When I was in my twenties, I spent a few years meeing a some ‘gym friends’ starting at 5 in the morning to work out. We’d meet 4-5 times a week, lift for an hour or so, and start the day off with your basic bs’ing and so forth. We all agreed that we felt like we were getting an edge on ‘the other guy’ by working out early, and starting the day off right.
Now I find that even if I get up early, I’m more likely to spend the time reading online, writing posts, managing things on Flickr, and generally thinking more than doing. I’ll go into work earlier and get more done in the early hours, then be ready to leave by 3-4 PM.
I’m not sure if that’s a transition just because I don’t want to be outside when it’s cold (running at 5 am doesn’t have the appeal in the wintertime that it does in the summer), or if it’s a side effect of my priorities changing from myself to my family, where I don’t want to be on the computer once I get home at night. It does seem that I’d get to be outside when it’s daylight a little more by heading to the gym at 4 PM - I hate missing the sunlight in the winter, since there’s so little.
The downside is that unless I’m absolutely commited to the afternoon workouts, I’ll end up missing some as can’t guarantee I’ll get to go to the gym, like I can with the morning ones.