Achieving a work-life balance for working moms is a real struggle. In addition to all other demands besides work, exercise and general personal care seem to take a back seat for most moms.
Exercise helps you in losing weight especially after giving birth, improves your mental health and sleep quality and helps in stress management while rejuvenating your energy. The main challenge for working moms is actually how to schedule the exercise into their routine.
You can successfully incorporate exercise into your working-mom day routine by making exercise part of your daily routine, have the right mindset , find motivation, introduce the exercise moderately, and hire a professional trainer. Also choose a convenient time for exercise such as early mornings, evenings or weekends.
Reasons Why Exercise is Beneficial & Necessary For Full Time Working Moms
1. Exercise Helps Working Moms Lose Weight
Working moms see the benefit of exercising because it helps to lose weight. Postpartum weight is especially a major challenge to many women. Exercise is hence crucial for working moms who are returning work from maternity leave and need to fit to lose weight.
2. It is a Form of Self-care
Exercise is crucial to working moms for personal self-care. It has been proven that working moms who exercise regularly have better mental health, better self-esteem and image among others.
3. Leads to Better and Quality Sleep
Having adequate sleep and rest is necessary to meet demands of the following day that working moms face everyday. Exercise helps you here by improving your sleep quality by incorporating work out into your daily schedule.
4. Helps in Stress Management
Work and motherhood duties that working moms have can be stressful and straining and exercise helps alleviate this.
5. Exercise Refreshes and Energizes the Body
Exercise is so crucial to your body as it rejuvenates and boosts your energy. It lowers fatigue and tiredness related to high energy demands in full time working moms.
Read: Exercise Routine Options for Night Shift Working Moms
How to Create a Simple Exercise Routine for Working Moms
1. Make Exercise Part of your Daily Routine/ Tradition
To successfully ingrain exercise into your life, it must become part of your routine. You need to treat exercise same as the other necessary routines you do every day. For instance, taking a shower is a routine for you in the morning and/or in the evening.
Start treating exercise this way too, like something you have to do daily; more of an item on your everyday to-do list. See it as part of what you are required to do daily and you will easily fix exercise into your schedule. Aim to do it at the same time of the day every day because this consistency will help you keep to it. It may include a morning run, gym, or a walk among others.
2. Develop the Right Exercise Mindset
Having the right mindset is important to both start and maintain an exercising routine for a full time working mom. It will also help you have the right priorities in other areas of your life such as your diet choices among others.
You must understand the overall benefits of exercising and relate to them personally. Change your mindset and look at exercising as your responsibility. Not to impress others or anything but for your personal benefit.
It is after then that you can take exercise as part of caring for yourself. To be the best version of yourself, you need exercise. This mindset will be crucial for your motivation when you feel like giving up and you can’t really see the results of your exercising.
Read: Importance of SelfCare
3. Find a Motivation Factor for Exercise
The motivation level for exercise varies from one woman to another. Some will keep on exercising while others give up after a month. Look for what motivates you and use it to keep you always interested in following your exercise routine.
If working out together with a friend, group or partner does it for you, then incorporate them into your routine. Join an exercise group if you need to. You can even find yourself an accountability partner that will help you stay on check-in exercise.
If an outdoor environment inspires you to exercise even harder, do so. Whatever it is that fires you up and keeps you exercising, it is it that you need to maintain your exercise routine as a working mom.
Find the fun in it and take up the challenge to do better for yourself every day. Combine it even with something you love doing such as dancing or playing music in the background.
Read: Sources of Motivation for Working Moms
4. Introduce Exercise into your Rountine Moderately
Introduce workout moderately and improve day by day. Make your exercise routine so simple and flexible that you can even do it anywhere, even while on holiday. Incorporate squats, lunges, jump rope, stretching which are simple and flexible for any environment and are great ways to exercise while on a busy schedule.
Considering that you are a full time working mom and hence short on time, you need to do your exercise in the time you can afford. Unless you are a professional fitness guru, there is no need to go too extensive. Anything over an hour and a half in the GYM is not necessary unless it is your level. It doesn’t have to be 2+ hours in the gym or a 1hr run or anything like that.
Start with 5-10 minutes of body-weight exercise, yoga, stretching, walking, or something else. You will need to keep improving on your workouts as you go along every level. Adjust to longer spans when you have longer time such as during the weekends. It will all add up. This way it will be easy to accommodate exercise into your routine as you won’t feel like exercise is a time-waster.
5. Hire a Professional Trainer
Hire a professional to schedule and train with you on specific days. If you feel you need guided help, then hire a professional trainer for workouts. A personal trainer will help you in mapping out a workout plan that includes workout goals and adjustments when necessary.
Also use an efficient and effective training app for fitting exercise into you daily life. Fitness apps are great in helping you track progress, mark key milestones, and set reminders among others. Also invest in quality equipment, gym wear, etc.
6. Be Realistic with your Goals
Set realistic exercise expectations and goals for your body to ensure they are achievable. Remember fitness is a continuous journey. Don’t put too many demands on your body to be achieved in an unrealistic time frame. You will avoid getting you demotivated.
Participating in a challenge is a key motivator. Start/join an exercise challenge that motivates you a becomes a workout routine or tradition. Challenges are good in breaking the monotony of the exercise routine too. The challenge can combine diet and exercise all to a better outcome.
6. Get a Support System
Find support for allow you follow through with you scheduled workout . For instance your partner will play a key role in your starting and maintaining exercise. Your partner can be your motivation as well as actually helping out such as watching the baby as you hit the gym.
Best Convenient Times for Working Moms to Exercise
1. Early Mornings Workout
Working out after work becomes inconvenient and impractical since you have other demands at home such as your kids and house chores. But you can change this if you instead woke up early in the morning to exercise. It is not pleasant but once it is incorporated into your routine you will love it.You will just need to readjust your sleeping and wake-up time to allow for the early hour waking up time.
An early workout sets the right mood for the entire day and you will be even more productive. Experts have proven that moms who work out in the morning are happier and more productive at work.There are lesser distractions in the morning and you can focus on yourself which is good for your mental health.
Read: Time Management Tips for Working Moms
2. Late Evenings Workout
On the contrary, some working moms can’t get an hour in the morning to work out. If your shifts start early or you need a long drive to work, you may not manage to exercise in the morning.
Alternatively look into your evening and squeeze an hour for exercise into your daily routine. Evenings are a popular time for working moms to exercise simply because of the convenience it offers. It also gives you the energy you need to transition into your evening routine.
Maybe it’s the hour after job whereby you to the gym. If not you can have your exercise before bedtime. This is after you have done any chores you need to do and the kids have retired to bed. This type of workout will help you get good sleep and rest afterward that you kick off the following day.
Read: How to Get “Me Time” as a Working Mom
3. Weekend Workouts
If both morning and evening work out are not possible for you to exercise, you can still use some time during the weekends to exercise. Remember every bit of exercise matters and it all helps for your overall health and well being.
You can capitalize on the long hours you have over the weekend to do a longer workout on both days. Incorporate an exercise to stay motivated.
Simple Office Exercise for Working Moms
4. Exercise at Work
Take advantage of opportunistic exercises to find time for exercise while at work. These are opportunities that you have throughout the day to get your body working. For instance, you can take the staircase instead of the lift, run to the bus stop, use a standing desk at work, etc. These exercises help you stay fit even on a busy working mom schedule.
