How do you fit exercise into your schedule

In My Humble Opinion
21

I think the idea of “not having time” for working out really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Yes, when you have a busy schedule, it seems like getting 45-60 minutes a day can be rough, and it certainly is when you start, but once you get past the start, it is largely time neutral.

Consider, being out of shape generally means you need a little bit more sleep than when you’re in shape. Also consider that being in shape, particularly if you do some exercise in the morning, can improve focus and, thus, make you more productive in the time you have. Thus, I think the time you spend exercise ultimately ends up more or less paying for itself.

Personally, I work out a bit more than that, I don’t do it every day, since I like having at least one day a week for recovery, but I also do more weight training, so I end up doing ~11 hours or so a week. I do generally make two trips though, I do some cardio and stretching in the morning and weight training in the evening, but that’s mostly because I just don’t want to get up early enough to do everything in the morning and I have cardio equipment at my apartment complex which I use in the morning, so I only have to make a trip to the gym for weight training.

If you’re having trouble making time for it, just try waking up earlier and doing it in the morning. You get added benefit of it helping you wake up and of having a somewhat raised metabolism throughout the day, so it helps with energy and potentially losing weight.

22

of course working out takes time over not working out, it simply is not time-neutral. I go to the gym for an hour three days a week after work, then go to dinner immediately after, so when I get home my time is mostly free. I do an hour on weekends. It’s just four hours a week, but it’s tremendously helpful, I find myself more limber, more capable of physical activity, and physically stronger because of it. And I’ve lost weight. My goal is just to remain healthy enough to spend a lot of free time sitting at a computer after a day spend working at a computer. You can’t manage that if you don’t exercise, you get real unhealthy, real fast. As it is, I’m healthy and a computer fiend.

23

When I first started to get back in shape, I had to do it right after work. If I sat down or allowed myself to put it off even for a few minutes, there was no chance I got off the couch. Now that it’s become a habit, I feel bad when I don’t go. Even on a day I’d scheduled as a rest day.

24

I started working out again about 2 months ago. I’m up at 5:00am every weekday so I can catch the 5:50 train into Chicago. A fitness center recently opened in my office building that I use.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday are cardio days. I only do about a half hour per day on an elliptical trainer because I then have to shower before going down to the office. I stretch for just a few minutes before hopping on the elliptical. I also do crunches and back extensions on those days.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I start with a 10 - 15 minute ride on the exercise bicycle to warm up then I hit the weight machines (the fitness center does not have free weights). I do calf extensions, chest press, seated row, shoulder press and lat pulldowns. I do 4 sets of 10 with a weight that is a bit difficult to do after about 37 reps. I only rest about 15 to 30 seconds between each set of 10. I figure it adds a bit of cardio into the routine as well.

On weekends, I sleep in and get exercise in other ways like lawn care, or playing with my kids.

I tried joining a local gym, but with my schedule, I’d get home around 6:00pm then eat dinner, then help the kids with their homework, get the kids to bed and get some chores done. By that time it was 8:30 or 9:00 and thinking about going to bed so I could get up at 5:30 the next morning. I was too tired to head to the gym at that point. So when the fitness center here opened, I started taking the earlier train and taking less time for lunch.

25

I joined a gym/pool a few blocks from my apartment back in August. I hit the pool after work three times a week and usually on the weekend with my girls to play around for 1-1.5 hours. It’s been working out nicely. My limitations are time, and I have a bad back. I did cardio for a few weeks, then started swimming. Swimming was remarkably difficult at first and now I’m able to string together a bunch of laps as opposed to struggling to make it from one end of the pool to the other. I grew up on a lake and swam on a team a litle bit and know the strokes, but after not having done it seriously for 30 years and after gaining 100 lbs, yikes.

I tried cycling (too much time required) and running (ouch) because I like exercising outside. But the bottom line was I wasn’t exercising enough so I ponied up the fee for the pool and fitness center. After swimming I feel like my whole body’s been worked out and I don’t have that lingering almost-pulled something feeling I often get with other forms of exercise.

26

As for cardio, I walk after the kids are in bed five times a week (usually start at 9 p.m.). I try to go for at least a half hour, usually longer. It’s definitely not as much as I used to work out, but dammit, I’m tired!

I also go to the Y on the weekends to use the elliptical and occaisionally the weights and I stretch every night before bed and every morning after I wake up.

