Life With Wee People: Wee Fit
Frolic with any energetic kids lately? Chasing wee people can really give you a run for your money. Rather than give 'em the evil eye while trying to make them sit down and be quiet, how about put your busy schedule on hold, pause what ever it is you are doing and get down on the floor for some fitness playtime. If you watch the miniature loves of your life closely you may discover they have no idea that they are doing Yoga, Planking, Gymnastics and a host of other practices while moving their wee bodies into position to continue their play. As a matter of fact, some of you readers may be just as clueless as your kids because no one thinks about what comes naturally to them (i.e. unless something interrupts your breath most people simply take for granted that they are breathing).
When crawling on your hands and knees to find your contact lens you may not care that you are effecting an abdominal workout known as The Bear Crawl. It happens to be a stellar body weight exercise that does not require you to purchase fitness equipment. Who wouldn't want to integrate an effective, full body core engagement targeting their shoulders, abdominals, hips, thighs and legs?
Pssst... way easier than in-line skating. Just sayin' you may want to ditch your dignity once in a while and make it your business to crawl around a bit if you don't have health issues making that a bad idea. Kids and puppies give you the perfect excuse to routinely engage in this bit of body weight mischief. Warning: do enough of them and you'll be shocked to find yourself out of breath and - dare I say it - sweating (LOL).
By the way, various forms of physical activity can be dangerous, especially if performed without medical advice, proper supervision and/or a pre-exercise evaluation. That's why it's advised you get a checkup with your doctor and engage the services of qualified instructors to teach you proper form/function. Yeah, you can learn a lot from imitating your kids and paying attention to how your body feels while you monitor your movements; however, a Personal Trainer is definitely the way to go if you can procure one. They bring science and efficiency to your workout so you can train smarter, not dangerous/harder.
If you can't swing a Personal Trainer do check out the exercise library of The Amarican Council on Exercise. It's mad useful. According to The American Council on Exercise: "Whether you’re a beginning exerciser who needs help getting started or someone who wants to add some spice to your fitness routine, our ACE Exercise Library offers a variety of movements to choose from. Browse through total-body exercises or movements that target more specific areas of the body. Each comes with a detailed description and photos to help ensure proper form."
My kids get a kick out of this site. They are visual learners who imitate what they see. Stephen the Minion Blur likes to pick the flow of the evening and I routinely let him because I figure if it's easy enough for a 6 year old to do I may actually survive the Wee Fit experience (LOL).
Tonight's quirky body weight training agenda of Wee Fit Mommy and Me floor play:
Bird-Dog, Front Plank (played for golden double stuff oreo cookies because we all need incentive to continue - LOL), Mountainclimbers, Downward Facing Dog, Supermans (it's our comic book moment) and Siderwalks (we like playing Spiderman - the highlight of his day).
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