Fitness Coach Reveals The Best Morning Workouts To Prep You For Work

Picture this: You've just rolled out of bed and are frantically getting dressed to go to work, after snoozing your alarm clock 10 times following a late night.

It's a scene that many people know all too well. With increasingly demanding schedules, it can be hard to find time to slot a quick workout in before heading to work, dropping the kids off at school or doing whatever else your morning routine entails.

Research has proven that in addition to maintaining a balanced diet and getting seven or eight hours worth of sleep a night, exercise is crucial in helping people stay energized and focused throughout the day.

This is because movement encourages the body to produce more mitochondria inside muscle cells. Mitochondria are known as the powerhouses of cells, because they create fuel out of glucose from the food you eat and oxygen from the air you breathe. By this logic, the more mitochondria someone has, the more energized their body will be. Exercising also favors oxygen circulation inside the body, which supports this mitochondria production and allows the body to function better in general.

Newsweek spoke with National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) qualified personal trainer, yoga instructor and corrective exercise specialist, Alissa Tucker, to learn how she coaches her clients to experience a surge of energy every morning through a selection of dance-inspired exercise techniques.

Always Warm Up First

The U.S.-based fitness coach told Newsweek that individuals should start by warming up. She recommended getting into a plank position, and then going into a lunge by stepping one leg up to your hand and planting your heel to come into a runner's lunge.

"This plank lunge rotation is a great exercise for mobility with the lunge and torso rotation. The addition of the plank and the step up to a lunge works the core to gradually create heat in the body and elevate the heart rate getting you ready for exercise," Tucker said, adding that this should be done at least 12 times.

Next, and still firmly in the warmup phase of the morning energy booster, she suggested getting into a "full-body multi-planar exercise" that she calls "skaters."

"To achieve this, you begin in a high plank position. Take a big step out to the side with the toe pointing out, bend the knee and plant the heel on the floor. You want the knee directly over the heel. Bring the opposite leg through and extend it straight forward, putting the heel on the floor. As you bring the opposite leg through, lift the arm straight up. Press into the back heel to lift the hips and squeeze the glutes [muscles that make up the buttock area]. Make sure your shoulder is directly over the wrist of the arm that's supporting you. From there, step the straight leg back to your plank followed by the bent leg and replace the arm to return to your plank," Tucker explained.

According to the fitness coach, this exercise activates all the biggest muscle groups in the body to help you warm up quickly. It's also low-impact which makes it a more dental warm up for your joints. She recommends repeating the exercise 10 times per side.

Assuming you've warmed up, get started on some dance-inspired cardiovascular workouts. It's as simple a setup as turning on your favorite upbeat song and repeating the following three movements in any sequence to get your heart rate pumping.

Dance-Inspired Exercises

"Firstly, do the 'swipe'," Tucker said.

This is achieved by stepping side to side, keeping a soft bend in the knees and focusing on striking the floor with your heel and rolling through the foot.

"As you step to one side, the opposite arm reaches toward that side then swipes across the body at shoulder height, almost as though you're opening a curtain. Add some resistance to your arms and imagine you're moving through molasses to add extra back activation," the fitness coach explained.

For your next move, Tucker wants you to stand upright with your feet apart and lift your heels to pivot them from one side to the other.

"Bring arms overhead and shift them back and forth to 'party up.' Get your hips involved and add a slight twist in the torso to activate your obliques," Tucker said.

After partying up, Tucker recommended jumping with your feet out and in, just like a jumping jack or star jump.

"Instead of bringing the arms overhead like a typical jack, throw them forward each time the feet jump out," Tucker explained.

The coach then suggested trying out a move called the "bear kick-thru."

"To achieve this begin in a crouching position," Tucker said.

"Hands under shoulders and knees bent, just hovering off the floor. Lift one leg and extend it across the body as you lift the opposite arm and rotate, opening up to the side. Replace the hand and the foot and repeat on the other side," she added.

This is particularly great for mobility, while firing up the big muscle groups in the body including the core, quads, and shoulders which will surely get heart rates pumping quickly. According to Tucker, people should try this move for a total of 20 reps.

To top it all off... it's time to get shaking. Yep, literally just shaking their body. "Shaking the body is a great way to relieve stress, tension and even any trauma that gets stored in the body," the fitness coach said.

"Shaking can help switch from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic and will elevate the heart rate, making it an energizing way to wake up the body and prepare for any exercise," she added.

Committing to some of these exercise techniques every morning is a sure-fire way to get you to work with more of a spring in your step.

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