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How to Fit Exercise in Whilst Looking After the Kids

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The summer holidays can be an expensive time, with days out and extra meals to pay for. It sometimes feels like your world is completely turned on its head, with no time to do all of the things that you usually do. If you have found that you no longer have time to fit in your usual exercise routine, then you need to get more creative.

Here are some ideas to help you fit more exercise in when you can’t get to the gym or go for a run:

Take the kids to the playground

If you have younger kids that need pushing on the swings and other assistance around the playground, then you can get some exercise doing that. Pushing swings is great for your arms – who needs to do weights at the gym?! Running around after them for hours will keep you active and make sure that you walk to and from the playground if it is fairly local. Thinking of getting some playground equipment to put into your own garden? Take a look at Kompan for some idea of what you can get.

Bike ride

A bike ride can suit all ages of kids, as you can put smaller children on a seat on your bike or older kids can go on their own bikes. All you need to do is find a safe route or park to go for a bike ride in and maybe take along a picnic to make a full day of it. To make it more appealing to the kids you can go to a park where there is plenty to do. Don’t forget to take bike locks if you are going to leave the bikes whilst you do something else.

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Join in with football/cricket

You might not be great at sports like football and cricket but joining in when the kids are playing can not only be a great way to spend time with them, it can also get you plenty of exercise. You never know, you might discover a hidden talent! Running around to chase the ball, even for those with zero football talent will burn off loads of calories.

If you don’t fancy the games that they are playing then introduce your own favorite sports and try and get them to take part in ones that will give you the chance to do lots of running, like races and other sports that involve plenty of running around.

Wii Sports and Wii Fit

If you have access to a Wii console or anything similar that allows you to play sports on a games console then that is a great way to fit some exercise in whilst having fun. There are all kinds of different types of games from tennis to boxing that keeps you active as you simulate the actions of the sports. The boxing game is probably the best one for burning off high amounts of calories but there are other games like Wii Sports Resort that are also lots of fun. The Sports Resort pack has twelve different activities to choose from including canoeing, cycling, basketball and wakeboarding.

The kids will love all of the games that you play together, whilst you will be staying active whilst you try them all out. Other games consoles do similar things like the Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move, so if your kids already have a games console there might be an option to add some equipment to make it more active for all of the family.

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