The Coffee Is Already Made

Hey {{first name | reader}},

It's Tuesday, which means your weekly fitness check-in. Welcome to Week #44.

I just got back from mandolin camp in New Mexico,¹ which means I spent five days on Mountain Daylight Time and came home to Pacific Standard Time, with the end of daylight saving thrown in for good measure.

My body is confused.

My mind, meanwhile, has noticed that the dark is coming.

San Francisco looks more or less the same all year, but winter still arrives psychologically. The mornings get darker. The bed gets more persuasive. Leaving the house at 5:15 suddenly feels considerably less civilized.

My walk to the gym is going to be dark either way.

Which is why I don't leave the decision to the morning.

I get through winter on habit, not willpower.

And most of the work happens the night before.

The coffee maker is on a timer, so when I wake up around 4 AM, the coffee is already waiting. I look at the next morning's workout before bed,² and I try to go to sleep at roughly the same time every night.

I used to lay out my workout clothes too. Then my workout drawer evolved into a collection of nearly identical black tights, sports bras, and grey tanks, so now I just take whatever's on top.

I drink the coffee while reading the news. My shoes live in their own small village by the door. I grab a pair on the way out and walk to the gym, usually arriving a few minutes before it opens at 5:30.

That's enough time for a little conversation with the early crew before the work begins.³

None of this requires inspiration.

By 4 AM, there is almost nothing left to decide.

Less than the internet would have you believe.

A 2023 meta-analysis of randomized trials found little evidence that training at one particular time of day consistently produces better strength, endurance, or health outcomes.

Yes, strength and power often peak later in the day, when body temperature is higher.

And no, evening exercise does not automatically ruin your sleep. Moderate evening exercise appears to be fine for most people. The bigger concern is a hard workout that finishes very close to bedtime.

Morning may have one practical advantage, though: habit.

In one small 2017 study, people who did a daily stretch after waking made the behavior automatic faster than people who did it in the evening: roughly 106 days versus 154.

Important caveat: this was 48 students doing a hip stretch, not 48 middle-aged women deadlifting before dawn.

Still, the result rings true to me.

First thing in the morning, I haven't had time to construct an elaborate legal brief explaining why today would be an excellent rest day.

Exercise can also help nudge your internal clock. Light is the much stronger signal, but movement plays a role too—which makes a regular workout useful when travel or a time change has scrambled your schedule.

So this week, my 5:30 workout is doing double duty.

The best time to train is still the time you'll actually keep.

Mine happens to be before I'm fully awake enough to object.

Question: How do you wake up that early?

Answer: Unfortunately, I have no useful alarm-clock hack for you.

I don't set one.

I open my eyes, look at the clock, and it says something between 3:45 and 4:15. This happens even if I stayed up too late. Some mornings I would very much like to sleep longer.

My body has declined the request.

Falling asleep is an entirely different department, as anyone who read Week 25 knows.

What is useful is regularity. Your internal clock likes a schedule. Getting up at roughly the same time every day makes early mornings less shocking, and morning light helps anchor that rhythm too.

Which is one more reason I'm happy to walk to the gym instead of teleporting there.

But if you're naturally a night person, don't turn this into a moral project. You do not need to become a 4 AM person to be fit.

Pick the time you can repeat.

Myth: Consistent people are more motivated.

Reality: Consistent people often just have fewer decisions to make.

Some mornings I want to go to the gym.

Some mornings I emphatically do not.

I go anyway, for roughly the same reason I brush my teeth: there is no committee meeting first.

Motivation is useful for starting things. It is much less useful as an operating system.

Especially when it's dark, cold, early, and your bed has suddenly developed compelling arguments.

The goal isn't to feel like working out.

The goal is to make the workout easier to start than to renegotiate.

Motivation is a mood.

Habit is a timer on the coffee maker.

Pre-dawn fuel: coffee with a splash of unsweetened almond or coconut milk before the gym.

Afterward: a handful of nuts, preferably macadamias if I have them.

If this sounds familiar, it's because I’m often reaching for macadamias.

That's sort of the point.

Not every useful habit needs an upgrade.

NPR, “Your muscles keep time too. How circadian rhythms affect your workout and your health”

Will Stone looks at the clocks inside your muscles, why physical performance changes over the course of the day, and early research suggesting workout timing may affect things like blood sugar.

One of the researchers behind the meta-analysis above also explains an important point: the evidence is still limited.

The scientists eventually land somewhere very Radish-compatible:

The best time to exercise is probably the time you'll actually do it.

You can read it or listen.

Decide tonight.

Before bed, remove one decision from tomorrow's workout.

Set the coffee timer.

Put your shoes by the door.

Write down the workout.

Pack the gym bag.

Pick one.

Do it every night this week.

Your half-awake morning self should not be in charge of strategic planning.

Stay strong,
{{first name | reader}}

P.S. I don't have more willpower than you. I have a coffee maker with a timer.