When do you do your exercise?

5am. I love it so much. I call it my power hour, before my husband and kids are up and the house is silent. I have my clothes laid out, make my coffee and hit play on my YouTube video. I do the first 10-15 minutes then sit and enjoy my coffee before I carry on. It's the best part of my day!

Early morning. I set my alarm for 6am. I exercise most days, either an early class or at home.

My exercise is my job! I'm a dog walker so get at least 2 hours walking in each day. I also horse ride and do that once a week around work.

My average step count is around 17k. I don't do anything else outside of that.

I do mine after work in the evening. But I am going to try and get up to do it first thing in the morning as it sounds much better!

I go running early in the morning two days during the week - usually around 6.30 or 7am. I go at around 10am on a Saturday. For winter I’ll change to weekday evenings. I also walk at lunchtime.

First thing in the morning.

I never been a gym in my life....I walk most days with dog....but if I don’t ( raining etc) I don’t worry.... dog gets walked early evening

It took a bit of planning (ie making sure I had everything I needed at work rather than having to carry it in), but it did the trick. Not every day, just some days.

'No wonder I don't do any!' means you have entirely absolved yourself from all responsibility, and yet... you are still responsible for whether or not yu get enough exercise.

I'm always interested to see that those who exercise regularly work from 9am, or 'do the school run', so presumably work after 9.30am or later

I'm sure that's the case for some people, but not in my experience. My work hours vary, and on the days I'm working from 7am/7.30am and not doing the school run, it's far easier to exercise first as I only have myself to worry about. All I have to do is get up earlier.

Whereas on the days I'm doing the school run it means I'm up first thing and out for a run, then back for 8am at the latest to sort kids, take them to school, then work starts 9am.

The easiest work/exercise scenario I've ever had is when my office was 6 miles away from home and I usually started at 7am. I could get up, run to work, shower there, and be at my desk ready to go. But again, that meant leaving the morning kid stuff to DH.

I also spent a few years cycling to work and running at lunchtimes, which was an easy way to fit everything in around kids.

At lunchtime as I work from home (The Bodycoach app or running before I was injured). It’s the only real time I get to myself. I try and do one at the weekend too but it’s really difficult with limited family time.

I’d like to do it early in the morning but I am waiting for DC2 to sleep through the night!

@bumblingbovine49
Your post is relatable. In the first lockdown I did YouTube yoga every day, but the 20-40 session actually took me about 2-3 hours with the associated faffing!

@grasstreeleaf @TheFoundations @lljkk and @enoughforme
Prioritising housework is a (bad or good not sure) habit stemming from recovering from depression years ago, it's a hard one to break and I explained upthread why I will always make DH a brew

I wish I could find something enjoyable that made me fitter. I've been trying since I left school over 20 years ago!
I love swimming but I can't do the breathing even after 1to1 lessons, plus it's time consuming with a 40 min journey or over an hour for outdoor swimming.
I do loads of walking daily up and down lots of hills. I average 25k steps but again it doesn't seem enough for improving fitness.
I've tried everything available that's close to home, metafit, bootcamp, Zumba, spinning, running, rock climbing, cycling. I've started 30 day shred, 30 day yoga and other YouTube workouts so many times but never keep them up.

[quote Tablow]@marmaladehound I go swimming with DC at the weekend but it's holding a toddler the entire time, so again not proper swimming. I then have DC all weekend and work the evenings once they've gone to bed - I have to make sure I've made up hours for when I'm doing school run etc and really need to put in 50+ hours a week to stay afloat at work.

I've thought about getting up very early. 4am or something but ds wakes once I'm not next to him so it just means my day starts earlier with him. Once he sleeps better this could be an option though. He's up all night at the moment so sleep seems the better option.[/quote]
Yeah sounds like you need your sleep. Sleep is just as important as exercise... sleep is so underrated!!

It's very hard with young ones. I have a 3 year old and have only really been able to start exercising again 6 months ago when he started a pre school nursery. I work part time. Hopefully when he's older you can find a way to fit something in.

I am.much more likely to exercise if it's just part of going somewhere. I've bought a child trailer for my bike and pick up DD from.the childminder (6 mile round-trip) or we walk to shops/cafe rather than driving. When I go back to office based working I'll commute to the station by bike and then walk another 15 min or so from the London terminal to the office. In pre-Covid time I sometimes managed to get in a lunchtime gym trip - luckily the place I work at has a decent on site gym.

