An ALPHABET WORKOUT for my Kids

I have to confess that my taking a few weeks off of nagging . . . I mean encouraging . . . my kids to exercise while they got used to the school year has turned into four months.  That's horrible.  I could add that I received a promotion at work which required more of my time and energy.  And my daughter has been swamped with homework (I have to point out my immense pride in her academics!) literally spending hours each night sitting at her desk.  Oh yeah - and then there were the holidays.

No.  None of those are good excuses.  But it happened and now we will move on.

That is much easier said than done when you are talking about my fourteen year-old.  I just know that she is going to end up being a hostage negotiator or a defense attorney.  She has the ability to debate and negotiate until I am ready to rip my hair out.  These past few weeks I have started strong with my quest to get her to join me at that gym, but have ended up throwing my hands in the air and heading out the door with my son in tow eager to continue training for the upcoming tennis season, leaving my daughter at home to lay in bed or sit at her desk.

Not tonight.  I came prepared for the battle with something I knew (ok - hoped) would be easy, quick and fun enough to make her want to give it a try.

I presented her with an ABC Workout.  I took the alphabet and assigned each letter an activity (I made this one easy enough that I knew she could complete it without too much trouble taking into consideration that she hadn't seriously exercised in several months.).  All we had to do was spell our names, middle names included.  Easy???  Absolutely!

After putting our dinner in the oven, the three of us put on an extra layer and headed out to our backyard on this 40 degree January evening.  I grabbed the equipment we have in the house - a set of five and eight pound weights, our 10 pound kettlebell and a jumprope - for us to use, but we could have easily done this with no equipment at all.

And . . . .

We had a great time!  It only took us 20 minutes to each spell our name.  I broke a bit of a sweat, but not much.  The important thing to me was that my daughter completed it and enjoyed it.  We all laughed as we realized that my son ended up doing a TON of jumping jacks and that running up to the top of the driveway in the dark is kind of scary.

ABC Workout!

When we were done, my daughter commented that I should leave her the sheet with the exercises and she could do it on her own.  She then rattled off the names of her favorite musicians and bands whom she could do the workout to spell their names.  YES!!!

The great thing about this workout is that you can adapt it to fit the fitness level and age of your kids (or you!) making it as hard or easy as you want.  And you can easily change it up by assigning the exercises to different letters or spelling out different words or sentences.  In the future, I'll suggest that my kids and I spell out more than just one thing or use this workout in conjunction with something else like running.

Here is the list that we used tonight (but I can't stress enough that you can use whatever exercises YOU want!):

A = 15 kettlebell swings               N = 20 jumping jacks
B = 10 squats                                O = 10 squats
C = 10 lunges (5 per leg)              P = 20 high knees (10 per knee)
D = 20 high knees (10 per knee)  Q = 15 kettlebell swings
E = 12 bicep curls                         R = 12 bicep curls
F = 12 shoulder presses                S = 12 shoulder presses
G = 12 tricep presses                    T = 12 tricep presses
H = 10 mountain climbers            U = 10 mountain climbers
I = 20 weighted ab twists              V = 20 weighted ab twists
J = Run up & down the driveway W = 20 jumping jacks
K = 20 jumping jacks                   X = 20 jumping jacks
L = 20 jump ropes                        Y = 30 second wall sit
M = 30 second plank                    Z = 10 squats

Hopefully this is the first night of getting my daughter moving again.  I always say that the hard part about exercising isn't starting - it's starting again (and sometimes again and again).  This time I plan to make getting back on track as easy as ABC!

It was His Idea!

On my way home from work this afternoon I made up my mind to go to either my Praise Moves or Zumba class.  I had left work on time so there was plenty of time to make dinner for my family before hopping back in the car.

When I walked in the front door, I found my son sitting at his desk finishing his homework.  He'd been hard at work since he got home from school, he said, which had been nearly two hours before my arrival.  As I was putting dinner in the oven, he came out of his room and plopped down on the couch.  He grabbed his video game controller and fired up a game of football.

If I leave, I thought, he is going to sit here all night playing game after game until he heads to bed.

"Hey J," I called into the Family Room.  "Want to go out and catch ball after we eat?"

