To ask if you go to the gym during work hours, HOW?

[inneedofaglowup]

How do you fit it around work hours? I use my "lunch hour" to pick up the kids and it's making me sad I can't fit an hour at the gym in whereas I know people do manage to do this!

I go in the morning on my WFH days straight after dropping DDs off at school and am usually logged on by 9:45ish. Technically working hours 9-5 however as long as I don't have a meeting and am getting all my required work done my manager is ok with it.

The hours all come out in the wash. I often work through my lunch break at home/log off past 5pm. If I have time whilst DDs are getting ready/eating breakfast I will log on for a bit around 7:30am before I leave.

I feel rushed if I go to the gym at lunch but will go for a run instead sometimes.

Just very lucky to have flexibility in my job and with my manager

And yes - we started early - 7/7.30 so nearly everyone had breakfast at their desk.

I have flexi time. So within certain parameters I can manage my time on my own. I can't do a gym class on an office day for logistical reasons. However on a wfh day I would log in earlier. I would take a long lunch and do a class then and perhaps work a little later if there was a time deficit. I used to be able to take time in the morning but new management in our place changed what times they want bums on seats. The other option is very very early in the morning which is a strong no thank you from me but I have a friend who loves doing that.

I eat breakfast at my desk, eat lunch at my desk (browsing mumsnet) do life admin during work and have about 8 hot drinks a day!
~wonders if @Itsanothermanicmonday is one of my colleagues~
I don't go home early though. And I certainly don't log on at home 😂

Also a PP mentioned being a CF for eating breakfast at work/multiple hot drink breaks. That is really normal in my office. We have a breakfast cupboard. 90% of people eat once they get to work, even if that is just after 9am.

Work from home mostly and we both just work out from home - bought adjustable dumbbells for about £250, which have been totally worth it, and a few other bits of small equipment. Top up with walking/running. I mainly YouTube work out before work pre-shower, hubby works out in his lunch hour though most days. Might progress to the gym for variety but atm have two young kids to manage.

Nursery drop-off at 8, in gym by 8.20, in work by 9.30. This only works on days I don’t have any meetings until 9.30 or 10.00.

I only used to go at lunchtime when I worked in an office with a gym so it only took a minute to get there. Miss those days!

Absolutely depends on your job type, flexibility and expectations.

I go to the gym in the early morning before work but that's not really an option for you, you could use youtube exercise videos though.

A lot of my workmates run at lunchtime and shower at work. There's also a gym on site, lunchtime yoga group, walking group and the local pool is 5mins drive away (I know people who swim at lunchtime as well, I've done it when I have a very early start). We are expected to take a full hour off for lunch so people take half an hour for a walk/run/gym/yoga session and half an hour to eat. But we're not doing tasks that require us to be present all the time so if you take a bit longer for lunchtime exercise it doesn't matter as long as you deliver your objectives.

I get up at 5:45am. Two days a week I go to the gym. Three days a week I work on my PhD.

I work 8:30-5:30 in the office.

Life admin during my lunch break if necessary. I don’t take a lunch break most days. Eat at my desk.

You need to work PT OP if you want to go to the gym and pick the kids up in your lunch break.

This thread has taught me to be grateful of my employer and colleagues for being so reasonable!

Nobody gives ges a shit how many hot drinks I have, if I eat breakfast at my desk or chat to colleagues as long as I get my work done

I'm in a slump at the moment but when I was in more of an active phase I'd carve out time in my day to go for a run or an online fitness class. This would be at a quieter point in the day and I never block out time for lunch (I work from home)
I'd minimise time away from desk by putting on gym stuff in the morning so I'm ready to go and then once finished exercise I'd log on immediately before then going to shower/change after checking emails. In reality most runs wouldn't be longer than 30 mins.

What sort of work out do you do OP?

I live a couple of miles from work, and have started walking it regularly, which isn't much longer than the bus in terms of time.

You could also think about doing weights at home or some sort of YouTube work out regime, this would be quicker and easier.

I used to go to the gym (which was part of the office complex in lunch time). Must admit it usually took at least 1.5 hours and I had to eat my lunch at my desk. At that job every day was just booked as a "standard business day" as I was an "onsite consultant" (lol), must admit I was a slight CF.

I wfh and have a peloton so I can easily do a 30 - 45 min session and have a shower at lunch - it helps that I can just let my hair dry naturally if I don’t have a call.

I like the idea of taking one day off but using it 1 hour at a time, but my current employer would never go for it.

My current employer doesn't even like me taking most of my annual leave as long weekends, which is annoying.

