Kettlebell Morning Workouts and Warming-up

[conor78]

6.30 most mornings otherwise it's the 9 pm graveyard shift in the gym

 

[Kenny Croxdale]

I used to train first thing in the AM to get it out of the way for the day. I was also interested in fasted training to mobilize more lipids to address body comp.

Ryan,

This is going to go off track a little but there some interesting information on it.

Fasted Training

As you know, it does promote more body fat to be utilized for energy. That in part because...

1) Consuming carbohydrate and protein elevate insulin; insulin blocks fat from being burned.

2) Your body been in the longest, lowest aerbobic state there is, sleep. What few calories burned during sleep are predominately fat.

Calorie Intake

While Fasted Training does burn body fat; it play a minimal role in burning body fat.

As Dr Brad Schoenfeld has stated, what little fat burning effect occurs is quickly erased by consuming when more calories are consumed during the rest of the day.

So, whoever said, "Calories Count" was on the money.

With that said, let look at the dogma that Muscle Burns Fat/Calories; it burn less that most have been lead to believe.

Calories burned by muscle vs. fat: another myth bites the dust - Lani Muelrath | Mindful, Active, Vegan Living

..."Muscle tissue has been observed to burn roughly seven to 10 calories per pound per day, compared to two to three calories per pound per day for fat. Therefore, if you replace a pound of fat with a pound of muscle, you can expect to burn only approximately four to six more calories a day."

Some other article I have have indicated more calories are burned than the information stated above. However, it still not that much.

I shifted my training to the afternoon. I’d rather not, but I found that I couldn’t get going and had lower strength in the AM. So for now I training in the the late afternoon/early evening.

Circadian Rhythm

This has to do with your body's cyclical rhythm of your body temperature. You body temperature fluctuates minutely during the day. However, small fluctuations are big numbers.

Some interesting information on this is from Charlie Francis (one of the greatest Sprint Coaches) about...

"Those Whacky East Germans

"The East Germans understood the role of additional heat when an extensive review of world record performances revealed how often the record setter was at the early stages of a cold and running a fever when the record was set. (Later into the cold, the adverse effects outweigh the benefits, of course.) This led the East Germans to experiment with de-natured viruses to generate a slight fever immediately prior to a world record attempt!"

Source: High Octane Training 2 | T Nation

Your Circadian Rhythm is genetic. It determines if your are a...

Early Bird or Night Owl

Early Birds perform best in the morning; their body temperature is elevated then. They are less efficient in the evening.

Night Owls perform best later in the day and evening; there body temperature is elevated then. They are less efficient in the evening.

Warm Up

One of the primary functions of a the Warm Up to increase body temperature.

One of the main issue with many is they turn the Warm Up into a workout. Doing so, mean you burn yourself out before you get to you top set; you end up lifting less than you are capable of.

Warm Up need to be kept to a minimum.

"Grease The Grove"

The main purpose of a Warm Up to is a practice the movement with a light load, progressively increasing it so that the pathway forms between the muscles and your nervous, allowing you to push or pull the greatest load in that movement.

Take Home Message

1) Train when you feel you best.

2) Increase your body temperature prior to training: coffee/caffeine, a warm shower, etc.

3) Fasted Training minimally increase body fat usage.

4) Increasing muscle mass minimally increases the caloric fat burning effect; diet it the key.

Kenny Croxdale

 

[watchnerd]

So, my experience has been that high tension stuff ought to happen later, early mornings are great for mobility and cardio work. But that's a data set of 1.

Ditto. I can do mobility and low intensity cardio in the mornings, but heavy squats or deadlifts don't work out so well.

The question then becomes:

What about KB swings within <30 min of waking up?

 

[Deleted member 5559]

Early Bird or Night Owl
...
One of the primary functions of a the Warm Up to increase body temperature.

One of the main issue with many is they turn the Warm Up into a workout. Doing so, mean you burn yourself out before you get to you top set; you end up lifting less than you are capable of.

