Working out with babies requires sacrifice from the entire family

[newsoul]

@jmannramirez Great inspiration! Good reminder what can be accomplished w time and intentionality

 

[missmarple]

@redeemedsinner I have a six month old and a 3 1/2 year old, and I’ve just had to accept that some things are going to be not done exactly how I want them to

My priority is of course family first but after that my nutrition comes before anything else. I have a gluten intolerance so I can’t just go out and eat in a deficit still. I have to prep all my food.

Next I prioritize any exercise I can. If I have time to drive to the gym, I go for an hour. Most days I don’t but I still go for a run, or do a quick at home workout. I try to get 2-3 days of strength training and 3-4 days of running. I also get a minimum of 8000 steps a day.

Sleep is unfortunately the lowest on this list but I’m thankfully getting around 6 hours again. But I’ll sacrifice sleep for now to get to the other priorities. It is impossible to do it all to my maximum ability every day. So I have low effort days and high effort days

 

[doallthingswithlove]

@redeemedsinner Amen! Thank you. I am a SAHM (breastfeeding exclusively) right now with a baby and preschooler. I need to be kinder with myself about what I actually accomplish vs what I think I should be doing.

 

[myfifthdecade]

@redeemedsinner It will get easier, but dad, in the future if you can take the baby with you to the gym... you will get a million points. If your gym either has childcare or you can take the bucket seat and just let the baby nap while you lift (there will be like 6 months you can do this reliably), you will be a hero. I saw this tiktok of a new dad talking about how to play all the golf you want as a new dad, and he just brought the stroller on the course, it was beautiful. Of course, millage may vary according to wife. but I wasn't apart from my baby for 6 weeks and that was to go to the grocery store.

 

[colie444]

@indianalisa Do you use a double jogging stroller to run with them? We have our second on the way this fall and I’m thinking about what kind of jogging stroller I might want to get

 

[indianalisa]

@colie444 Yes I have a double BOB. Got it used on Facebook bc brand new they’re like $700. I used the single BOB with my daughter and that was easy breezy. The double is a beast. Kind of like running with a wind sail lol, so it took a few runs to get used to, but I got back to my usual pace after about a few weeks. The handle adjusts to your preferred height, the tires are great for trails or sidewalks. Plenty of room for the kids to bring a snack or a book or stash another toy for later. I use it as my day to day stroller as well. A tad wide but it fits through all doors, and fits a decent grocery shop in the bottom or on top of the sun visors. In general I love it. The double is significantly harder running but with practice it becomes part of your stride. Congrats on number two incoming !!

 

[werewolf]

@redeemedsinner Having gone through this, here's what I know to be true

• It's hard
• It's still about priorities. Your kid is now a new priority
• Communication with your partner is key
• Things will have to change. Could be your fitness goals, or how you achieve them.
• Suck it up and get it all done.

Don't worry about insta meatheads. You're finding out the real hard things about heavy things and will be able to teach them a thing or two in a year.

 

[moonphantom]

@redeemedsinner I’m a new parent and living outside the US has made me realize how awful childcare in the US actually is. Our nanny is partly subsidized by the government (as would be daycare), our milk-protein free formula is free, maternity leave was 7 months postnatal (1 month prenatal), the birth (cesarian) was completely free at the best hospital in the country, insurance not tied to a specific job, I could go on.

Why does this matter? If you can afford to have good, consistent childcare, taking care of yourself becomes less of a sacrifice and simply more doable. Things in the US need to change - people are so obsessed with the debate over life before birth that life after birth goes completely ignored, and resources in the US are just pitiful for parents. Prices are sky high and everybody just wants to sell you things, rent you things, guilt and scare you into buying more and more.

I see my friends back home have a lot harder of a time staying above water than I am.

IMO this is the real debate the needs to be occurring.

 

[eternum]

@moonphantom I don't live in the US and we get pretty good childcare I guess but it's to cover work, not time to go to the gym. Not sure how any of the things you mentioned give you time to go to the gym.

 

[moonphantom]

@eternum You can go to teh gym during the day, at lunch break for example, and then eat quickly.