I'm always interested to see that those who exercise regularly work from 9am, or 'do the school run', so presumably work after 9.30am or later. I am at work for 7.30am, and work until 5, then have to dash to get DD from after school club. I can't wfh, so I don't get those half hour/hour 'slots' to fit in exercise. No wonder I don't do any!

First thing. Either a 7am swim or a run at 8ish then breakfast

Yes I agree you need to find enjoyable excercise / walking, dancing, swimming - yoga, Pilates,

It doesn't have to be banging weight in a gym.

I know someone who has walked daily for three months and lost lots of weight. It doesn't have to be vigorous

you actually hate exercise so all of these are preferable to doing it.

That. Find exercise you can enjoy & the distractions won't be so bad.

Because I'm not as nearly as nice or as bothered by housework. Everything will wait until after my run.

Its true - you have to be a bit selfish and put yourself and your needs first when it comes to exercise. Men, I notice, are very good at this, but if you want to look and feed good and prioritise your health you have to learn to say 'It can wait'.

Saturday morning without fail and then x2 evenings a week. Also find working out at home makes it easier as it's less time travelling etc so perhaps consider home workout rather than gym,

Like anything in life it's going to be as important as you make it

@mafted

Why don't all the 'get up and go' exercisers get distracted like I do.
A child wakes up, DH wakes up and asks if you'll make him a coffee, you think you'll just put a wash on first then find your teen has left wet washing in the machine, the dishwasher needs emptying or someone forgot to put it on, your bobble snaps then you look for a new one and realise the cupboard is messy so start sorting it out, you see a notification on your phone... and you actually hate exercise so all of these are preferable to doing it

All of these things can wait an hour. Apart from DH needing his coffee. He can make that himself, and make a cold drink for you to have during your workout whilst he's at it. These aren't distractions, they're procrastination. You are choosing to sort out the hair-bobble cupboard; the cupboard isn't waving in your face and jumping under your feet whilst you try to exercise.

Find something you prefer doing to emptying the washing machine, and prioritise it. Tell everyone in the house that on x day at x time you'll be doing x exercise, and you won't be available during that hour except for emergencies. Then issue a loud 'NO' if anybody/cupboard interrupts you.

Why don't all the 'get up and go' exercisers get distracted like I do.
A child wakes up, DH wakes up and asks if you'll make him a coffee, you think you'll just put a wash on first then find your teen has left wet washing in the machine, the dishwasher needs emptying or someone forgot to put it on, your bobble snaps then you look for a new one and realise the cupboard is messy so start sorting it out, you see a notification on your phone... and you actually hate exercise so all of these are preferable to doing it.

Because I'm not as nearly as nice or as bothered by housework. Everything will wait until after my run.

So 30 mins of exercise always seems to take an hour plus even at home, by the time I've dressed, set up the laptop, got a drink, done the exercise itself which always takes me longer somehow than the actual time it says it will, then the inevitable need to take 10mins to rest from the exhaustion, then more time to stare into space as I feel so awful and think about the fact that I will have to do this again tomorrow and the next day and the next and how will I be a able to bear it as the whole thing is so awful , then motivating myself to move to shower and dress for work, then resetting the laptop and moving it to my work area so I can work, then getting myself breakfast to eat while working.

The weird thing is this seems to get worse over time the more I exercise . So last year I was doing this 5 -6 times a week for about 5 months and it was ok at first but eventually it took me longer and longer as I procrastinated more and also took longer and longer after I'd finished the exercise to get going for the day. I have no idea why this happens but it does and has happened regularly over many years as I stop/start exercising on a regular basis. Usually 4-5 months of regular exercise are interspersed with a similar amount of time with almost no exercise . Eventually I feel guilty enough and have forgotten how much I loathe it enough to start again until I can't bear it any more and I stop. Rinse and repeat

Ove the years I've tried
Swimming
Gym
Home exercise sessions
Personal trainer
Running
Tennis

Most of them more than once over the years and they always end the same way

Listening to audio books really helped me walk more for exercise. I go to a regular appointment about 90 minutes walk away and plan to walk there and get the bus back.

Don't really like exercise but run twice a week early ish in the morning. Don't run far, do about 4.8 K each morning but it makes me feel like I am keeping fit