Have you seen that New Balance commercial where the sheet tries to keep the woman from getting out of bed? While she’s lacing up her running shoes, the sheet slithers up behind her and wraps itself around her. That happens to me pretty much daily. Sometimes the workout wins, and I get out the door to go on a jog, and sometimes the bed wins.

But in the summer, getting up for a morning workout is better than the other option: exercising in the miserable afternoon heat and humidity of August in New York City. The air can be so thick that running through Prospect Park in Brooklyn feels like running through soup. While the visible haze that hangs over the park’s large grassy meadows and pond in the mornings can be disheartening—Why am I doing this? I could be home in bed with my AC blasting—it’s better than after it’s burned off and the sun is blaring down.

Aside from some rough conditions, I love working out outside when it’s warm. The nature and activity of the park beats the fluorescent lighting and mechanical hum of the gym. So try waking up for an outdoor workout. It’ll keep your evenings free for summer activities and give you a nature fix before a day in the office. If you have a hard time getting up, plan a tandem workout with a friend. The buddy system (though I often think of it more as peer pressure when I just wake up) makes you get out of bed—no one wants to stand someone up at 6:30 in the morning—and makes workouts a lot more fun.

As a friend of mine, who happens to be seriously fit, says, you’ll never regret working out, but you’ll probably regret skipping it.