The Evolution of Exercise

*This is a wonderful blog post written by our 6FIT spokeswoman Kelly.

Working out when you have kids can be a huge pain sometimes.  Before I had my first, I thought I didn’t have time to workout some days, because I was too busy. That certainly has changed though. With an almost 5-year-old and an almost 1-year-old, life can be chaotic. My husband, while he is extremely self-sufficient, is legally blind. That can make life and fitting in fitness a bit difficult, but if you make anything a priority, you will figure out a way to make it happen.

Before we had children, I was pretty regularly working out only in the morning. I hated the nighttime crowds at the gym, and fighting over weights, room, and machines.  

After I had my son, and when I was in-between gyms I was training for a lot of races. I would do shorter runs on our treadmill while the baby napped, long runs were done very very early on Saturday mornings, and track runs were done one night at a local high school. As you can see, it was varied, I had to make my schedule work for not just me, but for my son and husband as well. Of course weekends can be hard, so if we were traveling, I had to do my long runs when I could squeeze it in.

Once we moved to the suburbs, I started getting back into strength training and studio classes, and ran less. Since our son had a bit more of a regular routine in regards to sleep and could clearly communicate his needs to my husband, I started getting back into my morning routine. I was regularly getting up 5-6 times a week to go to classes.

After a pregnancy that was quickly followed by a miscarriage, I fell off the workout routine, and wasn’t super great about nutrition. Eventually, I was able to pull myself back into a routine, and about a year later, I was pregnant again. Due to some complications with the pregnancy, I wasn’t able to workout for the majority of my first or third trimester.  Before I knew it, my daughter was born, and I need to make a new routine.

This has been the strangest workout routine I’ve had in a long time. One day a week I walk/jog a 5K, 4-5 times a week I take virtual DanceFIT classes, and I try to get in one strength training workout on my own. Those DanceFIT classes however aren’t all the same time. Some days I take a 6:15 am class, but for the majority it is split into either 9:30 am classes or 8:30 pm classes during the week. Weekend classes vary on what we have going on for that week.

It can be easy to set a routine and stick to it. I know for me when my routine is strict, and something changes it, it can fluster me for days and I need to find a way to make it up.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in all of this is that you have to be flexible. Kids aren’t predictable. You don’t know when they are going to be sick or just want to snuggle. The flexibility of the DanceFIT classes, and the very lenient cancellation schedule makes it pretty easy for parents to fit in classes, or even cancel a class if something comes up.  And if you are lucky, like I most certainly am, you’ll have a kid that sees you exercise, and think it is something that is SO FUN, and will join you!