"Sure Mom!"

After dinner we went outside to toss the football.

"Want to try one of the reps we did at my Muscle Monday class?"

Eye rolling.

"Come on.  It will be fun!" I said walking to edge of the backyard.  He reluctantly followed me.

"We'll do three burpees and then lunge walk to the other side of the yard.  Three burpees and lunge walk back.  We'll do that twice.  Go!"

We finished our reps and returned to tossing the football while chatting.

"Want to try one of the warm-ups from my tennis camp?"  my son asked out of the blue.

My inner response: Are you kidding?!?!?  YES!!  I'd LOVE to!!  Let's go!!  Whoop!  Whoop!  {jumping up and down while rapidly clapping}

My outer response: Sure.

"Run down and back across the yard.  Do three push-ups.  Run down and back.  Two push-ups.  Run down and back.  One push-up.  Run down and back."

After completing the warm-up and catching our breath, we returned to tossing the football.

Walking to the far side of our yard, my son spoke up again.  "Let's try this.  If I get the football into the hoop, we head inside.  If I miss, we do another one of your reps."

Sounded good to me!  It was a crazy shot that I didn't think he would make . . . ever!

He missed his first shot.
We did 10 squats and one suicide.

He missed his second shot.
We did 12 split squats per leg and 12 calf raises.

He missed his third shot.
We ran another suicide.

He missed his fourth shot.
We did a 30-second plank.

He made his fifth shot!

We headed inside - sweaty, covered in grass and laughing!  What made the night so great for me was that even though I  got the ball rolling, my son ran with it.  It was his idea to keep going with the reps and to add in the crazy football hoop throw.

This is one of those nights for me to reflect back on when I think that my desire for our family be healthy is falling on deaf ears.  When I'm feeling frustrated that change is not happening fast enough.  A moment in time to acknowledge that my kids are listening and grasping the concept that being active is fun and not a chore.  My plan is working!

Photo Credit - Ellie Jenkins

 

The TV Commercial Workout: A WIN! WIN! WINNING Idea for my Teenager

This weekend my teenage son and I tried something new . . . and we LOVED it! 

My friend Dana introduced me to the idea of creating a TV Commercial Workout.  A very simple yet fun and effective concept!

Here is what you do:

1) On a piece of paper or index card, make two columns.

2) In the first column, write a list of types of commercials - car, restaurant, cell phone company,  insurance, TV promos, bank, etc.  Be sure to include miscellaneous! 

3) In the second column, write a list of exercises - jumping jacks, squats, plank, bicep curls, twists, jog in place, high knees, etc.  You will need to list as many exercises as you have types of commercials writing them lined up evenly. 

4) Sit down to enjoy your favorite TV show.

5) As soon as there is a commercial break, JUMP up and start MOVING following the guide that you just created for yourself.  For example, we paired restaurant commercials with jumping jacks.  Every time there was a commercial for Subway or McDonald's, we did jumping jacks.  Every time there was a cell phone commercial, we dropped into the Plank Position. 

My son and I did a TV Commercial Workout during the fourth quarter of one of the football games yesterday.  I'm sure he thought I was a little crazy at first, but he agreed to play along.  After only the first few commercials we were sweating and giggling and completely out of breath! 

Half of the challenge was figuring out what some of the commercials were actually advertising.   It was hilarious when we thought we knew and started one exercise only to discover that we were wrong and had to switch in the middle. We cracked up when we would each think the commercial was about something different.  I almost ended up with a black eye when I started to drop to a Plank just as my son started a side leg lift.

The TV Commercial Workout was a
WIN . . .
I realized that between church, homework, a nap and the football games, my son would have nearly zero movement in his day.  By the time I figured this out, I knew I would never hear the end of it if I tried to drag him away from the football game.  With this workout, he didn't miss a single down!

WIN . . .
Both my son and I got an excellent workout!  I can't remember the last time I did so many jumping jacks.     

WINNING . . .
One thing missing from our day yesterday was us spending time together.  If I would have sat down to watch the game with him, I would have been asleep in five seconds.  Not only did we spend quality time together, we had a lot of fun! 

IDEA for my teenage son!  A very simple yet fun and effective one!

Love my family!