To not exercise

[Katywester]

I was reading another thread about a woman who didn't enjoy showering and the questions asking her 'don't you exercise' surprised me as if it was a given that everyone exercised!
Am I the minority mum of three full time work etc that just can't fit in exercise other than a quick dog walk every other day?

Well I didnt until I was 45, unless you count a walk.

You only walk your dog every other day?

Not being able to fit in exercise is just an excuse I find. There's always a way to fit it in.

I don't. I do 40 min round dog walk in the morning and again in the afternoon (school run).

Apart from that I work 5-7am, 9-3pm, 8-11pm. Sort the dc and house out in between.

I don't know how people find the time for actual sweaty exercise which involves getting into gym wear, doing the thing (warming up and warming down) then showering. It's over an hour of the day gone!

I do tend to clean the house for 3-4 hours on a Saturday and my phone says I usually log about 20k steps doing that and the dog walks.

I would run when waiting for DD at a club or put music on and dance, do weights or yoga after her bedtime

Do people honestly not sit on the couch and watch tv or lie in bed scrolling for at least an hour daily? There’s your hour, use it how you want but some people chose to exercise. A run doesn’t involve travel either

Only 2 children here but work full time- I gym in the mornings 3 times a week, 1 for my mental health and 2 because as we get older as women we need to keep our muscles strong. A walk wouldn’t really cut it from a health perspective imo.

Don’t worry about excercise. I’m nearly 80 and tried exercising when I was in my forties when it became a thing. Hated it and soon gave it up. No one in my family ever exercised. My aunts both lived to 91 in good health and mobility. One was always ‘overweight/chubby’. The other was always thin. No exercise was even thought about nor necessary.

Use it/do it....... or lose it.

Speaking as a very fit 70 y.o. I strongly recommend doing it.

Find something you enjoy. Suggestions:

Yoga with Kassandra
Livinleggings
Lucy Wyndham Read
Growingannanas
Caroline Girvan

All free on Youtube.

NB: Don't be scared of weights. Weight bearing/resistance training is VERY important.

Another suggestion:

Walk as much as you can. At a fair pace and/or with weights if possible.

Increase payback from walking by wearing angle weights, wrist weights and/or a weighted vest,

I do do this because I carry about 10 bags of school stuff, wellies and junk modelling every day to and from the school.

Are they old enough to get up and get themselves out then?

No, they're too busy doing 3 loads of laundry every day for their 4 person household. Or hoovering twice daily, or some other pointless make-work. Which is fine if that's your hobby, but it is odd to complain that you then have no time for exercise/hobbies/relaxing.

Primary school but I’m not a single parent

😂😂😂

@Katywester I feel really bad about how little I move, don't want it to come back to bite me so am trying to change it but it's not something which comes naturally at all. One thing which has weirdly worked in our house has been bringing the exercise into the areas where we would hang out. We realised the kids never sit still, so have made movement opportunities easy in the places where we'd be sedentary. Dusted off the rarely used exercise bike and put it in the lounge, and suddenly find if you're sat watching TV (though honestly that's rare) or chatting that it's just as easy to sit on that and spin for a bit. Equally have got some resistance bands and a kettle bell and they're just sort of dotted around in places where we might linger. It's not much, but it's a way of letting exercise sneak in rather than having to find a way to make time for it, which I didn't use to do. The office is a standup desk (from COVID times) and my next consideration is to look for a second hand walking pad or something like that so Im not just sitting/standing. And/or switch my chair for an exercise ball.

I don't exercise other than the walk to work as have no enthusiasm for going out again as soon as I get home around six. Can't go straight from work because of transport. No enthusiasm for home exercise other than a few stretches while kettle boils. When I was younger and had more time I did exercise formally.

Sitting a lot is a separate risk factor from whether you exercise or not, risk factor for bad health things I mean.

If you're always moving because of housework and chores and hobbies, that's a good thing.

I humbly submit that most of us sit a huge amount, and too much than is good for our health, for no partic good reason.

