fitness articles

Workout Tips for mother-daughter duo

While you are looking around for a workout partner in order to get fit, just a hand shake away is one in form of mother and/or a daughter.    Age doesn't matter if you have a daughter who is a pre-schooler, grade schooler, teenager and so on. This will not help in building your physical fitness but what you stand to gain is a emotional bonding which will only get stronger with time and age.

Stop blaming genetics and lack of time for un-wanted weight gain. Its actually the choices we make daily all  the while we are growing up like--what we eat, how active we stay--are the things that need to be controlled. Don't give up, its NOW or EVER.

There are number of activities  you get involved in, well, check out some of the suggestions.

• Pre-schooler(0-5 years):  That's a tender age for a girl and the right time to help them understand the value of playing and staying active. Before she begins to walk take her in a pram for a stroll in a park near by.  Walk around for say 20 min, this will serve as a habit for you to stay active and stay updated with what's happening around. Your baby have a chance to absorb your presence all along. Once a little grown  up, join a dance or gymnastics class with your daughter and have some fun while you get moving. During summertime you could even take up swimming, children love to dive in a pool of colorful balls or rings. Find every way to stay active by rolling with her on a mat, working your abs with her resting on your ankle and so on.  Plan family hiking or camping trips. A “hike” with a small child can be a short walk in the woods, and you might spend as much time carrying your little one as not. This imprints children with the idea of healthy outdoor activity in a natural setting from their earliest years. The same goes for camping. You probably will find it convenient to start by car camping when your children are small, but short backpacking trips are feasible when they are quite young. Because the scope and range of such outdoor activities grow as your children do, getting into the habit of such activities from the beginning is an investment in future family fitness.

  
  

• Grade Schoolers (6-10 years): Riding bikes along with your daughter is a lot of fun. You can explore  together or find local bike paths in your area. Incorporate biking into your life, riding to school and the supermarket together. That's the easiest way to stay fit while your child is growing fast and you don't lag behind. You could even plan a hike along city paths or nature trails. Let your daughter decide the trail and at the same time let her figure out what kind of terrain you will come across, the length of the hike and the supplies you will need. Skating is another sport picking up fast among school going kids.  Yoga and meditation is another activity children need to be made friendly with to match up with the work  pressures in present scenario.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

• Teenagers (ages 11-16):  The best physical exercise you could possibly take up is DANCE! Put on some of your daughter's latest tunes and ask her to teach you some moves. Let the world go loose on foot tapping music, sweat it out and at the end you stand to gain the benefit of physical and emotional fitness. At weekends try out surfing, horse riding, skipping, trekking etc.  The idea is to burn calorie and eat smart!  This is also the time when your daughter is going through menarche and you being closer to her will help her to take a better care of her diet and stay active. Weight fluctuation are obvious during this time in both, as one is heading towards beginning of a phase (menstruation) and other heading towards the end of it.  Balance all the exercise, with healthy foods and there you will be on the track towards healthy living. Teach your daughter to cook as I believe that learning to cook is key to losing weight.
   

  Hormones do cause girls to gain weight at puberty, and that's normal, but if they get too fat at that age it is unlikely to disappear.

  
  

• Youth (18+): This is the time when some of us are busy with our career, rest with their family and other household chores but that in no way should interfere with  mother and daughter duo. Even if the circumstances do not allow you to workout together still you can train independently and share your day-to-day workout experience by posting on the blog etc. This will keep both of you motivated and focused and when ever time allows get together (weekends or holidays) to workout together. Here I would like to share another daughter experience" Carol and Kathy spent a week hiking, practicing Kundalini and hatha yoga, and meditating. For both of them, connecting on an emotional level--sharing the sweat lodge ceremony and keeping each other calm while sleeping in a tepee during a thunderstorm--was as rewarding as the physical benefits. "We strengthened our relationship," says Carol. "Finding a spiritual path to fitness helped us see that we're truly on a journey together."  Strength training is another aspect both of you can start working, that is if you have not yet started.
   

• Middle Age(35+):  Try out Pilates, yoga,  kickboxing, hiking,  body building, the list is endless etc. Listen to your body and involve yourself in household chores of cleaning, gardening, walking down the stores as all these activities add up to a healthy and fitter, YOU. Weight training needs to be an essential part of everybody's fitness regime in order to boost up the metabolism and fight aging. Add 1 min push-up, 2 min wall squat, 1 min superwoman, 2 min reverse lunge, 2 min calf raise, 2 min lateral raise, 1 min shoulder press, 3 min leg lift, 3 min crunches, 2 min cool down and there you are ready to move on. All it takes is two or three 15- to 20-minute strength-training sessions a week to build more muscle mass.

 

We at  Women Fitness promote mother-daughter workouts. We even suggest that some grandmother-mother-daughter teams should  be formulated to spread health awareness . It's good to get young girls started on an exercise program and it's a good way to spend time together. 

Many sports require power, which can be defined as a combination of strength and speed. Others require agility, which can be defined as nimbleness when starting,  basketball require both power and agility. If you get involved in these sports, you should train to improve both.
 

 

Dated 10 May 2011

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