Workout at lunchtime sounds impractical because you need to be presentable for work before and after.
I drop my kid at daycare at 8ish, gym 8:10-8:40ish, quick shower and office by 9 or 9:30 latest. I live in a small town, I'm lucky to have daycare, gym and work all close to each other. Also I'm lucky I can turn up at daycare for dropoff pre shower and nobody seems to mind (I mean, not awful, but not office ready either, usually I do dropoff in leggings and a hoodie).

We have a gym inside my office so it’s super convenient and membership is subsidised. Which also means loads of people go and it’s very normalised, they run classes at lunchtime etc. And we have an office culture that trusts people to get their jobs done and if you want to squeeze in appointments, exercise, school play etc that’s fine - no one cares if you’re doing strictly 9-5 as long as you’re delivering. My head of division blocks out 2 hours for lunch and exercise every day.
I don’t work near a pool now but I used to work 5 mins walk from a great one and used to do a 30 min lunchtime swim and then super quick dry/dress and back to the office.

@Itsanothermanicmonday what’s wrong with having breakfast at work? Our work canteen serves breakfast!

I have a gym at work and we are encouraged to go, either before work or at lunchtime! The showers are a bit manky, which is my current excuse for not going 🤣🤣🤣.

There's a gym in my workplace, that's how 😀

When the kids were little and I was working part time, I would fit the gym in doing nursery, school etc. I remember a popular Friday morning body pump class attended by loads of school mums. I always enjoyed Sunday gym time.

When I returned to full time work, I would go around half five, six pm. I would book a class and wait for my husband to get home from work. He’s self employed, so it was never an automatic 5pm end time. Many times I’ve had to cancel my class but 🤷‍♀️. Whilst waiting for him to come home, I would prep/make supper and he’d eat and feed the kids and I’m doing spin.

Now that the kids are older and don’t need watching, DH and I go together after work and on Sundays.

If you’re determined to go, you’ll go. You just manage to fit it in. I prioritize the gym because I’ve got shit mental health and sleep issues. It makes me feel better about myself, so I consider it a necessity like taking a shower or brushing my teeth.

Having said that, you do need a partner who understands the importance and supports you. My DH could have very well said ‘no, I’m not coming home at 5:30 for you to go to body combat’ but he never did. I also made sure he could go to basketball and squash. And now that we don’t have to worry about the kids we do these things together.

It's nice to see so many people have great flexibility with work. To be fair my employer is flexible but to an extent. My manager would be totally fine with us working as long as we did our hours and the work was done but the company itself and other senior management I think wouldn't be so keen.

There’s a gym at my office and it really is 20 steps away from my desk … I take half an hour extra lunchbreak so i have an hour for exercise. End of the day I work the half hour extra. My youngest son goes to after school club, eldest gets home alone.

why assume everyone is automatically a cheeky fucker because of your exhaustive experience of...(checks) ONE person? Has the concept of flexible working passed you by? You're assuming nobody can have more than an hour max for lunch. Even if not, I used to work in an office with gym in the same building so it was perfectly possible to do a 30min run, shower and be back at desk within an hour. Nobody cared if you had wet hair or were eating a sandwich at your desk because we weren't customer facing.

Now I wfh with full flexibility over my hours and go to the gym at any random point in the day. Nobody cares. I don't see how I'm being a cheeky fucker if the work still gets done, just with a 7.30 am start rather than 9, or 6pm finish rather than 5 to enable going to the gym in the day.

I work for myself, go to the gym & spa in the afternoon and make myself as many hot drinks, and cold drinks, as I want (I have a great boss)

I manage it because I wfh and have a treadmill and basic gym equipment (weights etc) at home. DH works late shift so I have DS on my own every evening, which means I have no opportunity to workout then. I used to go to evening gym classes/running clubs before he started these shifts and I had to give them up. I have to prioritise doing it on my lunch hour or I wouldn’t get time to do it. I do a 40 mins workout 3x a week, hop in the shower quickly and then grab a pre made lunch in time to sit back at my desk at the hour mark. It’s tight time wise admittedly. My tip is to get dressed in your workout clothes that morning so no change is required before workout, and put your clean set in the bathroom to put on immediately after showering (I literally don’t even have time to ponder outfits, it’s all done before work). There’s no way, when I had a gym membership, I could have driven to the gym (10-15 mins, no gyms closer annoyingly), had time for a decent workout, and drove home all in the space of an hour and then still had time for a shower and lunch.

Should probably add, I do have flexible working so usually going over my lunch by 15 mins or so wouldn’t be an issue as I would make the time up. A lot of employers offer this now so it is worth looking into. In my current situation I have to be strict with my hours and breaks to ensure I work what I’m contracted, as I have to do nursery runs so can only log on at a certain time and have to be logging off at 5pm to get to nursery on time.