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For some swimmers getting up well before the crack of dawn to go jump in a cold pool ranks right up with distance fly sets. And by “some” swimmers what I meant was “all” swimmers.
That being said, getting up early in the AM doesn’t have to be a battle.
There are heaps of perks to being one of the first people up and at it. It builds discipline, is a proving ground for commitment and dedication, and to be honest, there is something kind of cool about getting into a completely still pool while the rest of the world is still asleep.
Anyways.
Back to the whole “struggle” part.
Here are 7 little strategies that I wish I had known for making getting up early in the morning a whole lot easier:
1. Make everything about getting up in the morning awesome.
Sure, the actual act of waking up might not be the most pleasant thing, but if you line up a bunch cool things that you really, really like for the AM than it will make sliding out of the sheets a little easier.
Use your favorite new song as the tone for your alarm clock. Eat your favorite (healthy) foods for the first meal of the day. Download your favorite show the night before and watch it when you are eating breakfast.
Make the morning chock-full of the things you like and they will collectively go a long way to making getting up in the morning something you look forward to instead of ruing.
2. Make everything about getting up in the morning easy.
Similar to the previous point, there should be nothing too challenging or difficult to prevent you from getting out of bed. In those first few moments and minutes, when you are wiping the sleep from your eyes and simultaneously thinking up the least ridiculous excuse imaginable to tell coach for a possible absence – your willpower is at its absolute lowest.
Make mornings frictionless – have your clothes laid out on the chair. Your shoes beside the bed. Your morning snacks on the night table.
The less obstacles there are to getting the day underway, the easier it will be to get up.
3. Wake up and get up fast. Real fast.
This may not work for everyone — it is something that I realized about myself after much trial and error (the key word being error).
Once that alarm clock goes off, before you can even think about rolling over, shoot out of bed. Rip open the blinds and turn on all of the lights and deny your noodle the opportunity to talk you out of getting up.
The snooze button never worked well for me, and neither did laying in bed for 20 minutes to “wake up.” If you find yourself on the losing battle of the should-I or shouldn’t-I debate when laying in bed, eliminate the conversation altogether by vaulting out of bed.
4. Manage your electronics.
It took me until adulthood to understand that I couldn’t sleep in the same room as my cell phone. In my half-awake state I’d roll over and catch a glimpse of the red blinking light and be unable to quench my desire to see who had messaged me in the middle of the night.
If you are more comfy with the cell in the bedroom than I am, and you are using it as an alarm clock, park it on the other side of the room so that you absolutely have to get up to turn off the horrifyingly loud alarm at 5 in the morning.
5. Wake up at the same time, but go to sleep when you are tired.
Your body doesn’t need the exact same amount of sleep each night. There’ll be days when you have two massive workouts and a full day of school and homework and you can barely keep your eyes open past 8pm. You’ll need 8-9+ hours to recover. On other days your schedule will be a little more leisurely, and the snooziness won’t hit you until 10 or 11pm, and you will only need 6-7 hours of sleep.
Instead of beating your head and telling yourself that you have to be in bed at an exact time or else (which tends to instigate the sleep-depriving and agonizing “How much sleep will I get tonight if I fall asleep right now?” game) simply get up at the same time each day.
Within a few days you will find that you body will let you know when it is time to go to bed instead of you trying to force it to go to bed when it might not be primed to do so.
6. Have a routine for powering down.
If getting up at the same time each day isn’t in the cards for you, and you need to be a little more discretionary about when you go to sleep, put together a power-down routine.
Put together a simple list of 4-5 things that you always do before bed, so much like Pavlov’s puppies you condition your body to go to sleep after given a specific set of cues or triggers. The cues might include things like: brushing your teeth, reading for 15 minutes, tidying up your room, packing your lunch for the following day, arranging your gear for the morning, and so on.
Make the list and follow through with it consistently and soon enough you will be able to tell your body when it is nighty-night time.
7. Make a 2 minute commitment.
The big things in life are achieved with tiny, little steps. Sometimes one of those big things in life is getting out of that warm, cozy bed when snow is blowing sideways outside.
When you start to feel that tug and whisper of your pillows and blankets telling you that it will be okay if you miss just this one practice, that no one will notice or care, tell that voice that you are going to get up for just a couple minutes. Get up, walk around, eat some food.
After a couple minutes 99% of the time the voice of resistance will fade into the back of your brain.
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Such good tips!!!!!!! These r really helpful thx so much!????
Allot of swimmers don’t get their swim bag ready. When u get home from practice…Take out your wet towel out, hang it up & put another clean one in your bag. Same with your suit. Put a filled water bottle in the side of your bag, so you have that ready to drink during the next days practice.
I try to get all my ducks in a row the night before – clothes out, electronics/wallet, etc set, coffee ready – less disincentive about getting up.
I really like #7, the 2 minute get up and/or the glass of water idea. For someone like me who has a track record of not being a morning person, every little bit helps!
DO NOT use your favorite new song as the tone for your alarm clock! It will only take about a week for you to start to hate that song. I can’t listen to any of my alarm clock sounds from the past 15 years. 😀
may be a preference, but I found playing some classic rock, like boston and journey, you know those really good sing along ones… ya those wake you up, cause you cant help but sing
I like Boston’s “More than a feeling”. It sounds a LOT like waking up….starts out slow and low and then ramps up!
right after I left my original comment I went and played that song. such a good one.
If it’s -20 or below get up right away and start your car. Dont leave your suit in the car either … thawing suits out at 0dark30 sucks.
Yup! Made that mistake a few times. It’s cold enough in the AM without having to put on a bathing suit that has morning frost on it.
Yep, fellow coach and athlete did that a couple weeks ago. Trying to get into a frozen pair of jammers couldn’t have been fun! On the bright side, he said he woke up quickly.
Drink a full glass of water immediately upon waking up. You’ll be awake by the bottom of the glass, and you’ll be on your way to properly hydrated for practice.
Going to try this out
I’m new to swimming. These tips speak volume to me. Thank you.