Weekend Warrior? A HAWMC Post

I decided to step away from the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge prompts for today’s post (yes, that is allowed). My time is, as I’m sure is true for most of the participants in the Challenge, limited, and a holiday weekend means family, cooking, and other things to focus on besides writing.

Time, as it relates to my health focus (or one of them anyway, in this case, fitness), is what I wanted to write about today. I work full time. I manage a fitness center, plus I also train a few people privately. We are “in season” at the moment. I live in a resort area, where we are extremely busy from November through May. This time of year, I work long hours, then come summer I get a little recovery time.

I also, like most working women (and some working men) come home from work, prepare dinner for the family, do a little picking up. cleaning, or laundry, then finally get to sit down about 8:00, relax for an hour, then go to bed to prepare the mind and body to do it all over again. That final hour of the day is the time I will spend to write this blog (or sometimes just collapse and play “Words with Friends.”)

Believe me, I get it when clients say, “I don’t have time to exercise.” I also know better, because if you buy into that, you will end up weak, unhappy, and unhealthy.

Sometimes this schedule makes me feel like a “Weekend Warrior.” Work hard all week, then try to fit in fitness on the weekend. Not the healthiest approach, because when you push yourself in your once a week workout, you are more prone to injury, plus you’ll be less fit, less balanced, and more stressed.

To avoid this, I try to schedule one day mid week where I can go into work a little later. On this day, Wednesday for me, I have time for a run (or a ride, but I’m focusing on running right now to prepare for the La Jolla Half Marathon). I also have been able to do an hour of yoga at home on those Wednesdays. Plus, if I can drag myself out of bed early enough, I have time to take a short run on Tuesday mornings. The other weekdays, I work at 5:30 am and don’t get home until about 4:30, so exercise just isn’t happening.

The exception to the weekday schedule is Friday. While I do work very early, I also get off fairly early and I’ve been trying to fit in some yoga on those afternoons. Life (and motivation) interferes sometimes, though.

I’m also fortunate that I teach a few group exercise classes during the week. While my low impact aerobics class doesn’t do a whole lot to improve my fitness, my “superball” class can offer a workout. But I am the teacher, so I need to instruct, not just do my own workout. I also teach a stretch class, which is a wonderful supplement to the yoga.

I still tend to stack a lot on the weekend. This one, for example. I started Saturday with a seven mile run. I ran 5.5 miles with Penny, one mile with Lily and Olivia, and a half mile with my two “challenged athletes,” Sydney (blind) and Goldie (compressed disc). Then, after a quick breakfast, I headed over to my fitness center to take a one hour Ashtanga yoga class.

Today, which is Easter Sunday, Penny and I ran six miles (oh, Alan was there too!). A different route because Alan was meeting a couple clients (he’s a coach, you know. so they were running too). Then off to Yoga Central, for a 90 minute Vinyasa class, where as usual April kicked my butt with her inspiring Flow class.

So now I sit, waiting to meet the family for dinner, basically too pooped to do much besides write (at least I get to sit down!). I’ll find time for a quick nap before dinner, which will re-energize me, and I’m not cooking tonight, so that’s kind of nice.

So, I guess my point is (one of them, anyway), is that there is time in the day for fitness. I’m training for a half marathon, getting my mileage in, trying to balance the running with yoga (which also helps fight off the stress of my busy schedule). It can be challenging at times. If your goal is to be fit and get stronger, it is possible to find, or make time, both during the week and on the weekend, to get your workout in.

I’d love to hear how you balance your schedule and get in your workouts.