How do you make time for exercise?

xcmum

I wanna hear from busy people who maybe work full time or study full time who have children and still manage to exercise at least 4 times a week. I'm sure there are people like this out there.

How do you do it? What's your plan?

simplypanda

I try to work out in the morning. If I wake up with the purpose of exercising, I'll do it. If I try to do it after work, something always comes up.

rileysowner

Basically it came down to cutting out other leisure activities and doing exercise instead. Also fitting in activity throughout the day. I would and still do take stairs instead of elevators even if it is 6 or so stories I need to go up. I park at the far away parking spots and walk, and I walk or bike to do groceries and even to work. All that starts to add up.

3dogsrunning

This post was made by a triathlon coach that posts on an email list I am on, thought I would share it (it is geared towards triathletes obviously but I think it applies universally) "It is rare that I walk down the street and FIND money. In fact, I don't think in any aspect of my life, I have ever FOUND Money. I have to make every penny I get. I was recently having a conversation with one of my athletes and the athlete was saying "FINDING time for workouts is harder than the actual workouts". Well, first of all, she was totally correct. The chance of FINDING time is pretty well ZERO. The only way the time becomes available is when we make the time. Then the workout becomes the easy part. But MAKING time for anything is as hard as making MONEY, at least it is for most working age groupers, especially if they have young children....so I said this: ...We need to make time, like we make money, so take FIND out of your vocabulary and you'll have an entirely different approach to time management, because when people waste your time, you'll feel the exact same way as people pissing away your money. Seriously, change the vocabulary and you'll see how it changes your approach to making time :-) As the biggest challenge for most age groupers is to get to the start line of workouts, I thought that I'd share this mindset. Talk to any of the guys who seemingly have "more time to train" and it does not happen by magic. Most are really efficient time managers and do more with the 168 hours we all get in a week than the guy who they are beating who probably has better genetics but is just more disorganized."

mygrl4meee

I work 35 hours a week at my main job. Plus, I babysit for a church on Sunday mornings and also have to help deal with getting my husband to his job cause we only have one car. We have a 13 year old home so I am a Mom so working out does sometimes get put on the back burner once in a great while.
However, mostly, I get it done by having set days when I go to the Y to work out. I hit the Ymca up 3 to 4 times a week. On the weekends, when my husband works mostly I use the downtime to get an workout in. Sunday's I run for about an hour before I get to the church. This saves gas. On Saturdays, I have anywhere between an half an hour to an hour to kill before I have to be at my job so I get a walk in.
During the week, I usually get to the Y three times a week. I have given up some of my time that I would have spend with friends or just relaxing at home. It helps that my husband is supportive that if I want to get there during the evening he handles taking care of my son and dinner. It's not easy but it can be done.

VelveteenArabian

You have to schedule it in just like everything else.

Firefighter4ever

I start the day around 4:30 am and workout soon after. I also run several days a week and that becomes tough to do early now that its down to 35 degrees in the morning. Burrrrrrrrr.

cdahl383

I"m married, have two little girls under 3 years old, and work full time 40-45 hours a week with a decent drive to/from work each day.

- Cardio 3-4 times a week
- Weight lifting 3-4 times a week

I joined a gym near my work recently and now do cardio on my lunch break at the gym. Takes me 5-10 minutes to get there, few minutes to change, workout 25-30 minutes, hop in private showers at gym and change back into work clothes, back to office in about an hour. Eat lunch at my desk before or after gym. This knocks out the bulk of my cardio workouts for the week without taking any time away from my family. I also belong to a community center gym near our house that I do cardio at on the weekend. Both gyms I belong to are cheap.

For weight lifting I bought a bunch of used dumbbells, a rack, and a nice adjustable bench all off of Craigslist over time and redid my basement to make it into a home gym. So I workout once or twice a week after work for 45 minutes lifting weights, and then workout down there on Saturday and Sunday as well. The cool part is once I'm done working out, I just come back upstairs and I'm back with my family again.

So far this routine has been working great. I've lost almost 15 lbs so far and have gone up on all my lifts. I just went to the doctor the other day and my blood pressure was 118/72 which is much lower than it was in the past. The best part is, my fitness routine takes very little time away from my family.

Mr_Knight

Less time surfing the internet, watching Netflix or otherwise goofing off. It takes a commitment, but then pretty much anything worthwhile does!

