Going to the gym in the afternoon or early evening can be very frustrating. If you have ever been to the gym during peak hours, you know the pain of waiting to use the bench press, preacher curl station or squat rack. Heading to the gym in the morning can help you avoid roadblocks during your workout. But, smoothly transitioning from one exercise to another is only one benefit of your early morning workouts. A great reason to get up early and lift some iron is the impact it can have on your grades.

College students may feel a lot of stress about their grades. Gone are the days when barely passing a class was good enough. Graduate schools and future employers take a long, hard look at grade point average when considering applications. Professional success in competitive markets depends heavily upon classroom success.

When taking multiple classes and subjects that have little to do with each other, it can be difficult to keep up, let alone excel. Students can find their minds spinning trying to understand physics, chemistry and calculus.

Many students have, therefore, come to appreciate the benefit of fighting stress by taking breaks from studying in order to exercise. The reason studying is of a higher caliber after such study breaks are the same reason why early morning gym sessions can pump up your grades.

Exercise has consistently been demonstrated to increase the volume of the brain where thinking and memory are controlled. Stimulating your muscles, therefore, can stimulate your mind to absorb the information being presented in lectures.

Exercise also stimulates growth and survival of brain cells. Exercise releases chemicals in the brain that trigger new brain cells to be produced and help existing brain cells to live longer.

Think of it as charging up a factory that mass produces computer chips with longer warranties. You will be able to process more information and store it away for future use.

Exercise before learning is not limited to a specific time frame to be effective. Getting in a good workout prior to studying or attending class works just as good in the afternoon or evening as it does in the morning.

The point of exercising in the morning, however, does have two main benefits that should place it into your consideration for academic success.

The first benefit is that working out in the morning doesn’t prepare you to better absorb a single class. The exercise stimulates your brain prior to all the classes you have to attend.Think of it as the proverbial stone that can kill two birds. In this case, it is excelling in multiple classes with one gym session.

Another benefit of morning exercise that helps you in and out of an academic setting is the wake-up power it brings. Instead of becoming reliant upon caffeine to provide the extra little jolt required to function in the morning, hit the gym.

Working out gets the blood flowing wakes up muscles that have been inactive all night. Morning exercise has been shown to be far more stimulating than coffee.

The wake-up power of the exercise will keep you alert and attentive while listening to a long, dull lecture. It will help you study for a test rather than study your eyelids.

As awful of a concept as it may be to consider, set your alarm a little earlier than normal. Get up and get sweating away in the gym before you grab your textbooks. Your mind, your body and your grades will thank you.