I've never been a morning person.

Even after an entire adult life of working day shift jobs which start in the morning, I've never quite gotten the hang out of morning motivation. That's probably why in the five years I've been lifting, I've always done so after work, and until recently only on two occasions have tried a morning workout.

Funny thing about those morning workouts are that I would consider them my best workouts ever. Once I hit a PR on my squat at around 6:30 a.m. on a virtually empty stomach. The other time I had all sorts of fuel in the tank for the pushing.

I'd prefer to be a morning workout creature. But something inside me just won't get me out of bed and motivated.

Last week I vowed to change that. At least two of my workouts during the week were done first thing in the morning. And I must confess, both kicked ass. And yesterday, after playing three gigs in a row (Thursday, Friday and Saturday), I peeled myself out of bed at 10 a.m. (didn't get to bed 'til 4), drank an ABB Speed Stack and an All-In and hit the gym for a serious chest and back routine.

I felt like a million bucks.

To be honest, I feel like one of the major benefits of working out in the morning is that I have not eaten yet. Going to the gym after work can either be great, or it can really suck, and the one factor that can influence that is the food I've had to eat that day.

If I eat too big of a lunch, I have terrible indigestion and I'm sluggish. I can hardly push because the food isn't digested, starts coming up and I get nauseated. But if I eat too little at lunch, then I have the shakes and it makes the workout that much more difficult because I'm starving.

I'm hoping to avoid that by eventually converting myself to an AM workout creature. Right now I'll start with two days a week, only because two of my routines can be done in my home gym. Days that require a trip to the athletic center will remain PM workouts until the summer hours end and it begins opening at 6 a.m. again.