Mothers and Exercise

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schulemm
schulemm Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
For you Moms out there....when do you find time to work out? I have two boys (2 months and 3 years) and I'm finding it so hard to get working out in. I'm so tired in the morning so I've been trying to wait until the evening but then once the boys are finally sleeping I'm so exhausted that I just want to go to bed. Looking for some advice on both exercises, apps and times that have worked for other moms. Feel free to add me as well! I could definitely use the support and motivation.

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  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    Two things come to mind:

    1) Join a gym with child care. I love the Y for this.

    2) Run around with the kids. Looks like you've already got the carrier for the little one. Go outside and set the preschooler lose and chase after him.
  • LillysMomma09
    LillysMomma09 Posts: 272 Member
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    I use my lunch hour at work. I don't want to wake up any earlier and evenings are too hard with homework, dinner, showers and squeezing in family time.

    Put your boys in a stroller, go for a walk/jog
    Their nap time
    Like PP said, the Y would be great because of the child care.

    Us moms just have to make time, or we'll never get it done. Good luck to you!
  • busyPK
    busyPK Posts: 3,788 Member
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    This would depend on your schedule. Do you work outside the home or a stay at home mom? For me, I workout at least 3 nights right after I get off work and my kids go to the gym play place as they call it. They love it there as it's 1 hour of free for all play and there are always many kids to play with. If I were to go home, sit down, start playing with my kids then I would never make it to the gym - I must go right after work!
  • samthepanda
    samthepanda Posts: 569 Member
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    You have to make it work with where you are at that time. Like PPs said, find ways to exercise with the kids - walks, scooter rides etc. When my lg was younger we would walk round the lake near us for ages. There's a part where the path slopes down, and there are steps as well. As a toddler she loved running up and down the slope and I would do circuits of the steps and ramp - not much but we could do this for half an hour! I go to a cross fit class where there are a couple of people who sometimes bring babies, there have been baby weighted squats and bench presses. It doesn't have to be a gym class for it to be exercise, even if its 10 minutes here and there its exercise x
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    It sucks but getting up before them has always been the best option for me, and yes, you are tired in the evening and end up going to bed not much later then they do. Right now they are in bed by 8:30, I am in bed by 10, I get up at 6am and workout in my basement, they get up at 7am.
  • holly041587
    holly041587 Posts: 7 Member
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    I'm an early riser myself, I get up at 4:30am to workout before the little one wakes up at 6am. I walk on my lunches and take him for walks after work. It's exhausting but the rewards have been great this far!
  • midlomel1971
    midlomel1971 Posts: 1,283 Member
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    I either go early in the morning (5 AM) or late at night (10 PM or later). I work full-time so my housework suffers and forget any quality time w/ my husband. And I'm sleep-deprived all the time. So, yeah. HIIT workouts are good and there are plenty of free ones online.They are quick and dirty. If you work, can you do stuff at lunch? A lot depends on if you are a working mom. I am not going to work all day then stick my kids in childcare at night when I only get, like, 3 precious hours with them.
  • jennydelgado09
    jennydelgado09 Posts: 119 Member
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    9, 7 and 4 month old. I get up at 4am to make it to my 5am crossfit class. I've been pretty inconsistent since I've had my youngest one but doing good this week so far. I also tried running during my lunch. Which is ok but in Texas and it's still so hot. So haven't in 2 weeks. Mornings work best for me. I use to go in the evenings and take my two older ones with me but can't do that with my 4 month old.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    My wife and I swap out exercise time and domestic duties.

    She runs on Tues, Thurs, Sat, and Sun and lifts on Friday. I ride on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat and lift on Tues evening and Sunday morning. In the summer we typically do our thing in the early AM...so when she's out running, I'm getting the boys up and breakfast, getting them ready for school, etc...and vice versa.

    We are just transitioning to our fall schedule and running and riding in the evening as it's too dark in the AM now...Tues lifting for me may be an issue since my wife runs in the evening so I'll likely need to switch my gym time to my lunch hour.
  • julie_broadhead
    julie_broadhead Posts: 347 Member
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    I have a 22 month old and I workout during his nap time or I work out when his dad gets home. When my guy wasn't napping very well I would break my workout into several 10-15min chunks. I know that's not really ideal, but something is better than nothing. I do all my workouts at home and I am a big fan of purchasing a home gym.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    There are you tube vids about how incorporate your kids as weights into your workout!
  • JLPadron86
    JLPadron86 Posts: 74 Member
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    jennydelgado09 wrote: »
    9, 7 and 4 month old. I get up at 4am to make it to my 5am crossfit class. I've been pretty inconsistent since I've had my youngest one but doing good this week so far. I also tried running during my lunch. Which is ok but in Texas and it's still so hot. So haven't in 2 weeks. Mornings work best for me. I use to go in the evenings and take my two older ones with me but can't do that with my 4 month old.

    I'm in Texas too I have a 9 year old, 7 year old, 15 month old and 3 month old. I work out during naps or after bedtime. I'm going to start walking with the younger two while older kids are in school.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,190 Member
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    I have a 3yr old and a 1yr old. the 1yr old is in bed at 5:30 and I do my exercise straight after that. I figure I am teaching my 3 year old that exercise is part of a normal healthy life. Occasionally she joins in!
  • JessicaMcB
    JessicaMcB Posts: 1,503 Member
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    I get up at 3AM to run- it probably helps that my 3 under 5 have me trained pretty well to survive on little sleep :D
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    Are you a SAHM or do you work? If you are the first, can you find a gym with child care? Then you could really go any time... apart from maybe nap time lol. If you work, well I get up at 4:50 and go to the gym. I wouldn't do at night. That's my only time with my kids and husband, I don't want to take away from that.
  • lucylou1977
    lucylou1977 Posts: 25 Member
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    My kids are older (2 and 6) so I either workout when the little one is in nursery and the big one is in school (but that's only 1 day a week) or evenings/weekends when my husband is around. That said, I've only been working out consistently for the past year - before that I just did LOTS of walking with LO in the stroller.

    I find running good as I can run straight from my house so I'm not actually out of the house for very long, but obviously you need childcare for that.
  • alyrie
    alyrie Posts: 22 Member
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    I use my lunch break at work 4 days per week, take the girls with me to walk in the park 1-2 evenings per week and take them to crossfit with me on Saturday mornings. Occasionally I'll get out after they're in bed to hit up my local gym too.
  • schulemm
    schulemm Posts: 4 Member
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    Thank you everyone for the tips. I'm currently out on maternity leave and will have to go back to work in December. I have tried the morning workouts which seem to be so much better. Today I incorporated my lo into my Pilates workout. All and all I'm figuring this two kid life balance while getting in workouts and eating healthy. It ain't easy but here's a big motivator
  • yourfitnessenemy
    yourfitnessenemy Posts: 121 Member
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    Right now Im lucky that my schedule allows me to squeeze in workouts between clients while he's in school during the day.

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