30 minutes of your day, 3 times a week….

That is a total of 90 minutes out 10,080 minutes in a week! If you look at it that way, it is peanuts! In this day and age where social media, video games and smartphones have taken over our children’s time and attention, there is a need to find fun ways to get them exercising and playing outdoors to prevent obesity and early onset chronic diseases. For 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week, we can turn off our TV’s, video games and put away our phones (unless you’re using one of these great apps I suggest below to track your exercise) and workout as a family.

What I’ve found helpful is taking 1-2 days out of the week to prep meals for the family to help manage time during the busy week and use that newfound extra time to exercise. You don’t always need a gym membership especially when you have young ones, you can come up with creative at-home workouts you can all do. Below is a sample week-at-a-glance workout schedules for you and the kids!

Week-At-A-Glance:

Day 1:

• Start with a 3-minute warm up to get the blood flowing and your heart pumping.
• :30 upper body stretches (reach to the sky with both arms held high for :10 breathing in and out; stretch your arms out side to side for :10; slowly reach across with your left hand to right toes for:05 then right hand to left toes for :05);
• :30 lower body stretches (frog pose for :10; right-leg airplane pose for :10/left leg airplane pose for :10) 1:00 march in place; :30 chair squats; :30 jumping jacks

Now you are all warmed up, you are ready to begin your workout.

• :30 side lunges
• :30 squats
• 1:00 jog in place (or if you feel the kids can do this safely, run up and down stairs)
• :30 burpees
• :30 lunges
• 1:00 jump rope
• :30 mountain climbers
• 1:00 jump in place
• :30 high knees
• 1:00 butt kickers
• :30 walking lunges
• :30 sumo squats
• 1:00 march in place
• :30 side lunges
• :30 push-ups
• 30 sit-ups
• 30 crunches
• 30 leg lifts
• 30 Russian twists
• 30 bicycle crunches
• 1:00 planks
• :30 floor triceps dips
• :30 knee push-ups

End with a 3 minute cold down and stretch:

• 1:00 march in place;
• :30 cat cow pose;
• :30 warrior pose;
• :30 downward dog pose;
• :30 salutation seal.

Now your workout is done!! You’ve incorporated stretching, cardio, some light strength training and even yoga poses to help stretch those muscles. This is just a sample of all that you can do in a span of 30 minutes with the kids and now that winter is coming, it’s a perfect time for an indoor workout!

Oh yes, the apps...I am always up to try new apps to see which help find new workouts and track my food and water intake and wanted to share some of them with you below. If you use them, send me some feedback on your thoughts and if the kids like them.

My favorite apps:

• Myfitnesspal
• Nike+
• Couch to 5k
• Active
• Fitbit (I will blog about this at a later time, it can be a game changer for beginners)
• MindBody

Please contact us below if you have any questions!