option to consider is a caffeine pill.

Some people take pre-workout supplements, which essentially do the same thing.

Lastly, some simply avoid the caffeine in their pre-workout routine, and that’s absolutely okay.

Matt loves his espresso make from ECM. He uses the Mechanikia VI Slim.  Reformation Coffee, which is a local roaster in Springfield, MO.

Pre-Workout Shake

Unless you have extremely limited time and lift almost immediately upon waking, consuming some easily digestible calories is a good idea.

A shake is a great way to pack in mostly fast-digesting carbs with some protein and is something you should consider for your pre-workout routine.

Here is Matt’s pre-workout shake:

• 1 banana
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Fairlife vanilla protein shake
• 1 Tbsp powdered peanut butter

The carbohydrates provide some energy for the workout. Some people feel weaker after a long fast, so the food helps. It coming in liquid form means it digests faster.

Pre-Workout Shower

You don’t want to feel gross and grimy before you workout. Furthermore, especially during the winter, a shower or hot tub can help warm you up before your workout.

A shower, furthermore, means you take off your clothes, so it encourages you to get into your workout clothes before your training session.

Pre-Workout Routine: Lay Out Your Clothes

Work and workout in the appropriate clothing.

Before your pre-workout shower, lay out your clothes on your bed or some similar convenient place.

Putting on your workout clothes should be the final thing that tells your body & mind that it’s time to workout.

Matt likes some of the following items:

• Under Armor socks & compression shorts
• Shirt from either Fresh Clean Threads or A7 Bar Grip Shirt
• Oliver’s Apparel All Over Short