10 benefits to working out early in the morning:

[Pic from here]

1.) If you pack your bag the night before, which is especially easy if you keep travel sized toiletries in your gym back at all times, you can be out of the house in 5 minutes flat. Because, really, you don't have to "get ready" just to go sweat.

2.) At 5:00 in the morning, there is virtually no traffic, and most of the stop lights are still flashing. With this setup, you can get all the way across town in 12-15 minutes, which is way more ideal than the alternative 45 minutes it takes when you start the commute at 7:15.

3.) There's no need for sunglasses, because there is no sun shining in your eyes. However, you do get the opportunity to watch the beautiful sunrise paint the clouds from the interstate.

4.) Fewer people crowd the gym, and they are usually the same group of (generally older) people in your classes. This allows you to make some friends who are nice to you, so you don't feel like such a moron when you mess up a certain exercise, lose your balance, or need to take a breather ten minutes before the routine is over. Instead, they just say "You're doing a great job!" while they, themselves, are also huffing and gasping for breath.

5.) Even though you're not wearing any make up, your face gets so red from the workout that it masks the pimples for you, anyway. So there's no reason to be self-concious of your too-old-for-this-acne-situation.

6.) You only have to take one shower per day, rather than a shower before work and then another shower after an evening workout.

7.) Taking your daily showers at the gym means you're using their water instead of your own. Which, in turn, compensates your water bill for all the time you're sprinkling gallons of water onto your lawn throughout the summer heat.

8.) You get to see your husband on the days that you might not otherwise. Well, I guess this one only applies if you're me and your husband is Brad Mehaffey, and he works at the hospital which also provides you with the fitness center that you use. The morning is a "common time" for each of us. Usually, the only time that we are both not working is also the same time that we are both in commute to and from our perspective jobs. But if we work out, it provides a "common area" to accompany our "common time."

If he's just worked an overnight shift, he gets off work at 7:00 in the morning, and I see him when I'm done in the locker room and on my way out to head to work. If he's working a day shift, I see him in the beginning when we start working out at the same time, before he leaves for work at 6:30. With his crazy work schedule, the gym-time is sometimes the only time I get to see him over a 4 or 5 day period, since he most often works in the evening when I am home, and I work during the days, when he's at home. (This was a long benefit on my list, but, let's face it, it's my favorite one!)

9.) You get the exercise out of the way, then officially start your work day at 8:00 just like everybody else. If it weren't for the jelly legs every time you go up or down stairs, walk, stand up, or sit down, you'd forget that you even worked out that morning at all.

10.) It avoids the "I don't have time" argument, because there are no other distractions, obligations, or commitments (besides sleep) at that time of day, which means it doesn't interfere with any social plans. So you might actually get your work out in, instead of changing your mind because something better and more fun happens to come up.

The only drawback to working out early in the morning?

You're working out! Early in the morning! Blegch!