When do you do your exercise?

I run very early (5am) before work 4-5 times a week. It’s nice and quiet and it sets me up for the day. I also do either yoga or some strength training each day at lunchtime (I have Apple fitness). I do work from home though which helps.

I found going to the gym too time consuming for me. There are loads of free YouTube videos so I would try a variety of things to see what you like. If you want to try running then couch to 5k is a good place to start.

Agree with @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme (no doubt there's a story in that name...) about walking being an extremely useful and time efficient (and environmentally friendly!) way of exercising.

It's usefulness is increased tremendously if you wear wrist and ankle weights. After a while you don't even notice them. I even wear them when I go shopping or meet friends.

@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.

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme I agree. I’ve done every exercise but they were all a chore. Walking I love for the walk and the exercises. Having a dog means it’s non negotiable, rain or shine and I love being outside as I can walk in a nearby wild park without driving and without special clothes and without the need to shower/ wash hair straight afterwards. It’s been so good for mental health too.

I find that the only long term sustainable exercise is exercise that you actually quite enjoy and that gives you something above and beyond ticking a "have exercised" box.

I like swimming but can't justify the time taken to drive each way plus change - for 30 minutes full power swimming I'm driving for 50 and in the changing room for 5-10 minutes including changing and showering after especially if going straight to work after= not worth it. Anything with travel and changing time is similar but worse as I at least like swimming.

In all honesty walking is best for me as I walk direct from my door, no time wasted driving to a gym or pool.

I love walking as as well as being weight bearing exercise (osteoporosis protection) and burning some (I know, not as many as higher impact exercise) calories and distracting me from thinking about food, increasing muscle mass and passive calorie burn 24/7 and improving my waist to hip ratio (currently healthy but it wasn't a year ago,) it's massively important mental health time.

I work constantly varying shifts (can be Monday 6-2, Tuesday 11-8, Wednesday 2pm - 10 am, Thursday 6-12, Friday 11:30-20:00 eyc including weekends...) so I can't have set times but it's essential I find time.

Time is any time the kids are in school or occupied and I'm off work.

Some days I work 12 hours and walk for an hour. Some days I work 6 hours and walk for three hours, some days I don't walk but the kids are home and I do stuff with them, some days I'm off and the kuds don't need me and I walk for 7 hours, some days my eldest or my husband comes with and we walk for an houe to three hours. some days I walk or swim woth dc2 or 3.

Reality as a working parent who isn't an arsehole (usually a man who puts himself fist, second and third, the kids fourth and wife or partner disyant fifth) is that you can work exercise in around work and family,. but can't insist on the same time slot every day.

I workout at home, mostly HIIT stuff with weights. I do 5 workouts a week and they are a mix of early mornings (6am) or mid morning (WFH so take an early lunch meeting dependent).
I like the early mornings but I can't motivate myself to get up that early 5 times a week! I schedule it into my day like a meeting and it is important for me to do it.

I look at it in terms of useful time. Is it better to waste 10pm - 11pm watching netflix, because it's too late to do anything productive, or is it better to sleep that hour so that I can get up for a swim or a run in the morning, that'll improve the whole next day? Sometimes it's netflix, but sometimes it's bed at 10pm, up at 5am.

I priorise exercise and find that by doing it first on my 'to do' list, gives me the get up and go to get far more chores done than I would have done the other way round.

What time do you early exercisers go to sleep at night?

I never sleep before midnight so I'd be chronically sleep deprived if I got up that early!

I should be putting my health first though. Although being tidy and organised is good for my mental health.
It is just so, so hard to motivate yourself to do something you really do not enjoy, especially when you know you have to do it again the next day but with aching muscles!

I get up at 6.15 Tuesday - Friday mornings (Monday is my rest day) and do a Jillian Michaels workout. I also do a Jillian workout + yoga on Saturday and Sunday but allow myself longer in bed at weekends.

I’ve been doing this religiously for the past 6 months and find it really sets me up for the day. I’m so much more toned now too.

@Tablow: when mine were toddlers and I was working like you I just couldn’t. It gets easier when they are a bit older (mine now sleep til at least 7 so I have 6-7 just for me: DH also in the house but not up. When your kids are v small though it’s impossible unless you have someone else looking after the kids for a chunk of time when you aren’t working. Don’t be hard on yourself - you are doing so much already. Do what you can when you can: and that window will get bigger.

I struggle with this. I'm up with toddler at 5, have to work from 9-4 then school run, meal times, DC bedtimes, then I need to start work again 7-10 and then I'm exhausted. I have no idea how to fit in exercise. I try to cycle for the school run but it's hardly strenuous.

Why don't all the 'get up and go' exercisers get distracted like I do.

Sometimes I do, but the important thing for me is to have decided that I'm going. If I allow myself the slightest possibility of negotiation , like I'm tired, it's raining, I don't feel like it, that's a disaster. The best days are the ones where it's not pouring with rain or icy and I just go without thinking about it.

I'm lucky to be able to walk to and from work and a 20 minute brisk walk around the park at lunchtime. When I'm WFH I get up and walk first thing, usually the walk I do is about 6k steps. I aim to hit 16k steps a day which might sound huge but it's pretty easily built up to plus it doesn't involve having to shower afterwards particularly. At weekends I do a long walk in the morning which sets me up for the day. When the weather is really rubbish (I've walked in hail and snow!) I stick some music on and jog on the spot. It's helped me lose nearly 2 stone without busting my chops

I go straight from the school run which will be a power walk or a run. It's usually always morning or I know it won't happen. DS and I often walk in the evenings after dinner too or we'll go mountain biking and cover some distance. All my strength workouts are at home using various online classes.

I actually love the gym. It's my me time.
Cycle to gym, swim, followed by class. Love it. Not so crazy about all the cardio equipment so never use any of that. Occasionally use the weights when I cannot get to body pump.

But i like getting out of the house to exercise. You just have to find a way that works for you.

The gym's horrible. Be honest, even if you just had to go and stand in there without doing anything for 45 minutes, you wouldn't like it.

I work out at home, 10 minutes a day lifting weights. I have a programme that hits all major muscle groups. I also have a dog to walk, and chuck myself in the sea every now and then.

I fully recommend working out in small bursts at home. No kit to wash, no going out in the rain, no getting to and from the gym, NO GYM.

When the dc are not on school holidays I do it first thing in the morning (both dc's catch buses/taxi just after 7am), if I don't do it then I never will. I walk, hill climb, swim or gym every day.

An hour’s brisk dog walk every evening in the week or during the day at weekends.

And I fit those in if I possibly can. So it's pretty much every day. This way if I do miss a day it doesn't matter because the default is that I do it. It's such a habit it feels weird not to.

6am. Straight out of bed and up for exercising before I can talk myself out of it.

Morning run and evening walk.

When my son swims.

So most days 5/6am and some evenings 7pm.

I go for a walk/run or if local pool sometimes come home and do strength and fitness.