MileHighFitness

5am workouts, 5 times a week. Go to bed early. I dont even use an alarm clock anymore. If I happen to miss a workout, my body is anxious to get back to it.

lisal11

I do it before the kids wake up, which is absurdly early. It pains me to sacrifice sleep and I'm a terrible morning person but it's the only way it will get done. Most mornings my husband tries to help out by getting them going while I get cleaned up but that depends on his schedule.

MileHighFitness

I read that early am workouts before food burn more fat, but you dont want to exceed 30min or so

seltzermint555

I don't have kids but I do work 40 hrs per week and regularly help care for my mother who has health issues and (less often) my mother-in-law who is dying of cancer.

I don't work out "hardcore" in a gym or anything...but I make a serious effort to get in 30-45 minute sessions of walking, hiking, and/or biking every week at least 3-4 times.

For me it's a matter of never watching TV. I don't even have local stations, much less cable. I exercise in the evening when many people would typically watch TV. On the weekends, my husband and I do the same.

Ideabaker

I live in a remote rural area, and knew that driving thirty minutes to the nearest gym (and paying $800 plus for yearly gym fees) wouldn't work for me. I am also an early morning gal, so I'm up at 5:30, eat breakfast by six, and am ready to move at 6:30 a.m.

I bought a gym-model recumbent bike at home for intense cardio 4-5 days a week at six-thirty for forty five mintues. I also have several workout DVD's including aerobic dance of various kinds.

I had a ballet barre put up under a tree in the back yard. My plan is to have a full outdoor circuit in a circle around my house with a combination of body-wieght exercises, exercises with dumbbells, exercises with kettlebells, jump rope, hula hoop, running in place in the rebounder, burpee, and walking lungets to move from one station to the next. When I get back to the tree under which the ballet barre is located, I've got resitance bands to use around it for back and back of triceps exercises. Three times around the house should be a pretty intense workout!

I also do an early morning walk with my neighbour on weekends to listen to nature waking up. There are the lambs, the calves, hundreds of differents sorts of birds, gorgeous horses, wild hares and other animals scurrying about as the mist is lifting, and the path is hilly so can be challenging.

Finally, on weekends, we sometimes drive twenty minutes in the early morning to some of the most dense forests around our home. We hike the tracks into the forest for an hour or two, and enjoy being under the canopy of trees.

If I don't work out in the morning, I find it a struggle to find time later in the day. Plus, there is nothing like encountering a problem later in the day and that feeling of calmness and well being that was established in the morning taking over and helping to keep everything in perspective.

lithezebra

I make time for exercise partly by making the most of my time when I exercise. That means that I do several very intense workouts per week, not every day, because that's a good way to get injured, but 3-4 days a week. Outside of that, I dance, do yoga, and do various outdoor activities, and I consider those to be recreation. I tend to take a class instead of watching movies or TV.

bcf7683

I work 45 hours a week, with a half hour commute to and from work. I either workout before or directly after work without going home first. If I workout in the morning, I sleep in my workout clothes and have my bag, shoes, and socks ready right by the door- I even fill up my protein shaker with a scoop of powder so I just have to fill with water at the gym. If I go after work, I pack my gym bag the night before and go directly after work.

If I workout mainly nights after work a certain week, I'll cook a few large dinners Sunday evening so that I don't have to spend time after I get home (which is about 7:30pm on days I workout) making an entire dinner. If I'm mainly doing mornings a certain week, those pre-made dinners are my lunches and pre-workout meals for the week.
If I workout in the morning, I pack my lunch and lay my work clothes & vitamins/supplements out the night before so I just have to come home, get ready for work, grab my lunch and go.

It takes planning and dedication. You become very specific about utilizing your time wisely- think of it like budgeting your money. You don't waste money, so don't waste minutes.

inverseofmissy

I'm a student/mother of 3 and I am making time 3x/week to get out and walk. I can either go on the weekend when my partner is home, or go during the week while my big kids are at school and little one is home napping (my partner works nights so she is home all day, although she is asleep). I'm looking to start adding in some type of weight program 2-3 days a week on the days I don't walk and I intend to do that in my own home (if at all possible) while little one is napping and big kids are at school. Or I also could do it after they go to bed (we have strict 7pm and 8 pm bedtimes for the kids) if I needed to. Because my time is somewhat limited (and for other reasons too) I chose activities that don't require any travelling to a gym or other location. When I find time to walk I change clothes and walk out the door, it will be the same way with the weight program- change clothes and get busy