Are you a morning person?

I'm not naturally a morning person, but if you want success in the gym, you'll have to become one. Start with breakfast.

When I was first employed I'd been given a couple of gym shifts, and told, "You might want to set aside a couple of blocks a time each week when you're available for personal training." I told my wife, who said, "Cool. Nine to five."

"The people who have money to train are working then. So it needs to be mornings or evenings. Like 6am to 9am, or 6pm to 9pm."

"I don't want to be woken up early!"

"Okay, I'll do evenings."

"Then I'll never see you. Do mornings."

"Rightyo."

I've had a lot of 5 o'clock starts since then. A lot of mornings where I got up and it was very cold and dark, and in the past year, after five hours of sleep split in two by my son. Not much fun sometimes, especially when I arrive at the gym to find a message from my first client saying they couldn't come in because they'd not slept well. Uh-huh, must be terrible for you.

To be honest I'm glad I chose the mornings. I've introduced literally hundreds of people to the gym. What I've found is this: breakfast matters. Not everyone who eats breakfast eats well through the rest of the day. But everyone who misses breakfast or has a token piece of toast eats badly through the rest of the day.

If I can't get them to start eating a decent breakfast, I can't get them to change anything else. The person who won't add an egg to their piece of toast and have a glass of milk with it isn't going to be counting up the grams of protein they're eating or ensuring they get 2 fruits and 5 vegies a day or cutting out alcohol or whatever. If they won't knock back a bowl of oats then they won't do a workout outside their PT sessions. But if they actually will change their breakfast, that small and simple step can sometimes lead to other change in their food and exercise. Not always, but sometimes.

As well, most people work or study during the day, so they can work out in the mornings or the evenings. If they don't have breakfast they won't work out in the morning, or won't keep it up. Immediately after work they're tired and the gym is crowded so they decide to have dinner first, then they're full so they won't work out. The people who work out in the mornings are simply more likely to stay as gym members and PT clients. Every morning you see 100 regulars who come three or more times a week. Every evening you see 300 people you've never seen before.

People having breakfast is also important to me since I do all my PT in the mornings, and I don't like it when people faint or vomit. For success in the gym, become a morning person. To become a morning person, start with breakfast.