Fitness Around the House (Part Two)

We can give the upper body a good workout at home, too--no gym bicep curls required!

Kiddo Push-Ups: when I'm feeling really good I can get 4, maybe 5 of these before I collapse, so I often drop to my knees before my form totally goes to hell. Another great exercise to build strength slowly as your child grows. I used to be able to do 4 or 5 when my daughter was 5 or 10 pounds lighter, so even if my reps haven't increased my workload has.



Laundry Basket Bent Over Rows: Why not? Laundry just isn't that fun; might as well bang out a few bent-over rows while I'm moving baskets of dirties around. Jeans and wet towels are the heaviest, but this is still a pretty easy lift.


One Arm Countertop Push-Up: One of my "fun" fitness goals is a true one-armed push-up. I'm pretty far from achieving that, but over time I can get there. For now, I modify my working off a raised surface (smith bar at the gym; countertop at home). I adjust the workload with my distance from the surface and the spread of my feet: closer distances and wider stance is easier. Note my daughter doing her own pushups in the background! Awesome!


Countertop Tri Dips: The distance between countertops in my kitchen is perfect for tri dips, but any chair or bench would work as well. For the longest time, doing these made me feel like my shoulder was going to jump off my arm in protest, but I think I'm finally built up the stabilization strength to do them right.