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.

Fitness Around the House (Part One)

I was chatting with my friend Frannie, an inspiration of a woman who is on her own fitness journey. Her trainer Lauren was talking about little extras she does to burn off excess energy and get in mini-workouts wherever she is. She mentioned reverse lunges while pumping gas (love it!). I told them about the Sumo Squat with Heel Raise I do while brushing my teeth (a Hesper move). So that got me thinking of all my favorite weirdo workout-y things to do around the house. Here's part one:

Lower Body Around The House Exercises:

Kiddo Squats - Variation #1: On the shoulders. Great way to add a little more difficulty to an air squat. Also a good progressive exercise: as your kiddo grows, you get stronger! I'm up to a 48 lb. 4-year old here!


Kiddo Squats - Variation #2: Piggy back style. I think this is harder than on the shoulders, and a great indoor technique for gearing up for hiking/backpacking season.


Kiddo Walking Lunges: I love lunges. Excellent strength/power and shaping exercise. As you can see, my helper loves them too--because she gets to be really tall!


Sumo Squat Raise with Alternating Heel Raise: The video of this just looked a bit too--um--suggestive, especially when I actually brushed my teeth for demonstration purposes. Hubby exercised his veto power, so I'll add still pics asap. In the meantime, here's a description: hold a static Sumo Squat for two minutes, alternately raising one heel every 30 seconds (the SonicCare beeping will guide you). Do not raise out of squat when switching heels.


It turns out that nothing in the world makes you hold your core in while performing an exercise more than the knowledge that you are being filmed in a sport bra.