Returning to work next week. How do you handle the time to go to the gym with a baby at home?
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Anonymous
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Leave is ending this week after glorious months, and I will have to commute to the office as before
My office has a gym and we have a gym a 10 minute walk from our house as well My question is, how do people handle going to the gym when they have an office job and a little one at home? Or do people just not? My schedule as it stands is the following: 6 am: wake up, get ready 7 am: baby wakes up, get ready with baby, breakfast 8:30 am: daycare classroom opens. Drop off baby then bike to work 9 am: work starts 4-5 pm: work ends, bike home 4:30 pm: wife picks up baby from daycare 6 pm: baby bedtime It feels that right now, at least until he has a later bedtime, I don’t really have a chance to stay at the gym at work if I want to actually spend time with my child after daycare How do others manage it? Or is the gym on pause for people until the baby reaches a different stage of development? (This is one of the reasons I bike to work, it’s the only reliable exercise I can get) |
Anonymous
| I didn't when my kids were babies but I don't necessarily recommend that! Now my kids are 7 & 9 and I get up at 5am to work out. I recommend that or, if you can swing it, exercise at lunch. |
Anonymous
| Unfortunately either wake up at 5am or workout during lunch hour and eat at your desk. |
Anonymous
Go to the gym after baby bedtime seems like best option. |
Anonymous
| 6pm bed time seems early. Is that the start of the routine? If so, and actual in bed is closer to 7, then that allows time together bathing & cuddling. If 6pm is in bed, then gym or finish working after. |
Anonymous
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I'm sure people do it but I was not one of them. I tried to workout on each weekend day, so that's twice a week. And then I tried to take soe long walks with baby in carrier or stroller during the week (obviously easier in nice weather).
If you can fit it in, that's great, but if not, your life won't always be like this. It gets easier. |
Anonymous
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Gym was definitely not something I managed when the kids were babies. Yes, I might have been able to do a work out before heading to the office but the feeding schedule/day care drop off would have all fallen on DH. Plus, I honestly didn’t have the energy and needed to prioritize a few extra minutes of sleep.
I play in a league once a week (as does DH/different night) so we traded those evenings. We did a lot of hiking on the weekends with the baby/toddler in backpack carriers. Together time outside + physical exercise worked well for our family and it was a lot cheaper than the gym. |
Anonymous
| You only work 35 hours a week and you cannot figure out how to get 150 minutes of exercise across a 7-day period? |
Anonymous
| At that age, I went a couple times a week at lunch. And then tried to run on the weekends. It was hard. In retrospect, I would have just focused on getting steps in pushing the stroller as many days as possible and getting a weight set for home. |
Anonymous
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1)Wake up at 5 and work out.
2)Work out in the office gym and adjust your work hours accordingly. 3) Exercise in the evening after baby’s bedtime. When we had newborns we got a Peloton and elliptical and switched to working out at home when the babies were sleeping. |
Anonymous
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I don’t know your workout routine but I set up a small home gym for this and did exercises after the babies (twins) were in bed. It wasn’t my favorite but I got one of those adjustable dumbbells and a heavy kettlebell for things like squats and did 1) online weight classes (switched around with paid and just using YouTube) and 2) plyo routines to get some cardio in.
(This might not work as well if you are a heavy lifter since you would need more space for a full gym/ weight plates) |
Anonymous
This. |
Anonymous
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Sometimes the answer is, you don't exercise for a while.
Working out at home after baby is in bed is another good option. I take 30 mins out of my work day 2x a week to work out. Yes, there are some office workers who are literally going going going 8 hours a day, but most have a lunch break, and most spend at least 30 mins on their phone during the day. Choose to work out instead. |
Anonymous
| You spend 2.5 hours in the morning "getting ready" and can't spare the time to workout? There's a lot of downtime in this schedule. |
Anonymous
Work out after baby goes to bed, but also, why does it take you an entire hour to get ready (6-7am), especially if breakfast is after baby wakes? It seems you’re spending a huge amount to time getting ready with and without baby, so maybe you can be more efficient there. |