To ask how you fit in exercise?

[drspouse]

I currently work 4 days and so does DH but he commutes quite a long way so I do most of the drop offs and pick ups. He does WFH sometimes but not on a regular day.
I cycle to work mostly on the day he's at home and I try to cycle with DD who currently goes to my workplace nursery but a) she's 4 and heavy and b) often I have too much to carry as her seat only allows one small pannier.
She's starting school in Sept but I'll still be doing at least 75% of the school runs.
I have a horrible hamstring pain at the moment so I want to do some yoga but leaving aside that many of the local classes close for the summer, they are all at 8 am (useless for school run) or 5 pm (ditto after school club).
I also really need to do some aerobic exercise - I do 10K steps most days with school run/errands/dashing to meetings at work but it's not helping me lose weight sadly.
So do share your secrets!
I'm happy doing gym classes but the machines leave me cold.
I'm in the kind of job where I have a meeting at 12, 1 and 2 one day but then can take a bit over an hour the next but it's not massively regular. Not sure I could fit in a full gym class plus shower at lunchtime regularly.
Weekends are quite full on (two DC, older awaiting SEN diagnosis, we try to both have a breather away from the DCs but we do have to schedule them, and us therefore, to help them both feel like they know what's happening).
Pre DCs I cycled more, but also went for a lot of long walks that they can't do. I also have annoying chest infections most winters!

Even something simple like some very uncoordinated and cheesy dancing to some favourite songs whilst making food/packing bags/at the weekend with the kids or husband will get your heart rate up and is therefore good for you! It takes a long while to see physical results from exercise of you're doing it in moderation (I.e. properly), but it'll be doing you good on the inside. Sorry so many people are hassling you to do impossible things and just humble bragging about their own exercise.

these threads can feel pressuring sometimes which isn't nice
Yep!

I'm going to look into classes on my day off once DD starts school - I'm still keeping my regular day off because she's supposed to be having speech therapy so it may be that I actually have to take her to appointments but it's worth investigating.
The other thing that winds me up is how blooming difficult it is to find out about independently run classes. Or indeed any classes at all.
Gyms rarely seem to publish their timetables (and what with having to drive to all the gyms and them only having classes at times I can't do, I'm not paying a membership). If they do, they change week on week so if DH is working from home and I want to drop in to a class while he does pickup, I can't guarantee it will happen.
Independent yoga/Pilates/boot camp type things that are in church halls/parks only have vague timetables which rely on you knowing the regular classes, on odd hard-to-find websites or FB pages. Their websites always seem to be out of date too!
Grr!

"Sorry so many people are hassling you to do impossible things and just humble bragging about their own exercise."

Nice! The OP asked for suggestions on how to fit exercise into her day, and has literally asked how other people do it - so people have told her. Fair enough if their suggestions aren't workable, but I don't think that's 'hassling'.

I think you have to really want to fit it and it is hard, I don't think the posters are intending to be pressuring but it's difficult because everything people post you shoot down!
A lot of it is about how bad you want it, sometimes your only option will be early morning or late at night.
Not sure why you think doing it at night will cause insomnia, most people sleep better after exercise (something to do with sera-t-on in and endorphins that I don't really understand)
Another option is lunchtime. For about a year I joined a gym with a lady at work and we did 30 minute spin/hiit classes at lunchtime and it worked wonders! Meant staying 15 mins extra to make up time but then it was done and I could go home and relax

The kids do like cheesy dancing!

Findo I can't really do anything sustained and aerobic while the kids are home - unless I get really lucky and they are asleep by 7 (i.e. once in the last year), I'm too knackered; in the mornings any sign of life and they are up and in the way. With DH leaving early, he does his best to be quiet as a mouse but often they are both up when he gets up which means I am also up and refereeing arguments. He will sort them out if he's up and they are too, but that doesn't prevent them from trying to stop me from doing things/climb on me/jump on the sofa and need stopping.

