If you’re a busy parent and fitness feels like the one thing you can’t figure out, you’re not alone, and you don’t need an ideal routine to start.
You need a plan for the chaotic days.
Take five minutes and write down one emergency backup meal and two or three “movement snacks” you can fit anywhere in your day.
That’s the starting point.
Here’s why that’s enough, and a story about the night I realized how many of us are quietly carrying the same thing.
A while back, as we headed into back-to-school season, I sent out a quick call-out to the busy parents in our community.
I expected a handful of replies.
I got hundreds.
Parents from all over the world, writing in about all the hats they’re juggling – work, kids’ schedules, aging parents, packed calendars – doing their best to make fitness work in their crazy routine.
Reading through them, I kept thinking about something unexpected that happened to me a few weeks earlier.
“Raise your hand if…”
My wife and I took our kids to their first ever concert this summer: Alex Warren. (You’ve probably heard this song, but this one’s actually my favorite ~ warning, it’s emotional!)
If you don’t know Alex, he jokes that he’s a two-trick pony: he writes songs about his wife and songs about his parents who passed away. (Case in point from the two music videos I shared above. 😅)
We’ve listened to his album front to back dozens of times in the car, so we knew what to expect from his music.
What I didn’t expect was all the people in the crowd holding up signs about the loved ones they’d lost.
Alex paused multiple times in his show to read them out loud, and talk to the crowd about them.
He shared how grief made him feel completely isolated growing up – like he was the only one carrying it. It wasn’t until he started writing music about it that he realized losing someone is one of the most human experiences there is. It’s something that unites us.
At one point, he asked everyone who had lost someone close to them to raise their hand.
I looked around a room of 20,000 people, and every hand was up (including my kids, who lost their great-grandfather a few years ago.)
We went in expecting a fun night of music – and we got that!
But we also experienced something surprisingly cathartic: a room full of strangers realizing they weren’t carrying that weight alone.
Why am I telling you this?
You might be like – Matt, what has this got to do with fitness again?
Because I think many of us carry the weight of our expectations around fitness for ourselves in the exact same way. Quietly. Alone.
After coaching and talking with thousands of people over my career, I keep coming back to this:
Most people are juggling a LOT.
They’re productive and successful in so many areas of their lives. They are on all the time. And yet fitness feels like the one thing they just can’t quite figure out.
And because social media blasts us 24/7 with people who seem to have it all dialed in, it’s easy to conclude you’re the only one struggling.
You’re not.
The hundreds of emails from parents in our community are proof. Steve’s whole book, How to Try Again, is full of stories that prove it too.
We’re all in different boats. But they’re remarkably similar ones, too.
So let me just tell you:
You’re doing a lot.
You’re doing better than you think.
And fitness doesn’t have to be one more stressor on your plate.
We got you. 💪
A 5-minute step you can take right now
Since so many of you asked about building a routine that sticks, especially when heading into a busy season of life, let’s start with one of my favorite strategies.
Grab a sticky note or your phone and take the next 5 minutes to write down:
1) One emergency backup meal. Something you can always fall back on when the day goes sideways. A go-to order (mine is a Chipotle bowl!), or something quick you can throw together, like: rotisserie chicken + microwave rice + a bag of frozen veggies. Done.
2) Two or three “movement snacks.” Tiny bits of movement you can sprinkle throughout your day, without a huge time commitment or pushing you past the point of exhaustion:
- Countertop push-ups while the coffee brews
- 10 squats while the kids brush their teeth
- A 5-minute walk after drop-off
This stuff matters. It adds up over time.
And instead of starting by building your “ideal” routine, we build the thing that helps you stay steady when things are chaotic.
Take those notes and post them somewhere you can see or easily reference so they don’t become something lost in the shuffle.
It will take some practice reps to get them going, but once you add them in, you’ll level up with a new skill set that will serve you for years to come.
Let me know what you came up with! 💪
-Matt
P.S. Here are a couple of other ways we can help:
1) Snag our How to Stay Consistent guide – you’ve just written out your “Red Days” (the chaotic ones), so you’re already a step ahead!
2) We’ve helped thousands of nerds build confidence in their fitness. 🔥 This video shows the exact systems we use.