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!

IC I do that sort of thing, yes, which is how I usually get up to 10K steps a day - but it's not really intensive enough.

Oh and yes we do about 5 mins of Cosmic Kids but then the DCs wander off/fight/won't copy any of the moves and want to watch something else.

struggled with this and faced the fact that there was no way to squeeze it into the "normal" hours as they were too full of family and work. Bit the bullet and started getting up (Very reluctantly!) at 5:30 to get one hour of exercise in before family comes down for breakfast. Its not easy, keep trying and experimenting and find some thing that works for you. I read if you do 100 press ups every day you can eat whatever you want - started with 1, worked way up to 50, decided that was good enough and would watch some of what I eat!

Oh that’s another one, OP. “Can you exercise in your lunch hour?” The days of whole lunch hours are long gone for a lot of people. I am supposed to get a half hour lunch break. Never even get that. It’s 20 min max which is enough time to go the toilet, get to staff room and eat lunch, breathe out and be back at work.

I wish people would stop telling the OP that she is making excuses.

Oh bummer.

I hope you find someway to fit some more in. It’s really tricky

We do alternating early evenings.
My DW runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at about 7ish. I'll put the DCs to bed whilst she is out or if it's earlier give them their tea.
I run Tuesday and Thursday evenings at about the same time and I also run Saturday morning and Sunday morning. We might run together on the Saturday morning

I also run in the mornings if the 7 month DS is awake early, I stick him in the running buggy and we head out for 30-45 minutes.
Some of our evening runs are also pushing him in the buggy.
I can sometimes fit a swim in after dropping the DCs off in the morning depending on my work.

I do the 30 minute 30 Day Shred type things using online videos. 30 minutes is usually doable.

OK so, more local research:
There's a ballet fit class at a 6.30 one day, a women's boxing fit at 6pm a couple of days a week. Both you have to search about 5 menus on their respective web pages to find.
I could go to each of those maybe 1 week in 3 if DH is home that day - but having tried this before they usually either expect you to pay for a term and to commit to the classes in order to progress, or cancel at short notice when DH has already stopped work early (as have I) to get ready.
I know there are "some classes" at another local community centre but it seems as if you have to ring up every week to find out what's on! If you went each week then I'm sure they'd tell you what was happening the next week.
I'd love to do something like circuits one week, boxing fit the next, and ballet the third then skip a week if DH was home on different days but that's not what the classes are set up for.

I think alternating is the way to go too, OP (see my post above on how it might possibly work for you). I understand that young children with SEN is a different ball game to simply having DC as I am in the same boat. But is it a possibility?

You're making it difficult for yourself. Just get a treadmill at home and a few home gym tools like dumbbells and a jump rope and off you go.
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Use YouTube for lots of inspiration for home workouts.

Short exercise snacks are good.

I have a pull-up bar in the doorway of a room that I pass several times a day at home and I never go past it without performing a pull-up or some hang time.

My kitchen cabinets are close enough that I can do knee raises and L-sits or dips on them while waiting for a kettle to boil etc.

Kitchen sink or area in work, I can discreetly perform plies and pulses. Likewise when brushing teeth.

I have resistance bands that I can pass round heavy furniture in work for some exercise when I have 5 mins or so. Other close loop resistance bands allow me to perform ankle work under my desk.

Desk yoga for the upper body is helpful if performed a couple of times a day.

If stairs aren't busy, I perform hanging calf raises and stretches at the foot of the stairs.

I'm very nervous WellTidy of anything that changes our bedtime routine TBF unless it's "Mummy or daddy is OUT and is only going to be back AFTER you are asleep" which therefore leads to no room for negotiation and no point in messing around.
So we do fine when DH is late back and we also do fine if I go out at 6.00 and don't come back till gone 8. Just a bit nervous of anything in between though we can think about it!

Monday has clearly not read the posts where I said that a gym machine would be an expensive washing hanger in our house.

arran those are good ideas for my stretching needs.

I go the gym twice a week - once a weekend, usually mornings as it generally takes my husband ages to be awake and sorted enough to leave the house, so I can normally get a session in before anything is likely to happen. Then I either go at lunchtime when I work from home, or on a weeknight when nothing else is happening and DH isn't going anywhere. I would be prepared to set an early alarm and go a weekday instead, only that would be likely to wake DH up and he'd complain about it!

It was easier in my last job where there was a gym literally across the road so I could go in my lunch hour and manage 2-3 visits a week. Otherwise it is hard when you have kids - it took me 5 years before I got back into going to the gym after my second was born, as I'd changed jobs by then and there just isn't any gym very near my current workplace.

I didn't mean to sound harsh but people are mentioning things to do at home that could be done any time you could grab a few minutes such as a quick workout dvd and you are saying things like you are too uncoordinated or you might be doing it wrong or you're too tired etc.

If you're very unfit then that probably has a lot to do with the tiredness and if you just forced yourself for a few evenings a week your improving fitness levels wold make you feel heaps better. I know you say you don't do gym machines but could you maybe get a cheap exercise bike that you could plonk in a corner at home where you won't feel pressured by anyone watching. I used to point mine at the TV and cycle for half an hour while neighbours was on, didn't notice I was exercising. Or better yet while you watch a film with the kids? That way they're supervised and entertained while you exercise?

