Help me figure out when I can exercise

[Gggdryvhu]

So like loads of others I have a busy parenting and work life, with an inactive job. Im trying to carve out some time for movement and exercise in my week, 7k steps a day and 3no. 30 min home work outs.

Mon - fri my kid gets up at 7ish, partner leaves house at same time. I do nursery run, too far to walk but sometimes cycle before starting work.

During the work day I sometimes have time for a lunch walk and could focus on this becoming a better habit.

End of the day I pick our ds from nursery half the week and partner the other half. Typically allowing me to work a bit longer.

Whoever picks up makes dinner and we split bed and bath times. Ds is usually asleep by 8:30 but we're both shattered by then! Im usually in bed about 10:30.

Where would you fit in more movement and exercise? What do you do that works?

Get up at 6? After dinner and you take it in turns each night with bath and bed?
weekends?
I do a mixture of those, one early, one evening and one weekend. Use your lunch for a walk.

You can both get up at 6 two (different!) mornings during the week and have an hour to exercise then. And then once or twice at the weekend? What sort of exercise were you thinking of? A run outside or a home weights / HIIT class could work?

Go for a run before everyone gets up.

I realised that if I was serious about lifting weights I was just going to have to get up earlier to fit it in. Been doing it since January and I couldn’t be happier. I got up early this am to run as I am travelling for work. I don’t naturally want to exercise then and I often do my running in the evenings but getting up earlier does just help to fit it in. I just made it a priority for my health. I’m so glad I’m doing it.

I bought some gear for at home (balance board, weights, yoga mat, resistance bands) and i use online tutorials like Paola Pilates etc. I walk and cycle a lot as a means of transport and i hope to take up running again soon. But the home workouts, just 15-20 minutes a day is easier for me to do than carving out 1+ hour to go somewhere to exercise.

Drive half way to nursery and walk the rest?

One thing worth factoring in alongside the early starts and lunchtime walks is that energy and recovery can shift across the month, so rather than aiming for the same intensity every week, it might help to save heavier lifting or HIIT for the days energy feels higher and stick to gentler walks or stretching when it's lower. That could make the 6am starts people mentioned easier to sustain, since you're not fighting your body on a low energy day. If anything feels like more than ordinary tiredness, proper pain or very heavy bleeding, for instance, that's worth raising with a GP rather than just working around it.

Due to work and kids my workouts are mainly at weekends - Friday evening, Saturday early evening and Sunday. I also try and do something on a Wednesday. The only real way to ensure you do is to diarise it and stick to it. I do try and go for a lunchtime fast walk too. It’s definitely a challenge some days!

Could you fit in half an hour before 7am some days?

I would do either a 6am or an 8:30pm run depending on your preference for mornings or evenings.

one is earlier than I would like and the other later but I would make it work.

i would also do a longer run on a weekend morning. Take it in turns with your partner to each do the early mornings with u in r DS one day and do your own fitness the other.

I say all this now because fitness is an important part of my life. However, when my kids were young and I worked odd shifts around them I didn’t fit anywhere near as much in as I do now and it wasn’t as important to me.

I would say have a night a week where DH does it all - pick up, dinner and bed and you do your workout. You wouldn’t eat together that day but it doesn’t matter as a one off. Then return the favour.

Go for a run rather than counting steps. It's quicker and you will get more from it.

Can your DH do more of the pickups? When you say you split bed and bath times, do you mean you alternate days or both do that? Either way there’s a block of time there up for grabs at least a few times a week.

Something has to give if you want to fit exercise in. That might be doing batch cooking or having quick soup and sandwich dinners instead of spending an hour making dinner. It might be letting your dusting go. It might be giving up tv on the sofa time in the evenings.

I do nursery run, too far to walk but sometimes cycle before starting work.

Is it really too far to walk? How far is it? If you walked to & fro, 40 minutes each way, that's probably 10k steps just there.

Yes make use of lunchtime

and the. 830 - just get on with it , shattered or not

or do something with DS like dancing to some music

or one looks after child and the other does exercise - it must be easier with two of you

and workouts at weekends - say sat sun and then once in the week

Get up at 5am or 6am and go to the gym, out for a run or workout with weights at home.

Go out for a run at lunch time. 30 min run and 30 mins to shower (if workplace has them) and freshen up.

In the evening after 8.30 or after dinner.

At the weekend - carve out an hour on either Sat or Sun.

Cycle to work when you can.

Also exercise with your child. An indoor trampoline, football in the garden or park. Or you can do 10-15 minutes of yoga while they play or crawl all over you.

I would do one early evening - you cook dinner but dont eat amd go to the gym while DH does bath and bedtime. They will survive i promise! And it will feed very odd to miss that part of the day but you may like it very much. I’d do that on a wednesday if possible and the. Id workout once on a Saturday and once on a sunday.
For steps, i also try to do 7k a day but i look at my daily average for a week because some days life is too busy. So it may look like monday 5k, tuesday 6k, wed 8k thu 4k friday 10k etc…

We get up at 5:30 and take it in turns to exercise one indoors at home whilst kids in bed or up watching TV/playing in their rooms and then the other goes out for a run and then we alternate. We both leave at 7:00 on office days. Also walk/run during lunch break. Then on a weekend we get 3 hours each Saturday morning by one of us getting up early 5:30-8:30 and then the other going 8:30-11:30, then we’re both done by lunch time. We might also do an hour each on Sunday morning depending whether we have plans to go out for the day. They key for us is early mornings, but that means we don’t need to do anything on an evening.

I get up at 6 three times a week . It’s the only way to fit any exercise in.

midday break, OP mentions "a walk", sometimes.
How long a walk can you squeeze in?
is there a workmate who would like a walk, too.
Could it be a run+shower rather than a walk at midday break? Then eat actual lunch at your desk (which is common).

Can you park a bit further from office or nursery to get 10 minute walks in either way?

OP hasn't mentioned weekends at all.

Doesn’t look that hard! Just get up earlier and go for a run or walk or do a home workout. Or do a home workout while child is occupied with breakfast etc .

I use lunchtimes at work, after kids are in bed, I don’t do before work simply as I don’t like to run when not fuelled, but that’s always an option. Build activity into your day whenever possible. I walk wherever possible, as do the kids. Weekends I do my long runs.

Honestly you just need to prioritise it, we can usually find 30 mins to do stuff we really want to do (or sit doomscrolling on our phone!) so it just takes a mindset shift sometimes. Exercise is a non-negotiable for me, so it has to fit in.

When my kids were little I would go for a run after the bedtime routine. Slung on trainers, leggings and tshirt and ran 3k in 20 mins three times a week. Hated it but it did make me feel better. In winter I mixed it up with Jillian Michaels' 30-day shred, which also only took 20 mins.
Now my kids are older and I have more time to myself, I do longer, lower impact exercise like going on 2-hour long bike rides, swimming and yoga. I see exercise as investing time in myself and really enjoy it now.

What time do you you do your 3 x 30 minutes home workouts, could you do that time every day and vary what you do? I found HIIT is good one to do at home with limited time.

How about long weekend walks?

We do similar to this. Do you work from home op?
Our kids are older now so can be left but essentially I cook dinner for about 6/6:30 then whoever is exercising (7-8 normally) has theirs afterwards. Either reheat or cook again from scratch if it’s something that doesn’t reheat well. We also do exercise at weekends - either a class or sport.