Papaya Mom

Welcome to this little weekly moment where I want to share with you my love for fitness - for myself, my child and my husband not to mention my extended family and friends. There are a great many levels out there and no matter what advertising tells us there is not a “good” or “bad” level. Doing what is a challenge to you is what is important, being ever growing in your repertoire of movement and healthy habits.

Note: Starting next week this will be a blog carnival where you can enter your own posts as well. To submit to the carnival click here.

This week? Lets talk about our kids. It’s suggested that children don’t begin weight lifting until around age 8 - although the myth that it would stunt their growth has been disproved (this is of course as long as they don’t start power lifting of course). I’m going to start this week with the age group closest to my heart…2-3 years old of course (we won’t leave out the Mommy group, don’t worry)!

National Association of Sports and Physical Education suggests 30 minutes of structured play (as in YOU come up with the ideas), and 60 minutes of unstructured (FREE wild child) play every day. Let’s talk about how to do it in a way that can help keep Mommy fit too! That free play in our house ends up with Papaya leading family walks around our neighborhood to the all-important mailbox, to check on the swing set and so on (until midnight if we’d let her stay out - that girl loves the outdoors!)

Under the Bridge

Stand in front of a park bench or the back of your (stable) sofa and lean forward into a push-up position with your legs back, shoulders over your hands, hands on the bench or couch back and core tight (don’t forget to engage those glutes too!). Perform your push ups and encourage your child to run under the bridge for each one - and count for you! Keep your neck straight and not arched back or down - if you were standing straight up you’d be looking straight ahead, keep that in mind. We usually don’t make it to an even or easy number before the Papaya looses interest, but a few here and there throughout your park day do Mommy’s body good!

Frog Hop

Kids love animals and therefore we parents have learned the sounds, nesting habits, etc. of every bug, beetle or mammal our child finds interesting. This is a great chance to use our children’s imaginations to move around both of our bodies. A few common are - “hop like a frog” where you do just that or if you don’t want to dip that low you can do a modified squat jump. Feet shoulder width apart, core and glutes engaged (that means tighten those muscles and hold yourself steady), and hands up squat down while keeping our heads in line with the back (so don’t arch the neck back by always looking straight but don’t arch it down by dropping the neck to look straight down either). Squat as if you are going to sit in a chair then push back up into a small jump pushing off from the heels (first) to toes (right before takeoff). Land squarely and hop again at will. The Papaya loves to do this and her tiny little flexible muscles squat her down with butt touching the heels - I sure don’t have the ability to copy her there! (Don’t forget to ribbit!)

Bug Dips

Using that bench or couch again we’ve got an exercise that will firm up your triceps and make your toddler giggle. Line up in a sitting position on your bench and place your hands on the edge of the bench, palms facing in. Legs out from the body ahead of you and engage your abs and glutes, then scoot off the bench so your butt is hanging right in front of the edge and use your arms to lever you up and down. Keep your elbows in one place and lever those muscles! Each time…on the down….let out a hoot and claim to have sat on a (insert bug here) and have your toddler swipe it away (pretend) on the up swing which for the good of your toddler and muscles will be a bit longer than an in-gym set.

Lunge and Push

If your child resembles the Papaya then you spend lots of time on your arms - pushing a swing that is. I like to stand back as far as possible and assume the lunging position and push, static (in one place) lunge, push, static lunge, push….etc. and then switch legs when I can’t take it on that first leg anymore. “To perform the lunge, the individual stands with their feet shoulder-width apart, and then steps forward, landing with the heel first. The motion is continued until the back knee is nearly touching the ground. Then they return to their starting position by driving upward forward with the front leg, and repeat the exercise by stepping forward with their other leg.” (description of Lunge from Wikipedia) Make sure to push the swing with your arms and not your body, keep your core engaged and firm!

The great thing about keeping ourselves in shape and keeping our toddlers moving - copycats! These wonderful little ones want to do what Mommy does so when you show them that you enjoy fitness, they will too. Papaya pretends to do lunges across a room (walking with her knees bent - it’s not a lunge but it’s so darn cute) and practices counting - two birds with one stone! We don’t need to lead them into biceps curls and triceps dips to give them little muscles, rather it’s best to let them follow along on activities that are more specific if they like and spend most of our time guiding them to move in any way they find fun. “Can you……waddle like a penguin? Ooh! What a fast penguin you are!” These moments are fun and rewarding for both Mother and toddler and I’m glad they are part of my parenting repertory.

Need a few more ideas or motivation?
Bodywise Physical Activity (US Dept. of Health and Human Services)
CDC’s Report on Physical Activity and the Health of Young People
AMA’s Report on Exercise (Physical Activity) and Children

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