Workouts On The Go!

School is quickly approaching, which means that time of year of shuttling the kids to every practice and extra curricular  activity known to man, or better, mom. In our house, it's all soccer, but it's 6 practices a week. Oh when, my friend, do I get to exercise? Well, I've come up with a few nifty ideas that might help out. When you know your kid has practice for an hour, or an hour and half, don't waste your time going home. If it's 15-20 minutes home, you'll barely be there before you have to turn around again. Instead, set that as "your" time. What that might look like can certainly vary. Sometimes, you might catch me sitting in the car with my eyes closed, what an awesome hour that is! But if I'm feeling the need to exercise, which my whole family knows makes me a happier mom, and a happier mom means a happier household, I have a couple of options. One, I run around the soccer fields. There are tons of parents doing the same thing, so I'm not alone. I plug into my iphone and away I go. Another idea is to have some "junk in your trunk" to help you get rid of the other "junk in your trunk", meaning, keep some exercise gear in your trunk to help you workout when you have an hour to kill during practice. Some staples to keep handy; a yoga mat or beach towel, a jump rope, a stretchy elastic band and small 5 lb weights. If you don't have those items, no worries, don't go spending money, there are great workouts you can do without any equipment. Here's a few ideas: start by doing crunches, sets of 10. Build up to 5 sets, don't knock yourself out the first time, or you'll never want to do it again. Then lay on your side and do leg lifts. Same idea, sets of 10. You can skip the donkey kicks if you're self-conscious, but I guarantee, you are not going to look ridiculous exercising on the sidelines. In fact, you'll probably have a lot of moms saying "good for you!" at which juncture you can invite them to join you, next thing you know you'll have a group of moms exercising while their kids practice. Back to the workout, push-ups! Push-ups are great for core building. Start with 5, rest and do 5 more. Eventually build up to sets of 20. Again, don't do 25 the first time just because you can, because you won't be able to lift your arms the next day. So there's 15 minutes of strengthening! If practice is at a park, you're in luck! Playground equipment is perfect for exercising. Stand on a step and do calf raises, start with a small number and build from there, maybe 3 sets of 10 to start. Hang on the monkey bars and try a chin-up. Don't be discouraged if you can't do one. I do 100 push-ups almost every night, and I still can't do a chin-up. Just try to pull yourself a little bit higher with each attempt. do stationary squats on the playground using a bar for balance if need be. Run up a slide several times. Find a bench and do tricep dips. Pictures of these exercises can be found on older posts or on our Facebook page. The key here, is to make good use of your time. Don't feel frustrated because you have to drive everyone everywhere and there's never a moment for you. Instead, seize the moment, get creative and do something good for yourself! Kids who see their parents exercise are more likely to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle throughout their lives.