And the program in her app to add movement to your mornings.
After retiring from 10 years of competitive swimming, Morgan Tyler discovered yoga — and she’s been honing her practice ever since. The flows Tyler teaches in her yoga fitness app are focused on functional core strength and help users to sync their breath with movement, which Tyler believes is key to a sustainable, functional practice. Whether you’re looking to squeeze in a quick 20-minute yoga workout or work on meditation and breathwork, all of Tyler’s programs are inspired by her joy and love of movement.
Playbook chatted with Tyler about her flexible morning routine and the program from her app that she says is perfect for anyone looking to add some gentle movement to their mornings.
Tyler says her morning routine is different on a day-to-day basis and depends on what her body needs that day, but she’s typically up for the day between 7:30 and 8 a.m.
“I wake up normally when the sun starts to come up,” Tyler says. “I feel like that’s my body just kind of wanting to wake up with the world.”
The first thing she does every single morning is put the kettle on for her morning cup of tea. Her go-to is a cup of black breakfast tea with milk and honey or sugar.
“I have done that ever since I’ve been young and it’s just the best way for me to start my day,” Tyler says.
Tyler says she likes to set aside 45 minutes to an hour of “nothing time” when she first wakes up to relax and sip her tea.
Here’s where listening to her body comes into play. On the mornings that Tyler wakes up famished, she has breakfast after finishing her cup of morning tea. However, on the days she wakes up not wanting breakfast right away, she’ll do her workout first.
“Usually if on the days I wake up not wanting breakfast right away, I’ll do my workout in the morning just because my body kind of feels ready to go and it doesn’t feel like super hungry or anything so I’ll get on my mat and move around, do a workout, and then normally eat breakfast after,” Tyler says.
Some days that morning workout involves stretching, while other days it’s a HIIT interval circuit.
“It really just depends on my energy levels that day. I would say for the most part, [my morning workout is] something that’s going to get my heart rate up. I really really love starting my day with a short 20- to 30-minute tabata-style, HIIT-style workout,” Tyler says.
Even if she doesn’t eat her first meal until closer to lunch time, Tyler still opts for breakfast food, which she says is her favorite. Her go-to breakfast, she says, is avocado toast.
“I really love the balance of carbs and fats and protein, so I’ll normally just do like smashed up avocado on Ezekiel bread… And then I’ll have a side of bacon or some sort of breakfast meat usually, or maybe some eggs, but some sort of protein on the side,” Tyler says.
In order to make her mornings flow better, each evening Tyler sets her supplements out on the counter for the next day. She says she has three go-to products that she starts every morning with: NuVita CBD oil, Ultimate Immune Support by Further Food, and Uqora, a urinary tract health supplement.
In addition to her yoga flows, Tyler’s yoga fitness app includes beauty and wellness content, featuring a walkthrough of her morning supplement routine.
When it comes to creating a morning routine of your own, Tyler advises to start small by creating bite-sized goals.
“[For example], if that’s just taking one supplement and spending five minutes journaling, and just kind of work up from there. Make those goals attainable so you have something to feel proud of after you’ve accomplished them instead of setting 10 goals and then maybe only being able to do like four or five depending on your day,” she says.
Tyler’s app includes a two-week program called “Rise & Shine,” which she says is perfect for those looking to add a little bit of gentle movement to their morning routine.
“It’s 10- to 15-minute yoga flows with the intention of doing them when you get out of bed to start your day on the right foot with a little bit of movement, especially for people who don’t necessarily have 45 minutes or an hour to get on their mat,” Tyler says. “I don’t even think that we necessarily need that much time every day — sometimes we only need a few minutes to change the course of our day.”
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