The No-Excuses Guide to Exercise
For many moms, spending an hour at the gym is luxury they don’t have time for. Without 60 minutes to spare, some opt to skip working out altogether. But the truth is, working out doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Although you may not have time for one of those epic runs your friends brag about on Twitter, all movement matters. “Every minute does count, especially as a busy mom,” says Erin Kreitz Shirey, owner of Power Fitness PDX and a certified personal trainer. If you take five minutes to exercise you’ll do more for your muscles than if you skipped working out altogether, Kreitz Shirey says. Whether you’ve got five, 20, or 45 minutes, we’ve got the plan to help you burn calories and get your body moving.
10 MINUTES
90 in 10
Pick three moves that work different areas of the body–think lunges, push-ups, crunches. Do 10 repetitions of each exercise, repeating three times, says Holly Perkins, a certified strength and conditioning expert. “It doesn’t have to be complicated,” she says. “You can’t talk yourself out of three sets of ten.”
30 MINUTES
Walk and Jog
Instead of sitting in your car or a lawn chair at sports practice, squeeze in a half hour of interval training. Warm up with a five-minute walk, run for one to two minutes, then walk for three to four minutes; repeat three times to torch calories. “Anytime you’re picking up the intensity and then recovering, you’re going to burn more calories per session,” Perkins says. You can also turn this quick exercise in to a total body workout by including six different stops for 10 reps of push-ups, pull-ups, triceps dips, and similar body strength activities after each walk-jog repetition.
45 MINUTES
Turn on the TV
When you can’t get to the gym, a workout DVD can help you maximize the time you have. Both Perkins and Kreitz Shirey recommend using this convenient fitness tool to satisfy any experience level. The options are endless, with some very effective titles coming from The Biggest Loser Workout DVD series, Booty Barre with Tracey Mallett, and Perkins’s own Slim Sexy Strong. Perkins points out that fitness videos are a great way to experiment with different workouts to see which is right for you.
Source: Parents.com