What does your average day look like? When do you fit in exercise?!

[Rainydays55]

Just that really… what does your average weekday look like?! All I seem to do is work! What do you do after work? What exercise do you fit in and when?

I get up at 6, go to the gym for either strength training or swimming and am home as the rest of the house wake up. Kids ready for school and I’m at my desk in my home office by 9.00. If I waited til the evening it would never happen, DH exercises in the evening instead.

First thing, then it doesn’t matter how the day unfolds as your exercise is already done. Also energies me for the day.

Honestly, I dont on a work day
Every weekend I promise myself I'm going to change but I never do.

I get up at 6, breakfast, shower etc, leave for work at 7. Commute is 1h. Work M-F usually to 6pm. Commute 1 h so arrive home 7pm. Then sort dinner, chores, seeing my kids, life admin. Then either read/watch tv for an hour, or (honestly) scroll through my phone aimlessly. Maybe have a bath. Check work emails. Drink some wine. Bed 10.30 or 11pm. Rinse and repeat.

On a weekend I always do something, whether it is a run or a hike or a Les Mills On Demand class. I KNOW I feel better and more resilient when I exercise. I know the old adage, that it's not that I cant afford the time to do it, it's that I cant afford not to. I'm stuck I'm the pre-contemplation phase on the cycle of change.

I'm going to read all the responses and try and recognise that you are all not majorly different from me, you just prioritise other things. And I could do that too

Reading this and feeling very ashamed of myself. I have no excuse not be be doing any of these things.

6am gym sessions
730am start work
8am cycle children to school 4km round trip
4pm finish work, cycle same 4km to collect children
7pm 1 hour walk alone

When I'm at work I run twice a week in my lunchtime - I did this when in the office, but it was nicer when I started WFH because it meant I showered in my shower not the grotty office one afterwards! Currently I'm on mat leave so can't go during the day so I go two evenings a week at about 8pm when both the toddler and the baby are asleep. Either way I then also run (a longer one) on a Sunday morning. I try and do the odd yoga or HIIT video but I never manage to stick with that whereas my running is an established routine.

i had no problem pre dc but I struggle now except on my days off.

I fit it in with ds swim training.

He trains 8 times a week either 5-7am or 7-9pm.

So do 30-60 minutes brisk walk or jog.

Or exercise at home.

I'm going to have to add in more exercise indoors because it's dark now in the mornings/ evenings and I'm not happy being out alone in the dark.

So any suggestions of good cardio fat busting ones I'm all ears!

We do martial arts as a family. 6pm, three nights a week. We meet friends there so it's social as well as hard physical exercise. I started because my DC wanted to try it and I didn't want to sit and watch yet again. I'm more hooked than they are and rapidly working through my belts.

Wake up between 5-6am as this is when my baby wakes up.

I can't really exercise at the minute as she doesn't let me but we do go out for a walk most days.

5am toddler drop-kicks me in the head
5.01am toddler breastfeeds for nine hours yet it’s still only 5.30am when we get up
5.30-8am a blur of peanut butter, Peppa Pig and propping eyes open with matchsticks
8.01-8.25am “exercise” by carrying toddler to nursery then walking home
8.30am work
Midday ish lunch break, slog guts out in garden which feels exercisey
1pm-5.30 work
5.30-9pm batshit toddler bedtime meltdowns FML
9.01pm consider exercising, reading a book, enjoying life, think better of it and go to bed

Monday/Wednesday - CrossFit class at lunch
Tuesday/Thursday - run 5km at 630am before everyone else is up
Friday - CrossFit after school run (if DH works from home so DC2 can stay with him)
Saturday/Sunday - walk 4/5km at 730/8 before DC are up

I work PT (0.7) which helps and DC2 doesn't often wake before 830/9 without being forced to.

I also have more relaxed cleaning standards than some of my friends as I prioritise the exercise rather than other jobs.

@Chocolatebuttercream

I'm a SAHM with two kids under 3 and my husband works 12 giur shifts. I don't exercise- I literally don't have any time at all without one or both of the children, 24 hours a day. I've also wondered how I'm meant to fit in exercise when I don't normally even have enough time to do a poo or have a shower

Older one in a backpack and younger in a buggy and swift walk?

