The Morning Workout You Can Basically Do in Your Bed
Rise, shine, and get that metabolism going!

We all know someone who gets up before the sun rises, squeezes in a full workout, showers, and still manages to get to work on time, looking like she’s bouncing her way through the opening scene of The Devil Wears Prada. As much as you not-so-secretly want them to stop making the rest of us look bad, you also want to figure out exactly how they do it so you can attempt it too.
If you struggle to squeeze in a workout before your morning commute, personal trainer Rob Sulaver has a low-intensity workout that you can start while you’re actually still in bed, and you’ll be done and ready to greet the day within seven minutes.
If you’re not willing to commit to a five-mile run or hardcore Crossfit session at 6 a.m., this bed workout is a great alternative. It takes cues from yoga and incorporates stretches to wake up your body. (See this video for more stretches you can work into your day.)
This full-body bed workout eases you into the day with four moves: lumbar loosener (a classic yoga warm-up), hip bridges, v-ups, and bed push-ups. This combination of flexibility and strength-training moves will give your body a gentle—yet effective—morning workout.
Each of the four moves is done for 30 seconds, and you’ll repeat the entire circuit three times. That means you’ll be done in under seven minutes, so you’ll still have plenty of time to make that Starbucks run.
Even though you checked off a workout before breakfast, it’s a good idea to stay active throughout the day to prevent “sitting disease” (especially if you work an office job in front of a computer). Here are tips for sneaking in exercise into your everyday schedule.
Rob Sulaver is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a certified sports nutritionist, and a certified personal trainer. He is the founding trainer of Rumble Boxing in New York City.
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Rise and grind, and then shine.
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Got a morning workout coming your way.
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[MUSIC]
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Welcome back to another
episode of Just Get Started.
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My name is Rob Sulaver.
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Now, as we all know, when we're starting
out our relationship with fitness,
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dragging ourselves to the gym in
the morning can be a little daunting.
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Got an awesome morning workout for
you today, you can do right from your bed,
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immediately from your alarm
clock to help open you up,
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to help energize you, and
help get you started for an awesome day.
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Four moves here,
let me walk you through them.
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So, we're in bed, sleeping, so
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comfy, I'm just gonna take a little nap,
and our alarm clock goes off, right?
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Number one is a lumbar opener, this is
a double knee drop right here, boom, boom.
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We're just rocking back and forth,
really focused on that lumbar spine.
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Exercise number two,
same position, hip bridge.
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Driving those hips up towards the ceiling,
really squeezing that butt,
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focus on the glutes.
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Exercise number three,
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from the same position here,
up in full V-up right back down.
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We're focused primarily on our core here.
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Exercise four, getting out of bed,
using the ledge here of our bed.
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Full push-up, and then opening up towards
the ceiling here, thoracic rotation.
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Again, full push-up,
reach for that ceiling.
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We're focused on our press muscles here,
our chest and
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our triceps, as well as our T-spine,
our upper back.
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Those are your four moves,
we're doing each one for 30 seconds, and
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we're doing the whole thing three times.
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Let's get into it, shall we?
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[MUSIC]
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30 seconds, exercise number one, knee
drop-ins, three, two, one and we're going.
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All right,
now the idea here is to glue our palms and
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our trail shoulder to the bed here.
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We don't want this to come up,
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we really want to get that
rotation going through the spine.
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This should feel pretty good
especially on that lower back.
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[MUSIC]
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Get those knees all the way down there,
and like I said,
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this is just a little opener
to get us started for the day.
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We got two seconds left, last one, bam.
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Same position here, this time palms up,
driving our heels into the ground,
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two, one, let's go.
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Hip bridges, squeeze that booty up top.
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Now a couple things on this, one,
I like to bring my palms up so
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that I'm not driving into
the bed with my fingertips,
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helps make this exercise
a little more difficult.
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I really like to squeeze that butt up top,
focus on that glute contraction.
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I'm driving through my heels,
not my toes, right?
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It's not this, find those heels,
and that helps find the butt, boom.
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All right, we got row boats here,
same position again.
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Piking up in that knee-up position,
two, one, let's do it.
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Boom, coming up here, you can balance
yourself here with your fingertips, right?
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Just to keep yourself nice and upright.
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Squeeze those abs up top,
that good core contraction.
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Love these because we're getting a lower
flexion as well as an upper flexion, so
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our whole core is working here.
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You're gonna feel those abs up top,
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concentrate on that good contraction,
right?
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And I'm getting warm, and our heart
rate's up a little bit, feeling awesome.
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That was 30, good work.
