Last night I read an article in Natural Muscle Magazine, that made some great suggestions about “sneaking” exercise into your day. 1 idea was a great way to incorporate tons of squats. The suggestion was, each time you grab a door knob, hold on and do 10 squats. Another idea was a great one to do at home and include your kids in your “game.” In your own mind, designate a word, and each time someone says it, do 10 reps of the exercise you pre-determine. For example, if your word of the day is dog, every time one of your kids says the word, you drop and do 10 push-ups. It might take them a few times before they will figure out the word, which can be fun.
You can also get in a full blown workout and have fun with your kids by using a deck of cards. This is a trick I learned from either Bob Harper or Chris Powell (can’t remember) and have been using ever since. If you train with me, you know…Assign an exercise to go with each of the suits. Then let your kids flip the cards one at a time and call them out
. Hearts might be lunges and pulling a 6 of hearts would mean you do 6 of them. I like to assign 25 jumping jacks to the wild cards and make aces and deuces wild, but you can set this up however you like and with exercises that work for your body. Your kids will have fun being the trainers, but the best part of the deck of cards is you can also be your own trainer, or more accurately, the cards will train you. Write down which exercises match up with which suits (I like to try to cover most major muscle groups, so a good combo could be squats/pushups/rows and chest presses, just for one example) and shuffle your deck and get busy moving. I promise you will get a great workout!
Yesterday, I took back to the street, mixing some running back into my walking. Since my ankle started acting funny in the fall, I have NOT been running, but my body sure does miss it. I am starting back slowly alternating a tenth of a mile walking with a tenth of a mile running. This morning, I don’t think my ankle is any the worse off for it, but I will continue to be very cautious. Being injured is a great reminder of why overdoing never really pays off. Moderation……balance….work in progress.
Have a beautifully vibrant Tuesday. Happy birthday Dolores. Much love to all.