No, Findo, that isn't hassling. But making suggestions that don't fit in with the basic information already provided in the OP about when she works etc. is pretty frustrating. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular! It just seems to happen a lot in these threads that a few people won't actually absorb the information in the OP first.

Given the stage in life you're at, with your children being small, and you and your DH having work commitments, my advice to you would be to put exercise during weekdays on the back burner. Just for now.

I know what you are saying about weekends as I have DC with SEN too and there is so much juggling with their activities, spending time as a family, organising, chores and all the normal stuff. But my experience of DH fitting in his exercise at the weekend has taught me that, if you want to do it, you have to be more selfish. Discuss with your DH the exercise you want to do and how you propose fitting this in. It could be doing an exercise DVD (30 day Shred is good for me), going to Park Run (9 am in most places on Saturday mornings, all levels of ability, size etc, most people are not racing, they're just trying to get round), a class. Whatever. And then carve that time out. And your DH should do the same, for whatever it is that he wants to do, whether that be exercise, gaming, laying in the bath, whatever.

What about one of you doing kids breakfast on Saturday whilst the other one does their thing, and vice versa on Sunday? Saying that after tea is DVD time, and you going out then? Same with bathtime/bedtime, one of you do Saturday and one of you do Sunday? You could try it and see how it goes.

Well, it's first thing on a Monday morning so perhaps you should cut people some slack. I admitted myself I missed a post about the time the husband left for work. And to be honest, those sort of 'wasn't aimed at anyone' remarks are always aimed at someone.

I'm not suggestion you do anything sustained and aerobic, OP - I literally said that cardio exercise can be short bursts and doesn't have to be sustained.

Do you have enough money to get a PT for a couple of sessions? Get them to show you exercises, put together a routine & check your form. Do them at home then?

BTW, I don't lose weight doing 10,000 steps either. I think you have to increase your heart rate by doing more than walking to lose weight, or do way more walking. Something that I have been able to do is get off my train one stop earlier in the evenings and walk home from there. I get home about 25 minutes later than usual, but I have done 35 minutes walk as well as whatever I've done already that day. It helps a bit.

I figure if theres no genuine harm done it's probably not worth worrying about. I was just trying to support OP and acknowledge that the thread as a whole might have been a slightly frustrating experience for her. Genuinely sorry if it seemed like I was calling you out or something.

If you’re struggling to fit in exercise but hoping to lose weight perhaps you could tighten up your diet instead, as this is the most important thing for weight loss.

Also there are lots of very short (15 mins) Tabatha/HIIT videos on YouTube that give you the same result in a short time due to their intensity.

How are people supposed to answer these threads without sounding as if they're pressuring or bragging though? Op specifically asked how other people do it and they are answering her question...

My answer won't be popular either but I get up at 5.30. Horrific at first but then it becomes routine - you only need to do it 2 or 3 times in the working week and then I get up later at weekends to exercise.

I go to the gym or run but you could get some benefit out of a quick hiit exercise video, there are loads of free ones on youtube and fitness blender.

Think about what you're trying to achieve too, what's your goal? You sound pretty active to me already with the cycling and the amount of steps you do.

nelly it is really common for late night exercise to cause insomnia. If you don't get that, you're lucky, but it's not generally recommended, partly for that reason. Yes, most people sleep better after exercise earlier in the day.
Most of the things people have posted are at times I can't do because of me doing at least 75% of the school runs. And most of the suggestions are at that sort of time (or at least, in my area, they are, as I said in my OP).

I've said I'm happy to do cycling, I will try running (but a club is no good for me, partly because of the times), and gym classes, I really want to do yoga, I won't do gym machines but that's just one thing I've tried and leaves me cold. I will do gym classes but there aren't any at times I can get to.

The council gym (nowhere near work or home so I can't get there on days in the office or WFH) does have some classes on my usual day off, I have just checked. I have no idea what any of them are as they are all in code but I can find out, and try and do one when DD starts school!

