Workouts

No Gym Fridays

Grateful Kae

I am trying to get back to consistency with my workouts, but I had a little revelation this week:

The gym doesn’t really fit in very well on Fridays.

This is kind of one of those things where I kept trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

*I should clarify- the gym doesn’t fit in in a manner that I enjoy on Fridays. I could go to the gym at 4:30 a.m. when it opens on Fridays and I’m certain it would fit in a-okay. But I don’t want to go to the gym at 4:30 a.m. In fact, I’m essentially making peace with the fact that I really no longer enjoy exercising around other people first thing in the morning. A home workout- okay. A walk alone- yes. In a gym with a bunch of other chipper folks who are up and at ’em under bright lights at 5 a.m.- no.

The thing is, I have a standing meeting at 8:30 a.m. every Friday, which means I must be showered and camera-ready before that. Which is fine- no big deal.

But, I typically have to drive the kids somewhere (like, school/work/camp/etc) on Friday mornings also, so therefore I don’t have time to work out AND shower and be presentable by 8:30 (because remember, I’m avoiding that super early morning time slot).

Sooooo, I typically would plan to go to the gym “later” in the day. Except a couple of things kept happening, without fail:

1) Friday can just simply get away from me, because I often have loose ends to tie up at work.

2) Friday is our standing “date night/ Nacho Night”. On a regular weeknight, I don’t mind going to the gym in the late afternoon and then just being sort of grungy in workout clothes the rest of the evening. But if I’m going to go out with Ivan, well, I would rather not look and smell like a gym rat. Ok, so fine, I could shower (again) after my workout. But honestly, I usually just don’t want to go through all the effort again. Or more commonly, I just don’t even have enough time before we want to go out (by the time I finish work, go to gym…. it gets late).

3) If I DO have free time later on a Friday afternoon, I really prefer to spend some time planning the upcoming week. Update my Google calendar, clean out email inbox, touch up my to do list, etc. If I race out of work to make it to the gym, I never end up having time to do this little planning session.

All said, I realized my stats for actually hitting my planned Friday workouts were dismal. And when I did make it, I was often creating extra stress for myself later (e.g. not having that planning window or rushing to get ready).

Therefore, I decided: You know what? I’m simply not going to go to the gym on Fridays.

Maybe Friday can just be a “cardio day”! (I aim to lift 5x/ week, 1 day/week is a cardio only day, and 1 day is a rest/stretch day).

You know I’m not a cardio fan. But I need to do it. And one form of cardio that I actually have been enjoying is doing dance videos (At home. Dear god help us all if I ever do a dance video in public.) 😂

I am keeping the bar low and aiming for 2-3x per week, ~20 minutes per cardio session.

I can easily do a cardio dance video quickly in my basement before showering and dealing with the kids for the day! (*Remember it’s not exactly that I hate exercising in the morning, I just don’t like going to the gym at that time of day.) The 20-minute home cardio is way quicker than a full 45-60 minute lifting session, too.

I’m happy with this decision! I kept trying to force the gym to work on Fridays, but sometimes it’s better to just cut our losses and move on to Plan B.

Anyone have any good You Tube cardio recs that do not include super intense stuff like burpees?? Once again, I have a low bar for cardio right now, LOL. I just want to move, get my heart rate up, have fun and supplement my strength training. Not looking to do anything “Cross-Fitty” or “boot campy” right now or honestly overly difficult for cardio right now. Haha.

I finally just cancelled my Beachbody membership the other day (kinda bummed about it, because it was convenient, but I really was barely using it anymore anyway, and the prices have gone up!).

I have tried a couple of this girl’s dance videos. She seems super fun and low key and not all “Fancy You Tuber Influencer”. Like just a…. regular person, dancing and acting silly. 🙂 She also has a very “normal”, healthy looking, curvier body (at least in the videos I did), which is refreshing.

Mamma Mia? Yes please. I did a Latin Dance one this morning which was really fun and totally not overcomplicated for my two left feet. 😉

I just found her randomly on You Tube, however, so I cannot actually vouch for her programs or anything, besides that I tried two and they were short, sweet, fun and I sweated. 🙂

This morning I did the 20 minute dance video and then went for a 20 minute walk and called it a day for my workouts. It was nice to not have to think about it this afternoon, and I will go eat my nachos in peace now. 😉

Do you have any areas in your life where you should maybe sort of “give up”, stop forcing it and embrace other options?? Remember sometimes just not doing something is actually a valid option….

