After dancing her way into America’s living rooms on So You Think You Can Dance and then Dancing with the Stars, Lindsay Arnold’s next step came quite naturally. It was even more movement. After leaving the dance competition TV life behind, she founded The Movement Club. The on-demand fitness platform and app are how Arnold is hoping to inspire everyone to fall in love with working out. And it’s working out.
After an all-consuming, season-by-season schedule of very on and then very off, Arnold now has the elusive work-life balance so many of us covet. “My life is much more consistently busy, meaning that there’s no off period. It’s constant, and it’s something that I need to be very consistent with,” Arnold says. “But I also feel like I mapped it in a way where I can have dedicated work time…. Once you have kids, everything changes. I’m so proud and grateful that I’ve been able to build a career and a passion that I can make work with my life.”
Arnold gave us a rundown of what that balance looks like in a typical workday for her at home in Utah.
5:45 A.M. – UP AND OUT
There’s no lingering for Arnold. Movement is immediate. “When my alarm goes off, the first thing I do… is literally swing my feet out of bed…. So I just stand up next to my bed and head right into my closet, put my workout set on and then head into my kitchen,” she says. Her first nourishment of the day is the Just Ingredients Strawberry Limeade Pre-Workout drink, which she loves.
6 A.M. – GYM, SWEAT, PLUNGE
Next up is her personal workout in her home gym. “The first thing that I do is hop on the Peloton for a 30-minute class. It’s nice because your brain can just kind of wake up while your body’s doing the work. Then… I get into my mat workout. I always do one of my own personal Movement Club workouts for my program. I’m either following along with a video that I’ve filmed or testing out a new workout…. So, it’s either a test and trial run for a new workout or a tried-and-true one…. The mat workout is sculpting, with a little bit of weights or resistance bands sometimes.” After that, Arnold sits in her outdoor sauna for 15-20 minutes before hopping into her cold plunge pool. “I try to do three minutes. We have it set at 40 degrees—and it’s a shock…. I feel like it’s a perfect ending to a workout…. And it just gives me the perfect boost to start my day.”
8 A.M. – RITUALS
The post-workout ritual she stands by—drinking powdered nutritional supplement AG1 and taking Arrae Tone creatine gummies—is another way Arnold stays focused and healthy. “Then, I will start to make breakfast for the girls. [Arnold has two daughters, ages 4 and 2.] That’s dedicated family time. I don’t look at my phone. It is our time to connect before everything starts,” she says.
9 A.M. – CLOCK IN
“I start checking all my emails, responding to messages, have Zoom meetings and create and edit content,” she says of the 9 o’clock hour. “I film my morning routine so that I can post on both Instagram and TikTok. I have a content calendar, so at the start of the week, I take a look at my week and map out and gauge my schedule based off of what kind of content needs to be created.” Some of her content ends up being organic, which might mean her daughters are in the background. “With two kids, every day looks different,” she says.
11:30 A.M. – MOM MODE
How genius is this parenting hack? “As I’m feeding the girls lunch, I do their hair. It’s the only way I can get it done because they’re distracted and they sit still for five seconds,” she says of her lunchtime style session with her daughters. “Every day is different, but from about 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., I’m either carpooling to dance practice, gymnastics, swim lessons or preschool.”
1 P.M. – MOVEMENT IN MOTION
While her younger daughter is taking her afternoon nap, Arnold gets down to business. “That’s when I do a lot of my filming for my workout videos. I have a filming studio in my basement for The Movement Club. Or I’ll do a live workout, which we offer within our program,” she says of how she makes the most of that quiet time. “This is also when I have lunch. I am very protein-focused with my meals.” Before she knows it, it’s time to pick up her 4-year-old and then come home to finish some miscellaneous things from her day while prepping dinner—proving that nobody multitasks like a working mother.
6 P.M. – DINNER
The Arnolds have dinner together at 6 p.m.. “That’s typically when my husband comes home from work, and we are all hungry at that time. We all sit down at the table for dinner, but that’s not to say that our children aren’t running around the entire time,” she admits. “But it’s a nice time to just sit and eat and connect because it’s the only time of day when we’re all together. And this is when I’ve put my phone away for the day, and I finish my workday mindset.” After dinner is playtime, meaning games, dance parties, gymnastics or a little bit of everything. “My girls are very active, and they’re also very girly. Then, we do bath time, get in our PJs, have story time and sometimes a song.
“After I put the girls down, I will go take my shower and do my full skin care routine with an LED mask while I’m sitting in bed. My husband and I will watch a show together, talk about our days and about what our agenda for the next day looks like,” she says, adding that she usually goes to sleep by 9 p.m..
All so that she can wake up at 5:45 a.m. again, ready to start a brand new day full of movement.
Photo courtesy Lindsay Arnold