I'm a LP and I have to admit I found some ages more difficult to exercise but figured out under 4 could speed walk with buggy, 4- 11 I use to make him scooter or ride his bike and after 11 I always did it whilst he swam and it's increased as he's gone from 2 times a week to training 8 times!

Exercise doesn't have to be hiit or yoga. A brisk walk 30 minutes a day is fine.

5am wake up
5:15 shower
5:45 leave the house.
6:40 arrive at work.
Set up for contractors who arrive at 7am.
Work through until 5pm.
Takes an hour to get home.
Arrive home by 6pm usually.
Make dinner, housework, sit down to eat at 7ish.
Spend an hour with DD and DH.
Answer emails for work,
Walk the dog at 9pm.
Shower/cry into my hands that there's still 3 hours of stuff to do that I've missed!
In bed by 10:30.

This week I'm off work, thank the lord!!

@itsgettingwierd you'd think so wouldn't you but there are no pavements in my village and also if I carry/push the babies, the older one falls asleep (and then won't go bed until 10pm and I do all bedtimes with the baby in tow) so it doesn't really work. I do need to find a way, I've tried exercise videos but normally one or other child will start crying.

I finish work at 4pm and head straight to the gym.

I run 3-4 times per week and strength train 2-3 times per week.

I’ll usually do this first thing which for me is about 6/6.30am. I save my long runs for weekends.

In awe of all the early risers here. I need to get my act together.
I know exercising early would work for me but the following barriers have prevented me doing so for the past few years (pre-DC, I suppose):

• waking DH early (he's a light sleeper in the early hours/morning). He gets very grumpy about me waking him early.
• waking DC early, also light sleeper, then DH having to deal with it.
• dark mornings in the cooler months meaning running is out of the equation.
• needing to drive to go to the gym or pool due to the above. Seems a bit wasteful?!

I'm probably just looking for excuses but the waking family up issue is a big one for me.

Will be trying to do swimming and Pilates on each of my days off but fitting in anything beyond a lunchtime walk while WFH has been a struggle so far.

I am not a morning person. I have two children but I still wake up as late as possible. Usually about 8-8:30. I work from home 9-5 and am at my computer most of the day. I have a break for lunch. But that's to actually make and eat lunch. After work I get the kids dinner ready and have them eat dinner and then their fruit and into bed. This takes me until about 9pm. Then I rush and get myself ready and go to the gym then for 9:30 until they close at 10:30. I've found it harder with lockdown though, and I've been very hesitant to go back just because of covid

WFH. Hours flexible.

Turned garage into home gym. Appreciate hard for many to do this.

Martial arts x2 week with DS.

Run on Treadmill in garage 2-3 x week.

Martial arts practise at home with DS 1 - 2 x week.

Online yoga class at weekend.

Prefer evenings.

presently cycling 10 miles to work and then have to cycle home again

its 20/25 minutes longer each way than driving though, so it actually saves time on exercise and its saving me around £50 a month in fuel

When I had (lots) small children my main exercise was from buggy pushing & walking with them. If i got them off screens for 2 hours, walking all that time was fine by me.

Average weekday here is:

Get up, get ready, get DD up and ready for nursery by 7.15
Drop at nursery for 7.30 and drive to work for 8.45. Eat breakfast and lunch at work. Try to do all the stairs instead of lift (I work on a uni campus so walk about a fair bit when it’s not Covid).
Leave work at 4.45, drive to horse. Muck out, ride, feed etc. Get home for 7pm. Do bedtime routine with DD.
Supper whenever she’s asleep, usually not much before 9pm
Collapse in exhausted heap about 10.45

I do WFH 2 days which is better as no commute so extra hour in bed and a longer evening. I walk less though but fit in some housework instead.

@burritofan your post made me I remember those '9 hour' breastfeeding sessions only too well!

This is actually a reassuring thread for me...there was a similar one a while back where it seemed like everyone was doing 6 days of solid exercise and it made me feel very inadequate! Think this is a more honest one.