|
This article is republished from our Spring 2006 issue of Vigor.
Burn Calories While Playing With Your Kids
By Cassandra Brush
We don't all have the luxury of carving out an hour - or even 30 minutes - to exercise in an adults-only session. So if you have an infant, a toddler, school-aged kids, or teens, it's worth the trouble to find activities you all enjoy. By including children in fitness routines, parents role-model healthy behavior and torch a few calories while they're at it!
It's also an investment. By moving your body more - playing tag with your three year old or going for a job with your 13-year-old - you're improving the odds that you'll be able to do the same activities with your grandchildren.
"The way I look at exercise, it's like money in the bank for the future," said Ben Thompson, M.D., family physician and personal trainer at Positively Fit Sports Medicine in Rutland. "The more you are fit now and the stronger you are in terms of muscle strength, the more independent you're going to be when you're 60 or 70 or 80."
We all know exercise will help you lose weight, stave off heart disease and diabetes and a host of other health problems. The burning question is, how do you do it when you've got an infant attached to your hip, or for that matter, a toddler racing around the house at 90 miles an hour?
Thompson endorses these ideas, for starters:
- The most obvious exercise you can get with young children is to take a walk with them in a stroller or backpack. You can also work out with exercise videos or a treadmill while your child naps. Even a 15-minute workout is worth the time, especially if you get one in every day.
- Sneak it in. Park farther away at the grocery store, climb stairs instead of taking the elevator, and whenever possible, walk where you're going instead of taking a car. Over 25 percent of car trips in Vermont are shorter than one mile, said Thompson. Most of those could be walking or bike trips.
- Take five minutes every hour or so to jump rope or run up and down stairs. If you take a five-minute exercise break every hour, by the end of the day you'll have exercised 40 minutes or more.
The ideas listed above are just the beginning. If you're serious about exercise but feel hampered by little ones, consider these more extreme ideas:
- Use your children for resistance training. Do a set of push-ups with your five-year-old on your back, then a set with your three-year-old, and finish up with a set with no resistance. Consider the possibilities: squats with a 40-pound child on your shoulders? Lunges with the two-year-old in the backpack? The kids will love it, and you'll love the results.
- Try tag games. Instead of you tagging your child, have your child tag you, then run like the wind. Or play fetch: have your child throw a ball, and you have to go get it. A half hour of this game, and you'll have burned about as many calories as you would going for a straight run.
- Use the playground as a makeshift gym: do pull-ups on the monkey bars, triceps dips on the benches, do squats and lunges while you're standing around watching your children play. Other adults might wonder what you're up to, or they might just join in.
- Invest in a jogger stroller or a child seat you pull behind your bicycle. You will never regret spending the money, and your thighs will thank you. Then ditch the car and walk, job or cycle wherever you can.
- Kick a ball around outside with your young child. Ball games burn calories.
- Swim laps while your child takes a swimming class.
- Put on your favorite dance music and dance around the living room with your kids. You'll all love it, and you'll work up a sweat, too!
- Many martial arts can involve both parents and children in the same class.
- Take your children for regular hikes, walks, or bike rides. Even if you have to go more slowly than you'd like, you'll still be exercising.
- Invent scavenger hunts with your kids. You'll all be running around the house and yard looking for treasures.
- Register for a charity fun-run or walk with you teenager. You'll instill healthy habits, and help support a good cause.
- Work together raking leaves - even young children can do this.
- Walk in the pool or lake while your children swim. "Walking in water burns about twice as many calories as walking on land," Thompson said.
Bottom line - "Find fun stuff to do that kids like," said Thompson. "Also try new things that nobody in the family has done before, whether it's hiking, canoing, kayaking, or making a day of it at one of Vermont's parks."
|
