When do you work out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Up at 6am to work out before everyone gets up. It’s the only way! 7 y/o and a 4 y/o

Same aged kids, we're up at 5:30am to get it done.

[Anonymous]

Mine are almost 1 and 3. I honestly stopped working out when I had the younger one, and haven’t started up. I stay so active chasing them around (work from home part time, and baby stays home) that I’ve lost the baby weight and feel pretty good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work from home, two kids ages 1.5 and 3.

Three days a week, I take ~20 minutes of my 30 minute lunch break to do strength training. I’m trying to add 20 minute cardio sessions the other two days but I just started that yesterday so we’ll see if I’m able to make it stick — I may also try running (rather than walking/reading work slack) on the way back from daycare drop off. Weekends I will usually also get in some ad hoc strength training at the playground.

Circling back up say how jealous I am of everyone whose kids aren’t up with them at 5:30/6! I didn’t get cardio in today although we did bike to daycare so it wasn’t a total loss I guess. I appreciate all the posters who said they were able to get back to a regular habit when their kids were a trifle older; gives me hope.

[Anonymous]

I get up at 5 and go running. I have to be at work at 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work from home, two kids ages 1.5 and 3.

Three days a week, I take ~20 minutes of my 30 minute lunch break to do strength training. I’m trying to add 20 minute cardio sessions the other two days but I just started that yesterday so we’ll see if I’m able to make it stick — I may also try running (rather than walking/reading work slack) on the way back from daycare drop off. Weekends I will usually also get in some ad hoc strength training at the playground.

Circling back up say how jealous I am of everyone whose kids aren’t up with them at 5:30/6! I didn’t get cardio in today although we did bike to daycare so it wasn’t a total loss I guess. I appreciate all the posters who said they were able to get back to a regular habit when their kids were a trifle older; gives me hope.

Do you have a partner that can support you? My DH has morning duty when I wake up early to run.

[Anonymous]

On my commute (cycling), during the workday when I WFH and a few hours each weekend (trading off with spouse).

[Anonymous]

OP. Lots of good ideas here! I could try to squeeze in a workout during the work day when I’m WFH. I might also be able to get up early once the baby starts sleeping through the night more consistently. For now, sleep is still so precious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not your question - but just know that even if you don't fit it in now the way you'd like, it doesn't mean you won't get back to it! When I had infants I put so much pressure on myself to try to workout and then just ended up frustrated that a baby not napping long enough or something ruined it. So I finally just gave up and decided that as long as I was walking / active enough to be healthy, this was going to be a stage of my life where real working out had to take a back seat.

My kids are now 6/4/2 and I work out pretty intensely during the day 4x wk. I've run a half marathon and I'm now probably the strongest I've ever been and fastest at shorter distances. There are many fits and starts in keeping it going (kids get sick for 2 weeks that consumes everything and then it take me another 2 weeks to get fully back in routine etc) but overall I feel like its back integrated into my life.

Its great people are able to do it with infants! I wasn't one of those people and accepting that and revisiting it when kids were more predictable and I was less tired (or maybe just more used to being so tired) is what worked for me

I'm not the OP but I have a 2.5 y/o and a 6 month old and really needed to hear this

[Anonymous]

430-5 in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Working from home changed the game for me.

I get up with my kids (ages 4 and 2) around 6:30. Lay around in bed together, put on my workout clothes, downstairs by 7. Breakfast, get dressed, lunch boxes, out the door by 7:50. Drop off at daycare, straight to the gym by 8 or 8:10. Work out, home by 8:45. Shower, get ready, at my desk by 9:30.

The key is everything is like 5 minutes away.

On the days I go into the office, I pretty much don't work out, or it's shorter. And I don't work out on the weekends besides a family walk or bike ride or something. So I average about 3-4 times a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. Lots of good ideas here! I could try to squeeze in a workout during the work day when I’m WFH. I might also be able to get up early once the baby starts sleeping through the night more consistently. For now, sleep is still so precious.

It sounds like your baby is really little. When my second was a baby (I hadn't figured this out yet with my first), I worked out with him next to me on the floor. I'd do Youtube workouts and he would practice tummy time on a mat, or just lay around and kick his legs or play with a toy. This may not be the most in shape time of your life, but the key is you're practicing working out regularly, and getting used to enjoying the feeling of working out.

But YES, I would wholeheartedly agree that sleep is the most important thing when you have a tiny baby. You will get back to it, I promise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work from home, two kids ages 1.5 and 3.

Three days a week, I take ~20 minutes of my 30 minute lunch break to do strength training. I’m trying to add 20 minute cardio sessions the other two days but I just started that yesterday so we’ll see if I’m able to make it stick — I may also try running (rather than walking/reading work slack) on the way back from daycare drop off. Weekends I will usually also get in some ad hoc strength training at the playground.

Circling back up say how jealous I am of everyone whose kids aren’t up with them at 5:30/6! I didn’t get cardio in today although we did bike to daycare so it wasn’t a total loss I guess. I appreciate all the posters who said they were able to get back to a regular habit when their kids were a trifle older; gives me hope.

Do you have a partner that can support you? My DH has morning duty when I wake up early to run.

This. When my kids were this age, DH took care of mornings w the kids daily so I could run. Kids are 8 & 11 now and DH still handles most mornings. If I don’t work out first thing, it doesn’t happen. He’s more flexible about squeezing in his workout at any free moment.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you already do work out regularly! If you want to do cardio, just replace 1-2 of your regular workouts with HIIT instead of pure strength. Plenty of options for at-home HIIT - search on YouTube, or sign up for Peloton or Daily Burn or a similar service. Tons of options to work out at home with little to no equipment.

My primary workouts are doing a Peloton ride about 3x a week when my spouse does bedtime (we trade off doing bedtime for our 2 kids), and one 30 min strength workout on a weekend while my younger one naps and the older one has "rest time." I try to get smaller bits of fitness in between those - taking a conference call while walking during the day, and doing planks for a couple mins while I watch TV with my spouse at night.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how I would do it if I didn't WFH. I drop kids off at daycare and am home by 7:45, quickly log in to make sure there are no immediate fires etc and then work out in a home gym, back at my desk around 9ish. I fit a shower in between calls and sometimes hop on zoom with a lotttt of dry shampoo. I strength train 3x/week with short walks and then do longer walks the other 2 days. Some days I arrange it where I walk during a mostly-listening-for-me meeting.

I was incapable of doing this until my youngest was ~2, and I deeply resonate with what PP said about fits and starts-- I'll have a perfect record for 3 months then someone gets sick and then I kind of have to work back into the routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Up at 6am to work out before everyone gets up. It’s the only way! 7 y/o and a 4 y/o

Do you go to a gym or do you have exercise equipment at home? I can't imagine getting out the door and back before my kids get up.

That was my post. I have a gym in the basement- Peloton bike, Tonal and weights. Does the trick.