I’m not sure if it counts, but I carry a baby around regularly and have tickle wars with a strong four-year old. The baby is about 22-23 pounds and my son is almost 40. That’s the primary source of my strength, though I should do much, much more.

27

I made it part of my routine AND I make time for it.

Routine: I live a mile away from the office, and everything I need is within walking distance. I walk to work, and if I stop by the pharmacy or supermarket after work, I walk there and back home. I take a backpack to work and stuff groceries in it. I’d say I walk 10 miles minimum per week just going about my life.

Make time: I alternate 10 minutes of situps and weights with 40 minutes of cardio six nights a week. On nights where I do cardio, I have to make sure I eat before 8pm, so I can wait my minimum of 2 hours before heading out. (I get indigestion if I don’t wait.) This makes me limit my TV time, and that’s just fine with me.

I get anywhere between 40 and 90 minutes of exercise per day, but it doesn’t really feel like that much.

28

For me the biggest obstacles are work and sleep. I can work around everything else. However I don’t feel physically or mentally well when I am sleep deprived.

So working out at 5am before work isn’t going to work. But at the same time, if I work out too late in the day I get insomnia. So anytime after 6-7pm isn’t good either. Sucks pretty bad since that makes before and after work unrealistic due to sleep scheduling. I can do cardio right after work, but if I do strength training I will likely get insomnia. I’m going to have to give up HIIT because I was up until 4am the last couple times I tried it.

I figure I can do stretching and cardio after work but before 6pm. If I can fit strength training in on a lunch break during work that would fit pretty well for me.

29

My job has some physical elements, so I don’t need to go to the gym much unless I haven’t been working lately.

30

You just make it part of your life. There’s no other way to do it consistently. That’s both harder and easier than it sounds. I’m getting back into a solid routine after the birth of my son. The first couple of months were too hectic to do much of anything.

I do CrossFit, so most of my workouts are done in an hour, usually. Including warmup and stretching afterward, sometimes up to an hour and a half, but almost never longer than that. The relative shortness of the workouts helps a lot, and in my opinion, you can’t get more “bang for your [time] buck” than CrossFit.

My main problem is that Japanese gyms aren’t open early or late (usually from 9:00 AM to 9:00 or 10:00 PM) so early morning or late night workouts just aren’t going to happen. I didn’t even bother getting a membership at a commercial gym because none of them had enough free weights. I have a community gym I can use after work most days, they’re right around the corner from work, but they’re closed on most weekends and holidays. I have to plan on doing bodyweight exercises or running on the days they’re closed. When I get screwed out of gym time, I sometimes run to one park I know that has something to hang from and do pull ups and other calisthenics later that night.

Work interferes a lot of the time. My normal start is around 8:00 (meeting at 8:20 every morning) and I work 6 days a week (Saturday is a “half” day) or sometimes 7 if there’s stuff scheduled that I have to do. (This excessive kind of schedule is normal in Japan, unfortunately.) Often—but not always—when I work on Sunday or until evening on Saturday because of seminars or other events, I get a day off in lieu, but good luck finding a time in the schedule to use it. If afternoon meetings run late, I might not be able to leave until 6:00 PM or later, and the gym closes at 8:00 PM sharp.

Plus, my wife teaches Flamenco, so she works a couple of nights a week, and most of Saturday. I’ve got to be home by about 6:30 at least 2 nights a week to take care of the baby. Before the baby, I’d still try to be home early on those days so we could eat dinner together, otherwise we wouldn’t see each other until about 9:00 PM. My mother in law takes care of the kid on Saturdays, so I can usually get some time in that day.

Even with all of this, I usually manage to get workouts in 2–4 days a week, depending on how much random bullshit happens. I simply have to try hard to fit it in when I can, and try not to get too pissed off when I can’t make it.

If I could count on a consistent schedule, I’d probably be in the gym, running, or doing something 5–6 days a week. During the couple of slack times in the year, I do get a minimum of 4 sessions in a week. I just always plan to work out unless I’m unable to, or if it’s a day I should take for recovery.

31

I was able to get back to the gym once I decided I wasn’t doing much of anything else, so I had no excuse not to go to the gym. Once sleeping, making money and taking care of my house were down to a tidy routine, the next important thing to do was to get exercising.