 

[eternum]

@moonphantom I guess I don't see what that has to do with free formula or medical care or maternity leave or the childcare being subsidised. Things being cheaper doesn't give you more hours in the day. If anything my public childcare had shorter hours than private centres. I'm very grateful for it but it didn't give me more time to work out as I had to rush to pick up. My kid is now at school and the school day is shorter than my work day so the same.

And we don't have gyms with childcare which apparently the US does, that sounds amazing to me.

Again I'm happy with our system generally but being a parent still takes up as much time. And life is extremely expensive where I live and wages are low.

 

[dixieheart]

@redeemedsinner I appreciate this perspective and your experience.

I will offer mine as well, having just lifted this morning at 6:00 after our umpteenth night in a row in a sleep regression waking up 5+ times a night, albeit mostly briefly to settle him back down.

You do not need a good night’s sleep to go to the gym, you just need an alignment between your output and your recovery. What that means for everyone may differ but I don’t anticipate even as the kids grow recovery will ever be as predictable/controllable as it once was.

That said, it is absolutely a team effort; my wife and I both prioritize activity and when the baby allows it we’ll work out together while he’s with us, or one of us has him solo while the other works out. Our work schedules make that possible; with more professional commitments it would be very hard! Fitness influencers, I suspect, have a lot more logistical help with child care they are not sharing on social media as well.

 

[srcnfk]

@redeemedsinner Yeah, but those babies have to get in shape at some point

 

[nazkid]

@redeemedsinner I can't imagine working out with babies, I think they would completely get in the way of my routine. Can a baby even do a pull-up?

 

[keeplookingup]

@redeemedsinner As a dad of a newborn, this hits hard.

I am recovering from an ACL surgery, 4 weeks post op, which brings its own difficulties like pain, depression, tiredness all the time. I cannot help with the baby almost at all because it is dangerous for me to hold her while standing, so I can just help calm her down in her crib while my wife eats, showers etc

I have PT 5 days/week so it’s a challenge to leave home and to recover for next days session.

My wife is being a champion and deserves a golden statue.

 

[mdavis337]

@keeplookingup oof that’s rough, definitely gotta schedule her some massage/spa appointments or set up time out with her friends when it’s safer for you to be one on one with your little one as a token of appreciation!

best of luck with the remainder of your recovery!

 

[marquell]

@redeemedsinner Thanks for sharing. I think it’s definitely a tale of two needs when we talk workout after kids.

On the one hand, after each of my kids I had to recognize that because baby was priority I had to learn to be okay with just exercising once or twice a week. Was it my goal? No. But in that season of life my workout goals were WAY down on the totem pole of importance.

On the other hand, I know a lot of parents that used kids as an excuse to put their whole health-life on hold. Babies meant pizza multiple times a week and no exercise for months.

For them in incredibly sympathetic, becaue raising children is HARD work. But you can’t do 30 pushups and squats before a shower? It takes minutes. You can’t ask a spouse to cover the baby for 20 minutes to go on a walk/jog?

This sub is almost certainly self selecting for people who value fitness, so I agree there are a ton of things that hit the back burner when we have kids, especially young. But there are definitely a ton of parents that could benefit from realizing that they have more time than they realize.

 

[eternum]

@marquell I couldn't ask my partner for 20 minutes because he works shifts so wasn't home much. And showering was normally in and out super fast while she cried. No time to shave my legs most of the time, definitely not to exercise.

 

[nrg23]

@redeemedsinner We all have the same 24 hours, however if you have a new born child to manage what’s more important? Lifting heavy circles or your family? Yeah you can’t get the perfect workout in but you can keep all of “your gains” doing body weight stuff at home or just having a conversation with your spouse about when it’s appropriate for you to work out. I always handled the sleeping time stuff so my wife could sleep and then I would just gym in the evening after supper. I just adhered to a strict schedule of I was in the gym for no longer than an hour

 

[redeemedsinner]

@nrg23 I can adhere to a strict schedule. But baby and wife can't always sacrifice to allow me to do so. If baby is throwing a fit and ends up puking his dinner, I'm not going to be like "well I can't stick around to help clean THIS is my scheduled gym time after dinner, peace out"