Let me tell you about the single best discovery of this entire fitness journey so far: bedtime yoga.
I know. Yoga. At bedtime. It sounds like something a wellness influencer would say while drinking a green smoothie in a $90 sports bra. But hear me out, because this is the thing that’s actually keeping my streak alive.
The Problem with Morning Workouts #
When I started Streak #2 on January 11th, I was trying to exercise in the morning. Get up, yoga and calisthenics, knock it out before the day started. And it worked, sometimes. But here’s the reality of my life: I have kids, I have a job, I have days where I’m up at 3 AM to drive to the office and days where I’m traveling and days where the schedule just doesn’t cooperate.
January 12th was one of those days. Had to wait until the kids were in bed, and then go do yoga. Getting the exercise in was difficult because the day kept happening. But I chose a “Calm Down” yoga video with Adriene, 17 minutes, and I got it done.
And then I thought, wait. What if I just always did it at bedtime?
The Bedtime Routine #
By January 13th, I was doing “Yoga with Adriene, Bedtime Routine” as my daily exercise. Eighteen minutes. Right before sleep. The kids are in bed, the house is quiet, I roll out a mat (or just do it on the carpet, honestly) and I follow along.
Day after day, it stuck:
- Day 3: Yoga with Adriene, Bedtime Routine, 18 minutes
- Day 6: 20 minutes bedtime yoga
- Day 9: 35-minute walk with the family, but bedtime yoga became the backup
- Day 10: 19 minutes bedtime yoga
- Day 11: 20 minutes bedtime yoga
- Day 12: Bedtime yoga
- Day 14: Bedtime yoga routine
See the pattern? Some days I’d get a walk in, or do a yoga class, or even hit the elliptical. But when the day got away from me, when dinner ran late, when the kids were wild, when I was sick and went to the doctor, the bedtime yoga was always there. Fifteen to twenty minutes, right before I closed my eyes.
Why This Works #
The genius of bedtime yoga is that it removes every excuse. You don’t need to wake up early. You don’t need to find a window in your day. You don’t need gym clothes or a drive somewhere. You just need to not go to sleep yet.
It also turns out that 15 to 20 minutes of yoga before bed is genuinely good for you. My Apple Watch consistently logs 20+ exercise minutes from these sessions, and I’m burning 500 to 700 active calories on days where bedtime yoga is my only intentional exercise. Not because the yoga is that intense, but because the movement adds to whatever walking and standing I did during the day.
And the sleep? Better. Noticeably better. There’s something about stretching everything out after a long day that just, I don’t know, resets things. My body is less tense, my mind is calmer, and I fall asleep faster.
The Transition #
I started this journey with Hybrid Calisthenics, doing wall pushups and bodyweight squats. And I still think that program is great. But the honest truth is that the thing keeping my streak alive isn’t progressive overload or muscle confusion or any of that gym-bro stuff. It’s a woman on YouTube calmly telling me to breathe and stretch my hips.
By Day 10 of Streak #2, bedtime yoga was the default. Not the backup plan, the actual plan. Some days I’d add a walk or a class on top of it, but the bedtime routine was non-negotiable.
I’m now at Day 10, double digits, and I attribute almost all of that to finding something that fits into my life instead of fighting against it. The best exercise is the one you actually do. For me, right now, that’s Yoga with Adriene at 10 PM while my kids sleep down the hall.
Tomorrow is Day 11. And I already know exactly when I’m going to exercise.