At this point she’s tired because of stereotypical activity and stress of her job. Some light training will give her more energy and break the physical pattern her body is habituated to.
In other words, a lot of her aches and pains from repetitive use will go away and she will have more energy and be happier. AND SHE WILL LOOK BETTER. Her complexion will improve, she’ll be able to concentrate better at her job and have energy left over for things she wants to do at home. Use that as an argument if she’s not committed.
Preliminaries:
- Cook dinner for her so it’s ready when she gets home. This also keeps her from eating crap at least one meal a day. Make lunch for her too for the same reason. She’s probably eating at the cafeteria.
- Do some of the chores she usually does around the house so she can spare the time to exercise.
Now she has extra time to exercise and not as much on her mind so she’s got head space for it.
3) Increase the frequency of conditioning workouts but lower the intensity slightly. Say 3-4 times per week on just the basics of moving her own bodyweight outside the confines of the vertical plane.
a)wall pushups, progress further down the wall until she can push her own weight from the floor with bent knees and then progress to real pushups
b)turkish getups with no weight progressing to some weight. These are good for everything. She could do just these and see a lot of improvement.
c) deep knee bends - start at 1/4 and increase range of motion as she’s able to.
d) side bends progressing to hands overhead side bends.
e) waking up hill or up and down stairs. She walks all day no doubt, but this will be change of walking pattern and won’t seem like walking…because it’s climbing.
f) arm circles with arms out to the side progressing to light dumbell presses over head.
g) light dumbell rows.
Start with one set of 10 - 20 reps. For the hill or stair climbing, start with low hills or short distance. Increase as needed. Women really seem to dig using Jumpstretch bands for exercise (yes, I’m a chauvinist pig, but they do - it doesn’t seem like “lifting weights” to them). I recommend getting a set for her if she won’t use plate loaded dumbells.
Don’t brow beat her. Won’t work and just makes both of you mad. She needs something to work towards (becoming more attractive, wearing smaller dresses, more energy) rather than being guilted into something healthy. Brow beating is something people want to avoid and if health and exercse become something to escape, she’ll never win. And if she finds some fitness pursuit that she prefers more than your routine or this one, let her, even if it’s not ideal. Something is better than nothing.
These aren’t orders, just suggestions. I wish you and your mother best of luck. I hope it’s helpful.