Fitness for Busy Moms

by | Aug 14, 2015 | Self care

Fitness for moms

Image courtesy of markuso at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know how precious time is for busy moms… even more if you are a single mom. Sometimes it feels like you are taking care of every one except yourself. Even going to gym might seem like an onerous task, but you keep hearing left and right how you need to exercise for good health, and it seems like you can never fit it into your schedule, or you are simply too exhausted to do anything!

What happens, if you’re like me, is you start with good intentions and then there’s a hick up and it all falls on the way side, and then you are down on yourself for not being able to sustain it.

So let me share what works for me. It has to be simple, doable and not take 2 hours of my time.  The idea is to do a little bit every day and build it into a routine.

I try to do stretches in the morning using a quick yoga routine, and then I do an intense 5 minute workout. Depending on my work schedule, I will also work into my schedule a relaxing night time relaxing yoga routine (or just stretch). And I do all this from the comfort of my home. This is my new routine  and I am hoping to work my way up to a 15 to 30 minute routine 2 to 3 times a week in addition to the 5 minute routine. When I get to that point I’ll keep you posted.  Thing is, it’s not perfect yet but it sure is better than doing nothing. And when you see the links that I will send you to, you will understand that these short intense workouts, although brief offer great benefits.

I love Anita Goa for her yoga/fitness/palates routines. She is a personal trainer and offers a variety of videos for all types of levels (beginner to advance; relaxing to more challenging). She also has Philosophy Friday where she offers great wisdom and tips.

Here is a brief description of what she offers on YouTube:

 

Fitness Vinyasa™ is a dynamic flowing workout that connects traditional yoga poses, plyometrics, strength training and aerobics into creative combinations (vinyasas) linked to ones breath.

Fitness Vinyasa™ is a wholeistic approach to working out. It’s a workout designed to get your body strong, flexible, enduring and toned while having a lot of fun.

By using yoga as the foundation for this yoga inspired fitness workout you will flow, breathe, sweat while connecting to your body, mind and spirit. Fitness Vinyasa™ is not a yoga practice trying to give you a fitness workout or a fitness workout trying to give you the yoga feeling, it’s a workout that is thoughtfully crafted fusing the two into one. On the mat you are put in positions where you will learn organically about your body, mind and spirit so you can trust yourself enough to follow your own flow whether it’s on the mat or off the mat to live your life to your fullest potential.

Here are two videos I really like, the night routine and a quick 10 minute stretch routine:

 

 

I also really enjoy the intense and short workout videos that Zuzka Light has to offer.

Here is how she describes her workouts that you can find on YouTube:

Short, high-intensity workouts get your heart rate up and your metabolism moving fast. The idea is to push yourself with max effort for a short period of time, 10-20 minutes. I implement an innovative wrapping format of cardio exercises with other complex move-based exercises. This puts the body in a state of stress management to break plateaus and get real results. The exercises alone are not always complicated, but put into this complex wrapping format, the exercises together become challenging and body-changing. I like to change my workouts on a regular basis and program different move-based exercises to focus on specific areas like abs, butt, core, upper body, etc.

Here is one of my favourite leg exercise:

 

Finally, another type of quick but effective workout routine is called Tabata. It is a high intensity interval training. completed in 4 minutes.

 

Tabata training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo.

Each workout lasts four minutes and 20 seconds (with 10 seconds of rest in between each set).

Here are a couple of example you can find on YouTube:

 

 

Anyhow, try it out… schedule these in. Keep me posted and tell me what works for you!

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