Exercise with small kids

[cymbahlee]

I'm with you DeeEm - gym is too far away. The footy oval idea is something I have considered but haven't got around too - probably because by the time I pack 4 kids in the car and drive the 15 mins into town I would already be exhausted!
My latest fit tip is squats whilst holding baby - I do this when I am putting my 4 month, 9.6kg (21lb) baby to sleep, and boy do I feel it the next day! His lightweight twin, 6kgs, has nowhere near the same effect!

[SoonToBeSlim]

I do all my work outs at home, and my 4 yr old always wants to exercise with Daddy. I am happy to let him do bodyweight exercises with me, like squats and pushups. Gets a bit tricky when he wants to do setp ups onto the weight bench though, its a bit high for him. My 1 yr old likes playing with the big exercise ball, I just need to take it back off her when I need it. And thankfully my 2yr old is in bed asleep, otherwise he would probably jump on me every time I am on the floor doing a pushup or plank or whatever.

[Samantha Jean]

Hi,

I have 3 children too, 2 boys (Jhai 7, Hayden 3) and a little girl (Jasmine 7 mths).

I have a rowing machine and aim to do half an hour in the afternoon when they are having a sleep and half an hour at night after they have gone to bed while I am watching tv and talking to my partner (multi-tasking lol).

I understand that it is difficult to go to the gym or go for a run or something with the kids, especially because you don't have a lot of time and even though gym's have child minding facilities, you have to arrange everyone and drive to and from as well which adds so much more time to your already busy day.

Anything you can do at home would be easier, maybe you could look at hiring a treadmill or bike or rower or something. I bought my rowing machine from kmart for around $200. I have found that it is best to do it when they are asleep or occupied, otherwise you get so distracted and have to keep stopping. If they don't have a day sleep, maybe aim to do an hour from like 8:00pm to 9:00pm or something?

Sam.

[VerryBerry]

(**DID SOMEONE DELETE THIS FOR A REASON?? - This was NOT Spam**)

I'm in South Florida and we have something down here called SSSPPPAAAAMMMM

this is where all mothers show up at a neutral location - all with their children - and workout together.
It's a good way for mother's to workout and stay fit, while networking and making friends - all the while letting their kids develop social development.

It's a franchised business and may not be available everywhere... sorry i do not the particulars, but it's been pretty good to me, so i would recommend it.

SSSSPPPPAAAMMMMM

[Boodi and LJ's Mummy]

Hi All,

I am a Mum of two toddler aged boys and I cant go past using aerobic dvd's for my morning exercise. I have recently purchased a Ministry of Sound dvd as I love that music and even though it goes for over an hour you can sort of cut it down to fit it into the time you have. Yes there are times when the boys start fighting and I have to sprint up the hallway in the middle of the routine but I class it as extra exercise so its all good! In saying that, I usually find that they are transfixed with watching me jumping around like an idiot that they stay close by and are pretty well behaved.

The other thing I used to do was to use the Wii Fit to do some jogging, hula hooping etc and then say that if they were good while Mummy was doing her exercise they could do their own "Body Test" when I was finished. They loved seeing their own characters that we made up for them and even though I had to hold them still for the Centre Of Gravity test they loved seeing their little characters on the tv. It was a win win situation.