Exercise/gym routines for working ladies

I'd say it depends on your goals.

I lift 4 days a week. I try to do some cardio, but my main focus is lifting. I make that a priority. I work full time, have kids, the whole nine. I ended up piecing together a gym in my garage because I couldn't ever get to the actual gym in a timely fashion. As far as programs go, I started off with Stronglifts, moved to Starting Strength, and now do Wendler 5/3/1.

I work full time and go to school full time (although about half of my classes are online). I work nights (715pm- 345am) so I think it's easier for me to get to the gym. I lift weights 3 times a week and take a 90 minute kickboxing bootcamp 3 times a week and try to jog a couple miles a few times a week too.

Whoa..You are a beast girl!

I always stick by the saying "if it means enough to you, you'll find time to do it. If it doesn't, then you'll make excuses."

I work full time and exercise every single day. 3 days a week I lift weights at the gym. 1 day a week I do gymnastics. 2 days a week I play soccer. And I also try to run twice a week. Lately I've also started adding in Jillian Michaels dvds to boost up my cardio. I also walk a bare minimum of 5k a day (daily commute to work!)

I also watch an excessive amount of TV, run a blog and play video games. So exercise isn't the ONLY thing I'm doing!

I work 70-ish hours a week which is overkill for most people.

I always go before work. I alternate between an hour of cardio and then the next day do 20 minutes of cardio and 40 minutes of lifting.

Good Gravy... you work a lot but *fist bump* to you for working out before work!! On another note.... I like your simple schedule! I've been trying to focus on strength training at least 3 days a week so I'm going to try this to get a lil' more in. Thanks for sharing!

I do the same... I'm up at 5am - I'm blessed b/c I just have to walk down to the basement to go to "my gym" but there I have my laptop for DVD workouts, an elliptical, a weight machine, free weights, etc. But I try to get my workouts in before work at least 3 days a week... the other days I walk our Lab and have a rest day or 2.

You just have to find what works for you... and stick to it!

I have a full-time job that involves working for 40 hours each week; however, between commuting (half an hour, one way) and the entire hour I get for lunch (which is a waste to me), I dedicate about 50 hours each week to my job. Additionally, I do all of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. for my husband and myself.

Most days follow this pattern:
4:30 - wake up; deal with the dogs; pack lunches for myself and my husband; eat a smallish amount of food; make sure the gym bag is packed properly; change into workout clothes
5:00 - leave for the gym
5:30-5:40 (depending on road conditions, traffic, etc.) - arrive at the gym and activate beast mode
I do my own warm-up, often involving body-weight squats, lunges, high knees, butt kickers, or other such sundry exercises. My workout routine can be found here -> http://theoutlawway.com/ It involves some barbell work, strength training, and a "workout of the day." I usually just barely have time for everything; though, occasionally I have had to scale some things back due to the time crunch. If I do manage to finish everything before 6:30, I will do a "cash-out" or cool-down type of activity, such as jogging or rowing a mile or doing some work on a movement I don't feel up to par on yet (double-unders). After all of that, I'll stretch out for about five minutes.
6:35-6:40 - Shower at the gym and get ready for work.
7:30 - Drive to my soul-crushing 8 am to 5 pm job.

The nice thing about working out in the mornings is that my evenings are all mine; additionally, I feel much more energized throughout the day if I worked out in the morning. The down-side is that by 8:30 or 9 at night, I'm pretty much asleep on the couch.

As someone already mentioned, you don't really need to work out to lose weight. I've found some success with it, but it's certainly not necessary. Working out will have more of an impact on your body's composition than on its weight. That said, I hate cardio. My version of cardio is just lifting lighter weights at a faster tempo than I would for strength training or barbell gymnastics.

I work 40 hours a week, and commute 10 on top of that. I am a single mom, with shared custody.

I work out HARD once a week - I box for an hour and typically put out about 850 cals during that hour.

I try to add in some zumba on the wii, or some treadmill time, or even just a brisk walk at lunch.
I've also been adding in stairs at work (I work in an 18 storey building - doing the 18 floors takes me 10 minutes)



I find that if I bust my *kitten* hard for an hour, it really helps me throughout the week.

bodybuilding.com

I only lift weights now... I can do my lifting program in 30 minutes so that I can be home by 6 to make dinner...

The Jamie Eason program is good, gives you workouts for each day, which i'd prefer rather than having to decide for myself! I just like getting into the gym, doing what I gotta do and getting out!

I am definitely not a morning person, but I want this. So, as a mom to a 4 year old and a six year old, a husband and lots of dogs, my alarm goes off at 3:45, and I'm out the door by 4:10. I have gathered enough equipment to workout at home. We have a squat rack, more olympic sized weights than I'll ever need, a power tower, elliptical machine, weight benches, and stationary bike. Don't let not having equipment keep you from working out at home though. There are lots of body weight exercises that you could do at home. I workout 45 minutes to an hour M-F. I lift MWF and cardio on T/Th. I'm doing the Beautiful Badass program and I love it, I look forward to the lifting days, not so much for the cardio days. After that I go inside get a shower, get my kids ready for school as I'm getting myself ready for work. Drive an hour and a half to drop kids off at school and go to work. Work from 7:15 to 3:00, pick kids up, go to whatever after school activity they have for that day (taekwondo, softball, gymnastics). Drive the hour and a half back home, do all the chores to get ready for the next day, shower and hit the sack.

I work 40 hours a week and am a mom of 4, the two youngest are 8 year old twins. I really can't join a gym right now but I workout right in front of my television every night at 9pm. I workout 5x a week. I do weights Sun. Wed. & Fri for 40min and follow with a HIIT cardio DVD. on Mon, Tues & Thurs I do 60 min cardio.

I would love to workout in the mornings but its not possible and after a long day at work I need to check homework, cook dinner and clean. The best time for me is after everyone is out for the night.

GL!

You can do a full weight training program in 30 minutes or less, twice a week, leaving plenty of time for 20 minutes of cardio 3-4 days a week.