Happy weekend!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a ride home from work for Asher today so I didn’t have to run out to get him.

20 thoughts on “No Gym Fridays”

  2. Although I can’t think of a specific example right now, I know that feeling of relief when you realize “Hey, this really isn’t working for me SO I’M NOT GOING TO DO IT.” I am intrigued by this 5x a week lifting schedule. Do you do any of it at home, or is it all in the gym? You’ve probably posted about this in the past and I missed it, but I would be interested to see how you schedule your workouts. Anyway… the dance cardio Friday sounds like a great solution. Plus it gets Friday off to a festive start!

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    1. So I have been following the monthly workouts from Em at macroswithem.com. It’s $20 and I get a new plan every month. It includes the 5 days of workouts, so the split is: Day 1) Legs #1 Day 2) Shoulders/ tris (+ 20 min recommended cardio, optional) Day 3) Back/ Biceps Day 4) Legs #2 Day 5) Full Body + 20 minutes cardio Day 6) 20 minutes cardio and Day 7) Rest.

      I really like it!! I love not having to think about my workouts. I do the same for 4 weeks/ 1 month which allows me enough time to work on increasing, pushing myself etc. over the 4 weeks and then moving on to a new program the next month.

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  3. Yes, this can be so freeing! I used to look for every opportunity to fit in workouts but now that I’m diligent in my Friday planning, I schedule them for the week and then if other free times come up, I don’t feel guilty for not working out bc I know when I will. This has also been big this summer when I’ve decided to only lift 3x week and enjoy the extra free time in this short MN season. Come Fall I’ll get back to 4x but not now.

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    1. I also like the idea of deliberately scaling back on workouts in the summer or any time life is just extra busy. I always think after each busy summer, “I should really just plan to do more home workouts in the summer”, but yet when the next year rolls around I always forget… and continue to try to fit in all my regular gym workouts, even though I know it is extra hard in the summer!

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  4. I think it’s good to know that Fridays and the gym don’t mix. I also decided that I do not enjoy getting up before dawn to do basically anything, I kicked myself for years about it, knowing it would be free time to get stuff done, but I am not a morning person. Very freeing to know what works for you and what doesn’t!

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  5. I gave up beachbody as well when the price went up since I wasn’t using it as much as I used to. I used it a ton when I fully WFH. Now I run 2 days and try to do strength training the other 2 days. I have kind of given up on trying to workout on the days I’m in the office. I have been so busy and my days are so long, I can’t bear to get up and workout before work and am too tired by the time the kids are in bed. So I am just telling myself this is a phase and 3-4 workouts/week on top of regular walks is enough. Good call to just recognize that the gym doesn’t fit into your schedule on Friday. I would make the same decision!!

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    1. Beachbody was so convenient! I did like the option- I especially actually enjoyed a lot of the stretching type videos on there. Now I’m on the hunt for some free options 😉

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  6. I think this is really smart! You realized that it just didn’t make sense for you and adjusted accordingly. We realized that we were going to the grocery store on Friday nights because it was left over from a time in our lives when we got a CSA basket on Thursdays, so we’d go to the store to fill in what we needed to use the vegetables from our basket on Fridays. But we don’t get the CSA anymore, so we go on THURSDAYS now. Life-altering. Or just adjusting course.

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    1. So far so good!! I can see this not working as well if/when my weekends are jam packed, because if i literally can’t fit in workouts on the weekend, then Friday may become more “important” to hit the gym. But I am going to aim to continue this schedule whenever I can!

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  9. Pingback: A recap: last week’s workouts – GRATEFUL KAE

  10. I’m one of those workout-at-4am people haha. It’s mostly because I can finish before it starts getting crowded in there close to 5am, and way too many people don’t clean machines/bars behind them. And that’s gross!

    I’ve been doing BurpeeGirl’s workouts on YouTube at least once a week for probably a year or so now. Contrary to her name, I haven’t done a single burpee in one of her workouts! She has some dance options, kickboxing, walking/jogging cardio, etc. And she has videos of all lengths (between about 20-100 mins), which is nice too!

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    1. I used to go super early!! But then I stopped and now I haven’t been able to get back into that again….

      And ooh, thanks for the video rec! Definitely going to check those out! I love the idea of various workout length options.

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  11. When something doesn’t fit…you change! Makes a ton of sense to me. (I stink at it, but it does make sense. ;>)
    Also, you and I need to trade off some of our workout preferences. I LOVE cardio and dislike lifting. Ha!

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