I would consider myself an early bird and have been training in the afternoon/evening the last 8 months or so. I notice that not waking so early allows more sleep due to staying up with wife after kids are in bed occurs the same regardless of when I rise which is very beneficial. That said, it takes me significantly longer before I feel strong in the afternoon/evenings. I would go as far to say that I'm not warmed up until 50-75% (30-45min) of the way through the workout even after a warm-up. Every movement requires significantly more volume before it's warmed up too.

 

[thegoldengod]

I’m 34 yrs old, I train within 30 minutes of waking up to get it out of the way since I’ve got 2 babies in the house and want to be consistent with my training.

I haven’t had any injuries yet (training for 2 years with kbs) but I’m also not lifting that heavy (24kg is my working bell).

I’ve found however that I feel better when I train in the afternoon. Not sure why, but I’m guessing it’s because my body is warmed up and I’ve eaten vs. fasted training in the early morning.

 

[Jan]

54 here, and I work out right after getting out of bed around 6:30 (pit stop at the toilet first )
My warming up consists almost solely of OS Resets, usually around 10 minutes. Occasionally I add GS and halos to it, but not often.
My main workout is S&S, slowly progressing from the 24 to the 32 bell.
Feeling great after training.

 

[Deleted member 316]

Since I've been getting off work early I thought I'd workout when I get home from work. Boy. I think the almost two hour drive home drains you more than working out at 330am. Guess I'm going back to morning workouts. At the end of my drive all I want to do is eat and relax

 

[godjira1]

Different strokes for different folks is my guess. My personal experience (at 41) for early morning workouts:

1) No to power work in morning (sprints, clean & jerks). Poor coordination somehow.
2) No to heavy attempts (>90pct 1RM).
3) No hard rolling/sparring; ease into skill work.

4) Yes to Endurance work, especially LISS work. The workout is the warmup.
5) Yes Mobility work like yoga, original strength, etc.
6) Yes to 70-85pct 1RM lifts, especially upper body lifts.
7) Yes to taking additional time to warmup, for me it can take an addiitional 10-15mins, if you have to get the hard and heavy work done in the morning.

 

[Deleted member 316]

As I side note, I have been debating a pre workout to help jumpstart me for my workout after my drive. Thoughts?

 

[Alan Mackey]

Different strokes for different folks is my guess. My personal experience (at 41) for early morning workouts:

1) No to power work in morning (sprints, clean & jerks). Poor coordination somehow.
2) No to heavy attempts (>90pct 1RM).
3) No hard rolling/sparring; ease into skill work.

4) Yes to Endurance work, especially LISS work. The workout is the warmup.
5) Yes Mobility work like yoga, original strength, etc.
6) Yes to 70-85pct 1RM lifts, especially upper body lifts.
7) Yes to taking additional time to warmup, for me it can take an addiitional 10-15mins, if you have to get the hard and heavy work done in the morning.

I'm 47 and my experience confirms all the above.

 

[Steve Freides]

My guess is that our body clocks can be influenced to change. People who move to a new time zone adapt - still on a 24-hour clock, but a different one. No science claimed here, btw.

Personal anecdote - I was always a night person, usually staying up until 2 am or so, and probably somewhere in there, I still am, but when I became a runner, New York summers quickly convinced me that I needed to get my running done in the mornings, and pretty early at that, to beat the heat of the day. And since then, I am an early riser.

As to exercise, if you compete in the USAPL, you'll find many meets done with separate lifting sessions in the morning and the afternoon, and I've trained for meets where I expected to lift in the afternoon only to find out, a few days before the meet, that I'd be lifting in the morning session. For me, then, it's good to do at least some training at different hours.

-S-

 

[JW513]

I'm up at 4:30, have a cup of coffee and light warm up, i'm good to go by 5:20 or so.

I love it, but a lot of mornings, the first 10 minutes i don't wanna get out of bed, but after that I'm fine. I can't work out any time but morning. I have to get it out of the way. But I do walk or do yoga after work when time allows.