Fitting in exercise with young children?

[Depresso]

I just have the one 4 y/o. A few months before he turned 4 I ditched the pram completely and it's really taken a toll on how much exercise I'm getting. I would walk miles with the pram and I'm finding DS can manage about half an hour walking at a slow pace. I'm rarely able to venture out exercising on my own as my DP works long shifts starting early and finishing late. Sometimes I try to wake up at 5 and do what I can on my walking pad or a YouTube workout but it's difficult to keep it going every day.

How do you all fit exercise in?

He goes to nursery? school?

weekends presumably your dp is around?

Get him to learn to cycle then you jog while he rides bike. I found a safe park with a track we could do loops of

It's difficult at that age unless you are prepared to get up quite early / live in a relatively safe place and can sacrifice the later evening because you'll be tired from getting up early!

Or a scooter. Mine went miles on theirs at that age.

at that age I found it challenging, also as working FT. I used to do a 30 minute Youtube hit workout in the living room about 3 times a week when kids were in bed on my laptop while watching TV, and a 30 minute run at the weekend when DH was looking after them. I could get the youtube workouts done because I let myself watch tv at the same time, sounds shallow but it somehow worked! I would also ask your partner if poss so that you both get little slots for exercise.

Some gyms have a nursery. If not, can you find any time in the day or weekend when he is not with you?

Go out really early, in my lunch break or do stuff from you tube at home. I have 3 kids and manage to fit it in because I want to and make time for it.

We all go to parkrun on a saturday morning - DP and DD sit in the cafe and do some colouring while I run, then we all go and play on the park after. A day out combined with exercise.

I also cut my hours at work so that I could go to the gym twice a week during school hours but I appreciate that is a measure some people might find a bit drastic. But I needed to do it for my sanity and health!

I do the gym twice a week when DH is home. Scooter or bike also means that DC move faster so I did more walking then which progressed to running to keep up!. Also YouTube work out videos.

Definitely get your DS a scooter, OP. However, I would caution against going for cheap ones. My experience is that DS couldn't move very quickly on a cheap one with thin wheels but the microscooter was more robust, with thicker wheels and he can really pick up the pace on that. If having your DS keep up with your walking pace is the main priority, you would be better off getting a second hand micro on e-bay than a brand new cheaper scooter.

Also, if he's 4, you can start taking him to junior parkrun (if there are any nearby) on a Sunday morning, where you could run/walk round the 2k kids course with him. My DS is not quite 3 and he really enjoys it, although he'll have to wait until he's 4 to get an official time.

@PinkPolkadotFlamingo honestly, this is brilliant advice thank you so much. I actually got DS a scooter (£70 so mid rangeish I think) for his birthday and he's getting a lot better on it (we live in a fairly busy area so I get worried about him veering into the road and me not being able to catch him quick enough!)

I had no idea about junior parkrun and am now booked on for next week!

The problem i have with getting up early is that my DP has to leave for work around 5am so I'm not prepared to get up earlier than that for a run! I do get up early to exercise on one weekend day but I feel I do need to rest on one of the days. I also make sure I do a half an hour walk on my lunch break every day. All these measures just don't feel enough so I really appreciate all of the advice I've read on here so thank you 😊

I usually do an hour before DS gets up so about 6ish- it's not for everyone but I do a home strength programme those mornings as DH is also out of the house early! Cardio days I tend to do when he's home in the evenings. The scooter is a good idea to get some more steps in

I run child-friendly fitness classes for mums. Basically they can bring young children/babies along and I provide toys, books, playmats etc for the children while the mums exercise. Do you have anything like this in your area? I know it's helped a lot of women with the same issue where I live so could be worth looking into.
Otherwise, as others have said I'd recommend Parkrun (if you have another adult to supervise) or Junior Parkrun, as well as home YouTube workouts.

@Depresso , I forgot to mention, that when I am walking near busy roads, with DS on the Scooter, he has a little life backpack, which has a rein that clips on.

When DD was that age, I was working P/T so on my days off, she happily watch a couple episodes of Peppa or similar whilst I did my workout - I think she was 3-4 years old when I did the 30 day shred - each one is about 20-25 mins long so she could tolerate a bit of screen time whilst I did it. You do it every day for 30 days and it made an appreciable difference. I also would go running in the morning on the weekend when DH was off work.