Posted in Encouragement

My blog post about how I exercise with 5 children follows my exercises.

My Exercises for today: (All complete!)

Circuit training: The goal is to complete this the quickest you can. Make sure you do not let time compromise good form!

3 sets of 10
3 sets of 9
3 sets of 8
continuing in descent to 3 sets of 1 (if you are tough enough)

push ups
dips (tricep dips, you can use a chair, but I use my stairs)
crunches
squats (jump squats if you can do them, but don’t injure yourself. Do what you are capable of.)
lunges (each leg)

Today I did this in 27 minutes compared to Saturday's time of 36 minutes. This is a challenge from one of my teams on SP. (Go Project Mayhem!)

50 minutes of Power sculpt. This video is a major rear end kicker. I highly recomend it!

30 minutes on recumbent bike.

Approximate calories burned: 1162.6 (Yeah!)

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I copied the following from my sparkpeople blog. It was in response to a question that was raised about finding time to exercise with 5 children.

I have 5 children and on top of all the child rearing, house work... I also homeschool them.
Getting times in to workout is probably the hardest challenge I have yet.. it makes the "Mayhem Project" a breeze! LOL.
I don't have a workout partner. Maybe someday I will. I do have the support of my husband, whom I'm trying to get to workout with me. I also have the support through SP and other online buddies. =)

My children also workout with me.
It makes a huge difference to get them involved in what you are doing. Go for walks or hikes with your children. While they are playing at the park, play with them or walk around the park. Get some low impact exercise videos that they can do with you. I think Leslie Samsone has a family walking video out.
Even smaller children have fun exercising even if they aren't as coordinated yet. (It also provides great entertainment!) LOL.

Some of my more intense workouts I do in early morning before anyone wakes up. Often late at night after they are in bed I'll get about 15-30 min. done on my recumbent bike. Often I'll give them a project to work on which also allows me to get some exercise done.

I have also started doing squats, lunges, walking in place or other simple exercises while I cook dinner In between stirring the food is a great time get some exercise in.

Another thing is to set a timer for 5-15 minutes and go up and down the stairs or crunches (something) while the kids do a chore for the amount of time on the timer.
Speaking of stairs, I also put more oomph into climbing them. I'll swing my arms and dip my knees more when going up them.

If you have younger children that still need to be picked up, make it an arm workout. At least once a day I'll lift my 1 yr old. I'll sit on the couch, put my elbows on my knees, then I'll pick her up, give her a kiss and then put her down. I do this about 10 times and of course she loves it!!

You can do it! Children love to be involved with what you are doing. I know it has been great for bonding with my kids.

Honestly, nothing compares to your children telling you to keep up the exercise because your butt is getting smaller! My kids have been excited for me because they are eagerly waiting for the day (which will be soon) that they can play soccer or basketball with me.

Oh, and for bonus... for me when I am more active during the day, not only do I sleep well, but so do the kids!