Over the last few weeks, I’ve been going to the gym before heading off to work in an attempt to improve my fitness.

When I decided that I’d start working out in the morning, I honestly wasn’t sure how that would pan out for me. It’s fair to say that I fit squarely into the night owl category in terms of sleeping patterns and I haven’t exercised in the morning since I was in high school. After waking up bleery eyed for a few days, my body was already adjusting to the changes and within a fortnight – it was feeling normal to be up and exercising.

A month has lapsed since adjusting to the morning exercise regime and in that time, I have increased all of my cardio work significantly. As an example, when I first started using a cross trainer or elliptical runner, I was feeling the burn after only 10 minutes on level 8 with a stepping speed of about 45 per minute. This morning by contrast, I exercised for 40 minutes on level 15 with a stepping speed over 55 per minute for the entire session.

One of the really nice side effects about improving my general fitness, is that it knocks on into other facets of my life. I’ve noticed after playing a couple of the top squash players in my grade, that I often feel aerobically exhausted and my legs are often quite tired as well. After losing a few kilograms and with the drastically improved fitness, I’m able to really take it up to the top guys in my grade; in fact three weeks ago one of them rolled me in a match and this Tuesday it was a roll reversal!

Next up I’m going to start blending more jogging into my morning exercise routine, in a hope of being in a reasonable state to complete the 10Km run in this years Gold Coast Marathon.