Returning to work next week. How do you handle the time to go to the gym with a baby at home?

[Anonymous]

One baby sleeping well was the easiest it ever was for exercise! I work out during lunch 2x per week and DH works out after big kid bedtime (so much later than baby!) 2x per week. We each work out once on the weekend. Very occasionally I will go to an early evening exercise class that gets me home 30 minutes after DH and kids if we have a “microwave leftovers” level dinner ready to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

This. Is this a first baby? You can get a lot more streamlined. I wake up at 6:45 and am out the door by 7:45, in which time I take the dog out, get two kids off on the school bus, and get db in the car to daycare. It may just take some practice. For me, working out went out the window with db, but DH managed to continue by waking up at 5. (He starts work at 6:30).

+2. This 2.5 hour window is a time suck. If you can streamline it, you may be able to fit a workout in here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Work out at 5.

+1

[Anonymous]

You can maximize your time much better by working out at home. Peloton app makes it very easy to program workouts.

[Anonymous]

3x a week

I use to get up at 5am and work out once a week. Not see the kids after work 1 day a week. I went to the gym and ran errands and grocery shop (Wednesday for years), then I worked out Saturday am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can maximize your time much better by working out at home. Peloton app makes it very easy to program workouts.

+1 you don't need to have any equipment for a lot of the workouts, just a mat. The Crush Your Core program on Peloton is 5-15 minutes per day. Anyone can fit that in. After you start doing 5-15 minutes consistently you can start adding more on as your schedule, energy and baby allow. Give yourself grace when you aren't sleeping well. It is legitimately difficult to stick to a routine in those situations.

[Anonymous]

Why does an adult man need an hour to "get ready"

[Anonymous]

I don't see how it's possible if you're trying to actually go to a gym to work out. We have a Peloton bike and BowFlex free weights in our basement. It's not a glamorous setup, but it gets the job done. Our kids are still young (2 and 4), so bedtime is around 7:30 and we work out after they go to bed.

[Anonymous]

We have a garage gym so there’s no commute but the best way is to wake up earlier and work out before the kids are up. Also work out every other day on an A/B split instead of a 6 day split to try and be more efficient with time in the gym.

[Anonymous]

I’ve tried a mix of a lot of things for years with three young kids but where I’ve recently found success is waking up at 6 (which is natural for me) and working out immediately for 30 minutes, every single day. This might be stretching or light yoga some days, some days lifting or cardio. But I’m moving every morning before doing anything else. Then I might try to fit in walks or other exercise later in the day. But this would not have been sustainable for my earlier years of breastfeeding and bad sleep.

[Anonymous]

LOL of course a man posted this. I think my gym time was the farthest thing from my mind as a new mom going back to work.

[Anonymous]

You have 2 bike rides a day. That is the exercise.

[Anonymous]

Wake up at 4:45am, be at the gym by 5am. Work out until 5:45-6am, be home by 6-6:15am. Continue your existing schedule. This is much easier if you go to bed when the baby goes to bed.

[Anonymous]

I want this job! 9-4 and sounds like not much work at home either!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

PP to add -

If you're thinking that once the baby gets older, you'll be able to go after work once or twice a week: The Ghost of Christmas Future here to tell you that NEVER becomes a good time to work out, particularly assuming you have another child at some point in the next five years. But even just with one - day care pickup becomes school pickup, sometimes there are after school activities, family dinner, homework... the evening rush doesn't go away it just becomes different. I actually found this time to get significantly busier when we moved from daycare to school, and that was without activities.

Maybe when the kids are WAY older, but my oldest is 6 and goes to bed at 7:45, and after work would still not be a tenable time to regularly be at the gym. So this isn't a "hmmm just get me through the next year or so" problem - this is a long term problem. Early in the morning, during the work day, after bedtime, and weekends are your choices, long term.

My kids are in middle school and the hours from everybody getting home and bedtime are still packed with activities, dinner, homework but add in pre-teen drama, silliness, etc. Those hours are precious family time.

As others have identified, workouts have been pushed to early morning, lunchtime, and/or an active commute. My spouse likes to workout on the weekends. Occasionally I think of popping out to the gym after the kids are asleep (around 9:30) but never am able to drag myself out that late so lunchtime works best for me.