Busy mom? How your kids can help you exercise
PARENTING can prove to be a real challenge, and when you try to balance being a mom and caring for kids, many times your health gets neglected and you hardly have a minute to do exercise.
But Gisel Harrow, personal trainer at Gymkhana, said being a parent doesn’t mean you can’t find time to exercise.
“Children are fun and very active, so using them to help stay fit is a great idea not only for the parent, but also the children, as it creates an opportunity to spend time together,” Harrow said.
While the reality of finding the balance in parenting, work, having a social life and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be a challenge for many mothers, Harrow shares some simple and effective ways mothers can incorporate their children into their exercise regimen.
1. Squats
According to Harrow, squats target your glutes, hamstrings and core muscles. This exercise also improves mobility, flexibility, balance, works out your core, and strengthens your stabiliser muscles and the surrounding connective tissues and ligaments. It also targets your butt as well as other muscles in your body. She suggests placing the child on your back or holding him or her in your arms while squatting.
2. Push-ups
According to Harrow, this is a great all-encompassing exercise that hits not only your arms and chest, but also helps to work your core muscles. She suggested that mothers place the children on their backs as a weight supplement
3. Sit-ups
“The abdominal sit-up is a movement commonly performed to strengthen the abdominal muscles. This exercise has a fuller range of motion than the abdominal crunch which allows you to work all of the muscles in the midsection,” Harrow said. “Place the child on top of your knees when doing this as this will help to keep the feet planted and enhance the exercise.”
4. Walking lunges
To do this, Harrow said it requires taking a big step forward with your right foot in line with your right hip. “Bend both knees, so your left knee comes within a few inches of the floor. Keep your right knee tracking directly over your right foot. Do not allow inward or outward movement of the knee, or allow it to go in front of your toes,” she said. These help to build the glutes, hamstrings and the quadriceps.
5. Gallop sprints
According to Harrow, placing the child on your back and giving them a piggyback ride while sprinting is great for cardio and shedding fat.
