So you have kids and can’t find time to work out, and you feel too intimidated to step foot into a real gym, you can’t go for a run as you have the kids with you all the time, and you still haven’t lost the baby weight. You are doomed right, your fate is set you are stuck in a dress size that you hate and your body is turning in to someone else’s faster than you can believe your eyes! Today I am going to share with you what I do with the kids on any given Sunday morning.
The gym is open on Sunday’s but the crèche isn’t, so that’s no good to me. Most of the time my husband is away so I can’t exactly leave the three kids in front of the TV and go for a run. So I pack them up into the car and we go to my son’s primary school up the road and we all get active together. This is a great way to get the kids out of the house and everyone can burn up some energy and you can burn up some Easter eggs!
Start by playing chasey, tell the kids you are ‘it’ and they will run around like startled gazelles and it’s your job to chase them! This is your warm up, you are getting the blood flowing and your heart rate will rise, this is the aim. Play for a good five minutes, enjoy the kids laughter and know that they too are getting some much needed exercise away from the TV.
You can do so many things with the kids that is actually exercise. Here I am lifting my 14kg four year old as she has a turn on the monkey bars. This cardio session has now turned in to resistance training! Have a go on the monkey bars, climb the rock climbing wall, pull yourself up on the flying fox and have a go. These are all ways of burning calories and getting a good work out, stay for at least half an hour and you have done some decent exercise you should be proud of.
You can also use the equipment to exercise on or with, play a game with the kids to see who can do the most push ups, or who can do the most triceps dips. Use a bar to try some chin ups and use a step to see who can do the most step ups. None of this is hard work if you don’t think of it as exercise think of it as time with the kids. You can even take the games on to the oval and do some jogging have some races or some more chasey. Before you know it half an hour will have evaporated and you have just done something your future self will thankyou for.
There is no real reason you can’t do this with the family every weekend, you could do it both Saturday and Sunday if you wanted to. We do it every Sunday and the kids love it, so even on days when I don’t feel like it I have two little coaches saying “Come on Mummy we want to go to the playground to chase you!” you can’t say no to that! Mr Chilled One just sits in the pram and laughs so having a baby is no excuse! You could even do this 2-3 times during the week in the evenings. The only thing stopping you from getting fit and healthy is the excuses you keep telling yourself! Now get off the computer and get active.
Renee
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Wow, this is pretty much what I started doing with my kids… they call it Fitness Club and love making up obstacle courses using the playground equipment for all of us to do as a race. I hadn’t thought of playing chasey for a warm up though! 🙂
Trace, great stuff, it’s easy to get active with the kids as they are so full of energy! Keep doing it, your future self will thankyou for it! R