You don't need to workouts for hours, for most people it’s possible to fit in a 25 minute HIIT from YouTube. I hate the thought of an hour exercising so I do 30 minute bursts of HIIT, running or weights (I have up to 10kg at home) a few times a week.

The people who post on those threads as though exercise is the norm for everyone are not representative of the population as a whole.

I saw a recent survey that found around 60% of women in the UK described themselves as ‘active’. Which could mean they just walked a bit every day.

So the posters on mumsnet breezily assuming that everyone is exercising heavily for an a hour a day are mistaken.

I mainly go for walks as well. I talk to my DM while I walk to kill two birds with one stone. My DM is fit as a fiddle and just walks, albeit a lot, often with shopping bags as she has no car. I think brisk walking is underrated. Anyway it’s better than nothing.

I never exercised.

aged 39 I left my husband and became sole parent to 3 kids. I started couch to 5k to give myself structure and integrate some somatic healing. I kept up the running x3 per week. That is sweaty business! But I do it on a treadmill in my room before my morning shower. 5min warm up walk, 30min run, 5mins cool down walk. On the other days I do about 45mins weights, again in my room. I’m just psyching myself up to do it now (feeling lazy today). The other day I’ll walk or play football with my son or try yoga. I totally hear you - I never understood how people fitted it in or found the motivation before. But now it’s part of my routines and life etc. and I feel a million times better for it. Always worth a try once you find something you enjoy

I didn’t exercise until I was nearly 40. It was hard and boring at first and I did it cause I thought I should and because it was time out of the house away from small children. I ended up loving it so much I made a job out of it. It’s been life-changing in terms of my mental health. Also, my body looks pretty good for a nearly 50 year-old if so do say so myself.

That’s just good luck isn’t it?! We all know people who smoked like chimneys and lived to 90 something, and many of us know fitness fanatic vegans who died far too young. 🤷

Longevity is not of great interest to me, but I am very interested in quality of life. I want to be able to continue to run up and down stairs easily and get myself up from the floor without using my hands. I also want to attempt to mitigate the worst of the osteoporosis that I’m likely to inherit thanks to my genes, and lifting weights can help with this. It’s honestly incredibly empowering to realise you’re fit and strong for your age when you’re in middle age and you see what is beginning to happen to some of your friends (weight gain, mobility limitations etc…)

It’s obviously up to each individual whether or not they choose to exercise, but I wouldn’t give mine up for anything- it’s life enhancing. We get one life and one body. I can’t understand never wanting to push your body to see what you’re physically capable of.

(Obviously disabilities, chronic illnesses and not having time to exercise are a different matter- I’m talking about people who are capable but choose not to- I don’t understand it).

I was thinking exactly this today after reading that shower thread.
The thing is, walking is exercise, cleaning is exercise, and anything active that people do as part of their everyday lives, but you don’t necessarily break into a sweat and need a shower straight after doing these things. That doesn’t mean they’re not exercise 🤷‍♀️
I regularly do short yoga practices that don’t require a shower afterwards, and I do like and have always liked and know the benefits of doing more strenuous exercise like dumbbells, jogging etc, which I would shower after doing, but I currently fit that kind of thing in once a week when daughter is at after school club.
I do think you can overdo exercise - at one point before I was a mum and I was working full time I was doing about 3 strenuous exercise classes a week. like spinning etc, and that was the only time in my life I’ve had irregular results come back from a cervical screening test and had to have cells removed as a result, and I also look back on photos from that time and personally think I look too thin (I’m naturally slim anyway).
Also the majority of people I think of off the top of my head aren’t going to the gym or running every day, if at all, so I was wondering if the responders to that thread were not necessarily representative of, in particular, the majority of parents to children aged 0 to, for example, 11, when kids are less dependent and able to get themselves to school etc, and more time is freed up for the parent.

But then surely you need to have a shower afterwards? I could do this if I was up at 4am (I already start work at 5) and had the tv on silent so as not to wake DC. But then I'd only be getting 5 hours sleep a night. That's ok for a few weeks but it's miserable after a while.