I go to the gym for 2 hours every other day, and now that it’s cooler outside I walk for a half hour on the off days (my old dog and my fat self can’t handle walking in 80+ degrees). On weekends I might go for a hike instead of the boring walk around the block. This still leaves me plenty of time for chores and tv watchin’ and I even hang out with my friends on occasion!

Of course, I don’t have kids or a spouse to work my schedule around, so it’s sort of a no-brainer for me. You people that DO work your workouts around kids…you’re just crazy amazing :slight_smile:

32

Housework (including relatively heavy tasks like what I did yesterday: carried over half my body weight of cat litter through the pet store out to the car, then out of the car when we got home and up the flight of stairs to my apartment where I dumped, cleaned and refilled both boxes with one box of clean litter and took the garbage bag of old litter back down the hall, down the stairs, and to the dumpster way out past the back lot), gardening, and walking briskly/running/playing with my dogs provide me with hours of lower-level activity daily.

I seek out ways to use my muscles constantly. For instance I carry everything for my BF rather than the other way around (poor thing, he gets dirty looks from many people). I do isometric exercises throughout the day, every day. I have a doorway-mounted pull-up bar which I do a few reps on whenever I pass by

In terms of actual “working out” -I’ve never been to a gym. I am an Anusara (ass-kicking) yoga fan but prefer to take classes rather than practice on my own, and I can’t afford it right now so haven’t been doing much. I also lift the weights I have in my apartment almost every day, currently I am obsessed with overhead squats. If you do high weight and fewer reps, lifting only takes a few minutes of your day and can give you some pretty big gains in strength and muscle.

I guess I don’t get very intensive cardiac exercise. I might take up running again one of these days… I’m naturally very good at running, but it’s pretty useless for what I have in mind for the look and function of my whole body, and it burns so many calories. I prefer swimming but can’t find a way to do it often that I can afford.

33

Don’t go home first. Once you walk into the house, there are plenty of excuses popping up. Leave work and go straight to the club.

34

Until recently, I didn’t. That was in addition to a messy house, a demanding job, demanding kids, housework, and 4-5 hours of (poor quality) sleep a night.

For example, I’m posting this just before 1:00 AM local time, and if I sleep past 6 I’ll miss my first meeting at work - with no exercise.

I have no earthly idea how any of you fit all this exercise in your schedules.

In the last few months I’ve started walking on the weekends. I found a nice 4 mile loop around my neighborhood which takes me about an hour and a half. I try to do this on both weekend days. I listen to audiobooks and it’s not bad.

I have not been doing it long enough to notice any benefits. Between the walk, a shower and a nap I lose about 3 hours each day. I’m not sure it’s worth it. If I’m losing that much time a week, shouldn’t it be for something I enjoy?

35

One of the benefits of working out so much is that I get much better sleep than I ever did before, and in less time. 23:00-23:30 is lights out, and I’m out. And I wake at 5:30 refreshed and ready for the day. I occasionally take an afternoon 30min break with a relaxation tape to rest my eyes (computer screens all day) - but that is pretty rare.

Si

36

I ride my bike to work so I get a few miles of bike riding almost every day. My legs are like ironwood trees, thick and gnarly.

37

Having no kids or live-in SO helps, but it wouldn’t be impossible with them. I’m up at 9:30am, work from 10 - 7pm. I have dinner and clean up by 8:30. I then make myself wait 2 hours, during which time I watch TV, do chores, hobbies, whatever. Then I exercise. I come home, shower, and then I have another couple hours to goof off until I sleep around 2am.

I like my workout, but I can’t imagine losing an hour and a half to it a day. Is there a different exercise you could do that you both enjoy and doesn’t take so long? The workout itself should challenge you, not the logistics of it.

38

My normal work day has me getting up at 4:20 as it is, so getting up earlier to exercise would really be onerous. And I get home around 7 or 7:30 and at that point am in no mood to do anything but relax.

BUT, my place of work has a fitness center, and we are encouraged to use it during the work day. So I do. Every afternoon around 2:15 (right when that sleepy lull is about to hit) I go do 40 minutes on the elliptical or run on the treadmill. Works for me.

39

As soon as I come home from work I exercise about an hour. I try to not give myself any exceptions because if I do, I tend to skip the exercise for that day

40

As soon as I get up and it is light out, I go for a run or a walk with my dog