I’m another one who works out primarily at home. I have free weights and one machine with 6 stations. I’m doing some sort of exercise at least 4-5 times a week. I could work out at school but during the school year there are too many students in the gym, and it get’s a little over crowded, and I find not too many students want to spot their prof. They kinda avoid me when I do go in there…
It isn’t a question of forcing myself to find time to work out. It is more like feeling wrong if I skip the gym.
There is a gym about half a mile from our house, so I stop there on my way home and do about an hour and a half. Mostly weights, but 20 minutes cardio as well. I stretch at home.
My job is almost all sitting down and 95% mental, so it is nice to do something that is 95% physical. And I am less tired after a workout than before. Sleepy, usually, if I work out in the evening, but not tired.
It’s a habit. I’ve been doing it for twenty-five years.
Regards,
Shodan
Hmmm, I’m pretty lucky, because for me it’s when I feel like it. For one thing, I teach PE classes, so lots of times I’ll go to the univ gym either before, or after one of my classes. And occasionally I’m lazy, and let my class be my cardio, but never weight training. (bad BAD shoes :))
On the days I don’t teach? Sometimes, if I can get my lazy butt up early, I’ll go early (feels nice to have accomplished it).
Sometimes I’ll do it mid workday, we have a great flex schedule at my job. Most of the time though, I enjoy working out later in the afternoon, more toward 6 or 7 pm. Weight days are MWF, and cardio days are TThS, Sundays off or something “fun” (Yoga, Step class, skiiing maybe, something like that).
If I had a job where I couldn’t be flexible though, I’d definitely be happiest doing my workouts in the late afternoon/early evening. I’m a night owl, and that is when my energy and mood is the highest.
Mornings? I am able to work out, but it never feels as if I’ve really gotten to the TUZ (throw up zone :D), I can’t tell if I’m just dazed from being tired and it being morning, or if I’m actually worked out.
Everybody’s preferences and schedules are different, so it’s nice to see the variety shown so far.
My optimum schedule (back when I was child-free) was to stop by the gym on the way home from work. It was a good stress reliever, and was automatically scheduled as a stop on the way home. (It helps if your gym is close to your home, too.) I always still had the energy to do it then. If, on the other hand, I wanted to go to a slightly later aerobics class (because I liked the teacher better), I had a tougher time of motivating myself. There’s just something about walking in the door of the house and sitting down that makes my body say “I’m home. I’m quitting now.”
Hope you find a strategy here that works for you.
Count me in as another who works out before work.
I used to have trouble finding the time as well, but I discovered that I can go to bed really early (8:30 or 9:00) and get up around 4:30 and have plenty of time before work to exercise. I workout 6 times a week. In addition, I play ultimate 3 or 4 times a week and usually go on a hike or bike ride on the 7th day. I have 3 kids and a full time job.
I don’t watch (much) TV and I find I have plenty of time for all the other things I want to get done. In other words, I freed up a couple of hours in the evening of very unproductive time to make time for exercising.
I work out at lunch, usually 4 but often 5 times a week. I have a deal with my boss that I make up the time at the end of the day–I am usually gone about an hour and 20 minutes, being female and having to get back into work clothes and all.
There are some classes offered at that time–body pump and body flow, or I work out on the machines, or walk the 3 mile course around the golf course.
I like quiet time at lunch, so I was never one for going out for lunch, and I have a bit of a commute, so I don’t get home much later than usual.
Plus, when people know you go to the gym, it helps motivate you to go to the gym!
Thanks for the tip Spectre. Thing is, though, that I tend to work out at home normally as opposed to gym (free weights). However if I start going more regularly (which looks more likely since the missus says she doesn’t like the sounds of crashing dumbells on the top floor), I’ll give this a try.
merrily writes:
Try coming back with no clothes. If I was your boss, I wouldn’t object 
BK (Before Kids) I’d work out about three days a week, 90 minutes at a time. There’d be two spinning classes in there, interspersed with usign the equipment at the Rec center across the street. This’d happen just after I got home for work. If I spent more than about 10 minutes at home before leaving for the gym, I’d flake out and slide the workout a day or two.
This also included an hour or so of pretty intense biking on the trails around the house.
What I learned over time was: If I didn’t feel like working out, I wouldn’t beat myself up over it, I’d just go a day or two later. Everybody needs a break now and then.
Then the kids came and majorly screwed up my schedule. :smack:
NOW, I get up at 4:15 in the a.m., go downstairs to the freeweight setup I bought after the kids were born and do THAT for about an hour…Occasionally I’ll use the recumbent bike we bought at the same time, but I spend more time on the freeweights. I’m in kind of a maintenance mode for now. My upper body strength has improved quite a bit, but I’ve lost some cardio and slow-twitch muscle mass in my legs from not spinning.
Based on the blood test I took a few weeks ago, the change hasn’t made my cholesterol any worse (43/84) so I’m getting the health benefits I was lookin for…and any high-impact stuff I need to do on the weekends (working on cars, helping people move, benchpressing the kids) makes up for that lost day of excercize.