Written by Rachel Cure, ACSM Clinical EP
It truly does feel like madness around as we go absolutely crazy from being cooped up inside for the majority of winter. While some places in the US are gearing up for spring weather, we know not to get too far ahead of ourselves. We live out on the eastern plains of Colorado where March seems to hold a surprising number of blizzards. To combat the crazies this month, we are going to try a few activities to get us moving!
Something that seems to inspire “madness” in our house is being told what to do over and over. This goes for chores, getting ready to head out the door, and even exercise for a few of my kids. It’s had me thinking about what would entice these guys to move without fighting them on it?
POWER! Cue those catchy lyrics “I’ve got the power” and spontaneously bust out some awesome mom dance moves. Everyone wants the power to tell their siblings or their mom what to do. In order to accomplish this in a semi-organized fashion we opted for two different activities:
1) Simon Says
Each person gets a chance to be Simon for a few minutes and have the power. Ideally, Simon will have people do exercises (touch your toes, run in place, jumping jacks, etc.). This is also a great opportunity to practice counting (ie: do 10 jumping jacks). But if you are like me and have unenthusiastic participants you may have to get a little silly. That’s one thing I’ve learned from kids, being silly never fails.
Silly ideas: kick your own bottom, flap your arms like a chicken, bear crawl, punch like a ninja, shake your bottom, and for some reason my kids thought it was hilarious to tell me to be a whale.
The hope is that the kids gets carried away and want to continue the activity and keep outdoing the others in silliness!
2) Obstacle Course
Let them make an obstacle course for their mom to go through. If possible, let them go all over the house, up the stairs, and under tables.
WARNING: Although we had fun with this one, it requires a lot of mom patience and child cooperation when it comes to clean up time.
We used items found around the house for our course such as: pillows, jump ropes, blankets, etc. Below are some more of our favorite indoor fitness tools we’ve collected over time and have come to love.
Our Favorite Indoor Fitness Tools
What does your crew do to get active during the long winter months??
Let us know in the comments below so we can give it a go:)
Respectfully submitted,
Rachel Cure, ACSM Clinical EP
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