I've just looked at the web pages for 3 gyms that are vaguely near home: as I said above, one is broken (the website not the gym!), one only has machines, one is the women's running club which though I know it exists, took me several more searches to actually find times for! And when I eventually found it I see that the beginner's time is 5.30... I can see that being a pain for a lot of SAHMs and women who work.

Maybe I just live in a really rubbish area for organised exercise! But I do find in general that group things are pitched at way too high a level for me (except yoga/Pilates and even then I went to one yoga class pre-DCs, having been doing yoga for about 20 years on and off, and was told "oh this isn't a beginner's class, you can't come again" because I wasn't fast enough!!)

I don't do much housework. Bare minimum . I figure that a decade of a messy house is less worse than a decade without exercise.
I can pick up tidying properly when my kids are teens and I can get to the gym in the evenings.

VeryHangry I use MFP but l know from experience and science that just eating fewer calories is not going to cut it.
Plus, you know, the whole stiff leg thing.

I did C25k when mine were small because it was the most flexible and time efficient option. That tended to be late at night after baby's last feed. I was generally tired enough that by the time I'd showered and gone to bed, sleep was no problem!

When I worked F/T, it was getting up an extra 30 minutes early for a short run or a DVD on the days that I hadn't got too much marking. Some weeks were a struggle! I did a class Sat am, and a longer run on a Sunday.

meglet we have a cleaner, I don't spend hours cleaning when DH is home and I could be out exercising.

The time when DH is home and I'm not completely exhausted/in the middle of a bedtime battle/getting the kids off to school/stopping them from breaking things is spent a) doing essential child related admin b) ditto house e.g. removing daily layers of food from dining room floor, cooking tea, cleaning up after tea, doing washing, putting washing away c) collapsing on the sofa post 9pm.

“I think you have to really want to fit it and it is hard, I don't think the posters are intending to be pressuring but it's difficult because everything people post you shoot down!“

I think your being unfair to some people, Nellly, inclusion the OP.

My DH is out The house by 6am every day. Works long hours with irregular finish times so school pick ups were my job when I did a bit less hours and could manage to get them from school. Then I went fulltime so kids were in after school or childminder till I finished work, then I had to cook evening meal, supervise homework, their hobbies, baths, bed etc

So for my situation, it is only now the kids are older and in secondary school and able to be left in the house alone for a couple of hours that I have been able to exercise at classes during the week in the evening. Some people really do have very busy lives with little ones. And no, they can’t fit it in even if they want to. A DVD at home maybe but yhat’s It when the kids can’t be left.

It’s unfair to say “get up earlier and go for a run” because for some people that would mean leaving little ones alone in bed and that’s not on.

You seem to have an excuse for every scenario suggested so if you need to lose weight maybe make a healthier diet your main focus. Exercise only accounts for a small portion of weightless overall. If you're serious about improving your fitness then it doesn't matter if you're the slowest person at running club, everyone has to start somewhere. With perseverance I'm sure you wouldn't be the slowest for long..

I can see that apart from one hardy soul who does get up at 5.30 (sorry but with the best will in the world that is NOT going to happen, especially since some days it would mean trying to go to bed earlier than the DCs!) and a few who exercise at 9pm... everyone has a plan that involves a time when I'm either at work, or am dealing with the kids.

I will look in to the yoga apps (but why on earth can't yoga classes a) advertise themselves better b) run at helpful times and c) run over the summer!) and hope I'm not about to do myself some ligament damage!

Could you do a 10-15 minute walk at lunchtime. I know it’s not much more but 15 minutes 4 days a week is an extra hour a week.

Daisy what do you suggest to get round my "excuses" then?

How can I BOTH look after my DCs alone, or work, from approx 6.45 am to 6.30 pm plus bedtime/cooking tea AND do the suggestions here?

As I've also said, if DH is home early/WFH I can in theory go out early evening to a 6pm class - but the advertising is so cr*p that I can't even find out when things are on/check they are still running to drop in when I can.

Just another thought if the kids are going to be up with you could you cosmic kids yoga as a family. It’s not as challenging as proper yoga but each story has quite a few different poses.