I am all about easy exercises you can sneak in throughout your day. It can be really tough finding time to exercise with kids, so often exercise often gets put on the back burner. When they are little, your way too tired to fit in a early morning workout, and after working all day you just want to get home and play with your child. Exercise is usually the last thing on your mind.
Here are some exercises you can do with your kid(s).
*Note: My little is a bit too young to do some of these exercises with me, but he still had a blast watching me and playing around.
Exercises You Can Do with Your Kids
Jump rope: This is s SO good for you, but I understand that many Moms struggle with incontinence issues. If you are lucky enough not to then skipping is a great training, boxing style. If you do suffer with inconvenience I suggest some pelvic floor fitness first, you can check out some of the exercise i incorporated here.
Hula Hoop:Who doesn’t like to hula hoop? Get that core workout in, it’s a great way to train your tummy muscles and strengthen your back — just don’t be surprised if you child totally upstages you!
Tag: It’s amazing how much fun you can have with such a simple game. When you are a kid you can run for hours and hours without even realizing you are exercising. As adults we tend to turn exercise into such a chore. It doesn’t have to be.
Playground workouts: You’re probably aware of how much energy kids have, so why not join in with their park fun? Jump on the swing set, have a see-saw ride or take a few turns on the slide. All these movements are really functional, not to mention fun, and will help you burn extra
calories.
Bike Ride: Kids learn about an active lifestyle from those around them, so get on your bike and start their healthy body image off on the right foot.
Get Splashing: Swimming is a great low-impact fitness idea and it’s also an important life skill. If you need to spice things up try something a little different, leg-kicking while holding onto the side or onto a pool noodle, and treading water are all easy exercises to add to a swimming routine.
Yoga: Kids love yoga. When I was on maternity leave I would take my Little to Baby and Mom yoga. It provide a great opportunity to bond not just with him but with other Mothers in the same stage of life. We practiced simple poses, sang songs, and danced. It provided a wonderful and fun introduction for my little into physical activity.
Dance: We started dancing even before he could walk, and it has become one of his favorites. His dancing usually consists of bouncing up and down and swinging his head back and forth, he also has a impressive shoulder shrug. He absolutely loves it when people join in with him.
Jogging Stroller fun: I was an avid runner prior to pregnancy so it was only natural that I wanted to continue post pregnancy. Fortunately my Little was enthusiastic about the process of jogging and was able to nap in the stroller. I have not taken him past the 10km mark as I feel that would be too long for him. Overall we have had great success with this and 95% of the time we both really enjoy ourselves…..but that other 5% makes for a really tough run…..but its better than doing nothing at all.
Looking to the future
As they grow, the amount of time they sleeps (a.k.a. free time) shrinks, and the extracurricular activities and social engagement increase. Our time for exercise shrinks even more as we add chauffeur, and cheerleader to our role. I am not there yet but I have been giving it lots of thought. I hope that play dates can become gym time and sports practices will be a great way to fit in a quick sideline workouts.
Do you exercise with your kid(s)? What are some of your favorite things to do with them? Let me know in the comment section below!
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