To add, I go to a Puregym, so membership is cheap, plus it's open all hours so you can go on those weekend evenings or even very early mornings if you happen to wake up early... I nearly went at 4am a few months ago as I thought I wasn't going to get back to sleep (but did manage to sleep in the end)

A gym machine would only be a cheap washing hanger if you chose not to use it!

I work FT but partly from home, which makes it a bit easier to fit things in but sometimes I miss out because of trains going wrong on the commute.

I swim once a week, run three times a week including Sat mornings at parkrun and do a PT session once a week, my PT comes to my house so I can do it immediately before starting work for the day or at lunchtime.

When I worked FT in an office I ran one evening a week, one lunchtime a week plus Saturday parkrun and swam one evening a week.

I understand drspouse, really I do. How about you do go out at 6pm on a Saturday, and (in the summer) sit in the park with a book or whatever, and then do your exercise and get back after the Dc are in bed? Sort of giving yourself permission to be out longer than the exercise would take, as that is what works for your family set up. Or do your exercise at 6pm for say an hour, and then go wherever is open for a drink?

I know of a couple who are in a similar position, and she goes and does her evening class whilst her DP is doing the bath and bed routine, and then she drives home and sits in the car near their house and he texts her when the DC are asleep and then she comes back in! If she were to come in before they were asleep, it would all go wrong not just that night but every night going forward so she would never get to go to her class.

I'm a member at a gym a 5 minute drive away and they do loads of classes every day so I just go to those (never bother with the gym itself) or use the pool. I have older kids though so can leave them alone at home when I go. If I really can't get out I do Les Mills online (I've got weights at home so I can do bodypump) - it's £10 a month but very good.

The only time I have is mornings, so unfortunately it's a 5.00 a.m. alarm clock, and then 30-40 minutes of exercise. To maximise the time I do HIIT and other highly-focused exercises. Jillian Michaels also has some great time-saving but results focused DVDs. The shred remains my go-to exercise DVD, and I'm (not) amazed at how many of her exercises pop up on other YouTube exercise videos.

You have asked people how they fit in exercise, and they are telling you, but it doesn’t suit your lifestyle. If you really want to do some exercise then you need to sit down and tweek your life to make it happen.
Can you manage 35 minutes three times a week? If so then you can learn to run with C25K. I couldn’t even run at school let alone 35 years later, then I started C25K and last week I ran 3x25 minutes, plus walking to warm up and cool down. My first week, 7 weeks ago, I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish my first 1 minute run. Because of the heat I am having to get up very early to run in the cooler temperatures, but I am doing it because it means a lot to me to be able to run.
To lose weight, although exercise will help, you need to be looking at your diet.

The good, slimline, weight-adjustable ones are expensive enough to make me cry but there are very discreet weight-vests that can be worn under clothing and are useful for just general walking around in the house or if you manage to get out for a walk. (One example is Hypervest - I'd be very, very grateful if anyone knows of similarly adjustable, slim, good ones. I've given this link for convenience not because it's an affordable source.)

These are outstanding for lightweight women who might be at risk of osteopenia or osteoporosis in later life. Similarly, anyone who is heading into peri-menopause and has a family history of bone-thinning etc.

To lose weight, although exercise will help, you need to be looking at your diet.
I do this. I use MFP, try and stick to my calorie goal, look at my % fat etc.
I am not asking for diet advice, but I am aware that just walking around (even if I'm doing 10K a day) is unlikely to shift weight even if my diet is good.
You have asked people how they fit in exercise, and they are telling you
OK, maybe I should rephrase my question.
If you do most of the school runs, have a job that means you are in the office most days of the week, a DP that leaves the house early/gets back late, and have very busy weekends:
How do YOU fit in exercise?
90% of the answers on here are from people whose lives are a bit different to mine but some have been helpful.
I don't think anyone can be expected to take ALL the advice from other posters on their thread?
It would be a bit rude to take none of it - but I have taken some.
And obviously with everyone's lives being different, they are free to tell me how THEY do it but then shouldn't get offended if their lives are different to mine!
As I say, I have in fact found some helpful replies on here and will be taking those ones on board.
Others I hadn't really thought that this would be how people would do things as it's never occurred to me that this would be how people's lives work.
E.g. getting up at 5.30 to do exercise - as it would mean going to bed before the DCs are asleep some days, it never occurred to me that this would be how some people do it.
Doing an aerobic DVD while preschool/primary DCs are awake - may be due to lack of imagination on my part - but again it didn't really occur to me that this was possible in some households so I didn't expect that people would suggest it.

Others I know suit some people, they just don't happen to suit me - so that's why I've said up front I just don't "do" machines, and why I've also said that exercising at 9pm doesn't work for me.

It may be that, yes, as some posters have said, it's not possible while the DCs are small/can't be left/can't get themselves to school. Roll on secondary school!

Oh gosh arran another thing to worry about! (Not having a go! I know I do a lot of walking which is at least something and hopefully my leg bones are strong!)