Child Friendly Exercise

So with the new year here and resolutions firmly in place (or already tossed in the recycle bin awaiting 2009) I have managed to really start exercising! Now my home is not exercise friendly there are too many TV's and the Internet and books and books and books to keep me from it! Now, I do scale a mountain a couple of times a week but dealing with Mt. Laundry has never done anything for my abs. But here is what has helped.

If you are familiar with the gym Curves it is a neat place for women to work out. They have a circuit of equipment that you go around twice with 2 minutes at each station for a total of one 30 minute workout. I liked the concept it was easy and I didn't have to think about it too hard! Well for me there was one hangup - childcare! My kids are always with me and this particular gym (or at least the one in my neck of the woods) doesn't have any child care so that means that this was out for me, but I loved the concept.

So since the children couldn't come to the gym I brought the gym to the children. I have created my own circuit workout with a total of 5 stations 3 minutes each to be visited twice. So we have a hula hoop station, jump rope station, hand weight station, stairs station, and a leg weight station. I have my iPod programmed with 5 three minute songs that repeats once for a 30 minute workout. The kids totally love it and I'm sweating and getting my heart rate up and a fun time is had by all.

Seriously hula hoop is hard stuff! I totally can not understand why at 9 I was a pro and at 30-something I can't keep it around my waist! It is a fun aerobic exercise and the kids are laughing so hard it is too funny! The jump rope is a fun time too and a skill that I'm hoping my kids will become better at with all of this practice.

Now for my disclaimer - my kids are little so I don't allow them to lift the weights they have a skip-it in the hands weight station and a stretching routine at the leg weight station. It really works for us and we have enjoyed it. In about a month I will add different things into the routine just to change it up a bit and on Friday's we forego our stations for a 2 mile walk to the local park. Anyway, that works for me.