Get moving again
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After kids are cared for You start planning how you want to workout. You’ve defined your goals, whether it’s weight loss, muscle building or improving your cardio, and decided which type of exercise you need to accomplish those goals. You found your old workout equipment and the protein powder you set aside the last time you said you were going to stick to a routine.
Now you’re pumped and your motivation is at an all-time high. But then your three-year-old runs in the room saying she’s hungry again. (They are bottomless pits at that age!) You’re thinking about what time you can block out for your routine, just as the baby wakes up and you realize it’s going to be tricky to schedule time for yourself.
Finding the much-needed time to exercise so that your mind and body are at their best is extremely challenging when you have a child or multiple children. Sure, you can make use of the gym daycare. Then you get home and need to make dinner. They either help out or watch a movie or play video games. You get the feeling that you haven’t given them enough quality time and, even though you feel a little guilty about it, you’re content to have their eyes glued to a screen.
If you’re still not convinced how difficult it can be and you have stumbled upon this blog while expecting your first, allow me to give you some examples:
· Finding time: Balancing childcare responsibilities with workout time can be challenging.
· Interruptions: Kids may interrupt your workout, requiring your attention.
· Limited space: Finding a suitable space to exercise at home can be difficult.
· Lack of focus: It’s hard to concentrate on your workout with kids around.
· Scheduling conflicts: Kid’s activities and routines may clash with your workout plans.
· Energy levels: Parenting can be exhausting, making it tough to find energy to exercise.
Despite these challenges, you can accomplish your goals by incorporating your kids into your workouts or find creative solutions to overcome these obstacles.
Of course, just like involving your kids in other tasks around the house, such as the laundry or washing dishes, you have to consider their level. There are a lot of exercises where you can use the weight of your baby and make it fun with funny faces or songs. Once they’re able to walk they tend to enjoy mimicking you.
Once you get into the 3- and 5-year-olds, they become bored and rowdy in my experience. They enjoy joining in but have a short attention span so you have to start getting creative. You may not get in a good 30-minute workout but rather several 10-minute power workouts when you can fit them.
While they are eager to join you, give them some responsibility. Kids love jobs. They can tell you when to start, how many to do, and count the reps as you do them together with lots of encouragement.
Circuit training
Circuit training can be fun because they are working out with you, but they feel confident knowing how to do their own thing close by. You can put up pictures to help define the exercise at each station, such as a punching bag, balance board, or light weights. You can also have an area for sit-ups and jumping jacks. Everyone shifts after a minute or two. Also, a stationary sequence like “clap, jump, duck, spin” is fun to remember. This Agility set from amazon is really motivating to get the kids started
Kids Adventure workouts
Tell a story and act out the adventure. You can make up a story about a character they love or make it generic. You can bear-crawl into a cave, run from a flying bat, or jump across creeks. Hide from something chasing you while you hold a nice stretch. You can also look into yoga poses for kids to get the creative juices pumping. Speaking of yoga and ideas for there imagination I was inspired to do these things from cosmic kids.
For the kids around the age of 6 to 12 who can focus longer and find motivation in self-improvement, you might like to introduce a logbook that they can use to mark their progress.
Running
Take them running with you for an easy jog or set goals to sprint pretending you’re running from zombies. Pretend you’re training in the army. Be a “drill sergeant” and shout an exercise that you both stop to do then jump back up to jog again.
YouTube
Show them a workout video you enjoy motivating you and your children to keep going. Teach them the importance of having good form over speed and that you don’t have to be perfect or feel you shouldn’t be out of breath because you’re an adult. It will encourage them that it’s okay if it’s hard for them. It’s okay to stop and have some water before jumping back in as long as they don’t overdo it. If it was easy, there would be no challenge.
Co-op workouts
Cooperative exercises are routines that involve two or more individuals working together to achieve common fitness goals, improve motivation, and strengthen social bonds. You can find many yoga poses meant for body alignment, a good stretch, and balance. If you have two kids around the same size, you can teach them how and have a peaceful moment of yoga to yourself. However, if there’s a height difference between the kids, they may be limited.
You can also have fun working out with resistance bands, partner rows or partner leg lifts, where you both provide resistance for each other. Try medicine balls or even a soccer ball if your kids aren’t ready for weight. Sit across from them and do sit-ups tossing the ball with each rep. Sit side by side, tap the ball to the floor beside you and twist to hand it to your partner. Turn away again without the ball to keep the rhythm. Taking turns boxing could be another outlet for you to enjoy. you can find the same feeding pads that I use with my kids here or a punching bag like the image below here
Keep in mind if an activity is too hard it will feel frustrating. Yet if it’s too easy, such as walking in place, they will be bored if you don’t mix up the routine. So, give it a shot and be prepared with a backup plan. If they aren’t interested in one of your suggestions, don’t give up. Make some adjustments and try it again later.
The most important thing is to find the balance between your workout goals and making it a fun and inclusive activity for the entire family. And if your looking for ways to get some work done in other areas of your life such as the garden click here to read all about it.