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Let's get out of bed here,
find that ledge.
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See, I'm already energized, right?
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Here we are, already off and
started to awesomeness.
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Edge of the bed, popping down
in that push up, set and rumble.
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Rotating up towards the ceiling here,
getting that thoracic rotation going.
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Think about a nice, long line here, right?
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So, tap that bed, reach, reach, reach.
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And again, this is about that upper back,
opening that upper back a little bit.
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Getting those press muscles activated,
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getting that heart rate
up there a little bit.
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Short time, one, damn, that was round one,
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things are feeling pretty good.
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If you wanna just do one round
of this feeling good for
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your day, awesome, that's great,
it's a good start.
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Join me for a few more rounds if you wanna
make this a little more challenging.
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Back in bed, boom,
30 seconds here, knee drops.
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Breathing on this,
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I like to kind of concentrate on
just steady breath, nothing crazy.
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Think about breathing in through
your nose, out through your mouth,
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it helps relax the system a little bit.
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Five seconds,
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two, one, damn.
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Get in that good hip bridge position,
bringing those heels
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close to your booty, set and
let's go, drive those hips up.
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A few tips on this,
one thing that helps me is to think about,
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instead of hips towards the ceiling,
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I actually think about my knees
driving forward here, right?
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Keeps that line nice and
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long, almost like I'm reaching
towards the front wall with my knees.
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Think about that beautiful
line from your knees
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all the way up to your shoulders here.
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Time, excellent.
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Okay, popping right into exercise three,
our V-ups here.
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Boom, popping up and out.
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Now, the breath here is
a little more explosive.
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Using it to inform this movement here,
popping up and out.
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[SOUND] Squeeze in those abs up top,
[SOUND], yeah.
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And again,
feel free to use those fingertips,
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help keep your balance up top here.
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[SOUND] Three seconds left, let's get
one more in there, bam, good work.
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Popping up and out of bed here,
right on the ledge.
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We got our push ups, set and let's go.
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Here we're tapping that chest,
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rotating up towards the ceiling here.
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Tap and rotate, switch sides each time.
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Again, that breath is tied
in with the movement, right?
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We wanna breathe when we work,
so on that press use that
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breath to pop you off that bed and
reach for the ceiling.
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It's your time, boom, excellent.
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Third round, best round,
let's finish strong, shall we?
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Okay, two, one, and we're going.
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On this round, if you do wanna make
things a little more difficult,
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feel free to bring your legs straight,
increase that lever arm.
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This is a little bit more of a exercise,
little less of an opener here.
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Same principles though, right?
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Make sure your trail arm and
your trail shoulder stay glued to the bed,
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even if that means limiting your range
of motion a little bit, totally okay.
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Yeah, feeling this one in the core.
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Five seconds left,
all the way over here, bam, good work.
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Okay, glute bridges,
heels close, palms up, bam.
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Driving those hips towards the ceiling,
and right back down, hips up,
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right back down.
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Again, if you wanna make this
a little more challenging,
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one leg up and out,
squeezing that booty up top.
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Split the time half and
half between legs, but
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we've effectively just made this
exercise twice as hard, right?
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We took away half of our glute.
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[SOUND] Five seconds left here,
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I'm gonna do a few on the other
side to keep things balance.
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Last one, bam, good work.
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Exercise three, V-ups,
row boats, let's do it.
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Three, two, one, and we're going.
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[MUSIC]
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Now this is a pretty advanced exercise,
not super easy.
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So if you do wanna make
it a little easier,
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take away half the movement here, right?
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Just bring your knees straight,
and knees up.
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Go into a reverse crunch here,
also super awesome and super effective.
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But you wanna challenge that whole core,
boom, three seconds left.
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One more rep in there, bam,
up and out of bed here.
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Last exercise,
let's get right into those push-ups,
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two, one, here we go,
and reach, and reach.
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And, again,
if you wanna make these a little easier,
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find a more elevated surface like this,
right?
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Boom, takes a little bit of body weight
out of the equation, makes them easier.
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You wanna make them
a little more challenging,
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feel free to go to the floor and
do the exact same thing.
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Last couple seconds,
let's get one more in there, bam.
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Excellent job today my fitness friends.
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Quick, awesome, effective workout
we can do right from our bed.
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We open up that spine,
we got that core engaged,
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we got the booty engaged, and we got
our upper body muscles nice and pumped.
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We're ready for the day.
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It's like this workout is
a dream come true, right?
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We got more fun, interesting creative ways
for you to fall in love with exercise.
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I'll see you guys soon
on Just Get Started.
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