Working parents - when do you exercise?

Ellechim

Hi there,

Would appreciate any advice you may have here...

I have two small children and both my DP and myself work fulltime. I badly need to exercise but the only time that seems to present itself is after kids have gone to bed/stuff sorted etc which is 9pm and I'm shattered. I only get half an hour for lunch so that's not a runner (I walk my DS to school so start late). My youngest is 19 months and currently going through the waking at 5.30am lark (which I recall with my eldest that he also did that and kept it up until 2 and a half).

Any pointers here? Anyone figure out anything? What am I missing?

Thanks

M

shootermacg

Ellechim wrote: »

Hi there,

Would appreciate any advice you may have here...

I have two small children and both my DP and myself work fulltime. I badly need to exercise but the only time that seems to present itself is after kids have gone to bed/stuff sorted etc which is 9pm and I'm shattered. I only get half an hour for lunch so that's not a runner (I walk my DS to school so start late). My youngest is 19 months and currently going through the waking at 5.30am lark (which I recall with my eldest that he also did that and kept it up until 2 and a half).

Any pointers here? Anyone figure out anything? What am I missing?

Thanks

M

Been there!
My 2nd is 1yrs old in 3 days. First born is nearly 4 now. We had the 3/4/5am blues also. Stopped now thank god. We got our kids used to going to bed around 7. That means we mostly have from 8 on to ourselves.
I hit the gym then, back at 9 or 9:30, she's in bed about 10:30, I may go for a run 3-5K or I may not.
I go the the gym mon, tues, thurs, friday.

Usually go to bed at 1:30am and leave it to coffee to sort me out in the morning. It ain't easy especially when you wake up at 4am with some kid pulling your hair, still even then I have to laugh (what else you gonna do?).
People without kids have no idea of the stress those couples are under!

I keep some weights at home so the odd nights I can get to the gym until after nine, I may just do the compound sets in the gym and work the arms at home after. Sometimes I may switch my workout to another body part day, just to fit it in.

That's the reason most couples are over weight, no time to make decent meals and serious stress causing overeating of the ****e you do make.

I find I get through with coffee and whey/creatine shakes ^ ^.

Lothaar v2

The best solution I found to this is to try to integrate exercise into your daily routine. We started cycling to and from work - about an hour each way. Been doing that for a couple of years now and it's great. I go to the gym at lunchtime, which isn't really enough time but it's better than nothing.

My wife can't go to the gym at lunch, so what we did was get some DVDs... I get the kids ready in the morning while she does a 20/30-min 'callanetics' (like pilates) workout. (TBH - she hates most exercise but likes this, so she'll actually stick with it, which is important.) Then we both cycle into work. She tried doing stuff after the kids went to bed, but it was painful cos we're always knackered. First thing in the morning works best for us.

You should look at the layout of your day and see if there are ways of 'buying' yourself a bit of exercise time. The cycling to work is great, as we would be spending that amount of time sitting in a car anyway, so it's not eating into our spare time. In fact, it's quicker than driving. With Spring in the air, it's a sweet start to the day.

Good luck with it. If you figure out any innovations, could you post back here? I'm always looking for ways to fit exercise in.

Gone Fishin

If you are stuck for time and want to keep yourself in shape, look at using Kettlebells. You can easily keep yourself in shape doing a 30-40 minute workout 3 or 4 times per week. It's a serious Fat burner and great cardio work out. You can buy them in plenty of places in Dublin and there are classes going if you want to. You don't need to constantly go to the classes but I would recommend getting instruction when using them at the start. Getting the form right is crucial. I just can't find the time to get to the gym sometimes and when I do go I find it boring. I have been using them for over a year now and have never looked back.

brianblaze

Can you not just strap the kids to an Oly bar and make use of them?

Or is that why I can never go back to Mothercare again?

shootermacg

brianblaze wrote: »

Can you not just strap the kids to an Oly bar and make use of them?

Or is that why I can never go back to Mothercare again?

Reminds me of the time I came back from a serious weights session, I could barely hold the kid, so I just dropped him, yep drop-kicked him out the door!
oh how we laughed!

trash.heap

It is tough going but I think it's all to do with getting into a routine and sticking to it.

What we do is, I have Monday/Wednesday nights, Husband has Tuesday/ Thursday nights...he uses his time to get some training done on the bike, and currently I'm doing a spinning and a circuit training class. Then, other evenings, once the kids are in bed I might head out for a run(about 9.30ish)

The weekends are split the same...I go out on Saturday morning for a long spin, he goes out Sunday(or vice versa) and then every few weeks we pay a babysitter so we can go out together.

Then I do weights and floor work any evening when the kids are in bed...

Best thing I ever did was to forget about what was happening in Eastenders/Corrie/Desperate Housewives etc. You'd be amazed at the amount of time you veg in front of the telly and then complain about having no time for anything!

Although, I must admit that I'd often still be cooking the next day's dinner at 11pm just so I can fit everything in!

Khannie

I exercise during my work lunchtime and / or when the kids are gone to bed.

Work lunch time is a total winner.

When I was working from home a bit more I found taking the young one on a bike seat on the back of my bike was good exercise. Also, if you do it properly you don't need to spend a lot of time exercising to get good benefits (weights and HIIT for example).