Any special considerations to be aware of? Waking up at 5:30am, working out from 5:45-6:30, shower, breakfast, leave for work at 7:30am. Should I allow more than 15 minutes between awaking and lifting? I figure I'll drink a small protein/carb shake upon waking and sip on workout drink during the workout.

Any special considerations to be aware of? Waking up at 5:30am, working out from 5:45-6:30, shower, breakfast, leave for work at 7:30am. Should I allow more than 15 minutes between awaking and lifting? I figure I'll drink a small protein/carb shake upon waking and sip on workout drink during the workout.

Ideally, I wouldn't lift that close to waking up since your body wont really be refueled from your breakfast or shake quite yet. Though, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Have to lift when there is time to do it. I've done early mornings before and it just took a bit of getting use to. Ingesting liquid based calories before and during is a good idea. If you haven't previously consumed shakes during your workout or just before, it can take some getting use to. I know my stomach didn't appreciate it at first. Nowadays I get up at 5:30 eat, commute to work (there by 7) then hit the gym so only difference for me is a bit of breakfast digestion lag:P Go tear it up.

Do you work out at home? If drive time isn't an issue, it sounds great. I find that it takes me at least 20 minutes to go from sleep to movement and full consciousness but otherwise I love working out early in the morning. The only problem is that it's easy to underestimate how long it might actually take to get to the gym, get settled in, work out, chill out, and then get ready for work. The downside is that this might mean having less time for a workout than anticipated, and rushing things to get stuff done in time. Just factor in plenty of time for all the extras.

I've heard some negative stuff about loading the spine right after waking. I'm not quite sure why this is bad, though. :confused: