Upholding Our Families' Tradition

Exercising isn't always fun. It's hard to find time in our busy schedules to work out. Growing up, our family had an exercise tradition we loved. When we watched movies or shows we would pick a word. (Such as a character's name or something relevant to what we were watching. For instance if we were watching Star Wars the word might use Jedi.) Then every time that word is said, we pause and do a set number of an exercise. You can always use two different words and two different exercises.

Recently I have started doing this with my kids and they love it. On one Friday we watched an Episode of Angry Beavers and used the word WOOD. We decided to do 5 sit ups every time we heard it. We ended up doing 15 sit ups during that episode. Right after we watched an Episode of Spider Man and used the word WEB. We ended up doing another 15 sit ups.

The next day we ended up doing even more sit ups then that. Today my abs hurt so we are switching it up a bit and are doing 10 jumping jacks instead.

Here are some good exercise choices to choose from:

1. Sit ups
2. Push ups
3. Jumping Jacks
4. Bicycles
5. Mountain Climbers
6. Burpees
7. Squats

I suggest if you are new to exercise or if you are doing this with young children that you choose a small number to do each time, such as 2 or 5. We do sets of 5.

If you are an over achiever you can always choose to do push ups for one word and sit ups for another word. Have fun and be consistent. You will notice after a few weeks that the exercises are coming easier.

If your watching something you can pause, just count the number of times the word is said and during a commercial brake, get up and see if you can do all of the before the show starts again. Make this your family tradition too. You won't regret it.