For the last 17 years, I have been a California girl who is used to beautiful weather pretty much the whole year round. And before that, I grew up in Arizona - over 300 days of sunshine to get outside and move in a year! With our recent move to Michigan at the beginning of COVID, I have to admit… I have been a little thrown off my game by the stay at home orders as well as the frequently changing weather here.

But, as much as I am absolutely sure I will never go for a run in 30 degrees, or in a torrential downpour, I have finally figured out a few fun ways to get my cardio in. And… I have even found some great substitutes for a lat pull, leg press and overhead press. It took a little time and a cue from my kids on creativity to get the ideas rolling but now we are in full swing!

My favorite new cardio? Just Dance! Its family fun time and cardio all rolled into one and quite honestly gets my heart rate higher and my kinks out more than anything else. You can find it on both the Nintendo Wii and Switch and probably some other platforms as well and everyone will have a blast. 45 minutes gets my cardio in, their physical education and a LOT of laughter.

Some other cardio favorites with the kids… when there is good weather: family hikes, bike rides and basketball in the driveway. When there is not: indoor crab walk races in the basement, moon walks and skiing on slide disks, and we have just purchased attachments for the bottom of our sneakers and are looking for snowshoes to get outside even when the weather is not on our side.

For other types of exercise like strength and stability, I am a huge fan of exercise bands and pilates workouts, but we’ve gotten creative again and even incorporated the furniture. I use countertops for pushups, overhead press, and as a ballet bar, stairs for dips and gluteus medius work, and even have had my son lay on my legs while I hang my upper body over the back of the couch to get the same effect as a 45 degree hyperextension machine at the gym!

I’d love to hear some of the creative ways you have found to work out at home!

So with all the pushups I have been doing lately for the mental health awareness challenge, I’m feeling strong, but a little bit out of sync in my workout game.  Let me explain.  It was for a good cause, but doing that - doing the same exercise repetitively day in and day out, isn’t ideal.  Challenges like that are great to get you in a habit and moving, but it doesn’t give your muscles a chacon to rest to recover and build optimally, and it also can lead to muscles groups that are out of balance.  

The same is true for being in the same position too long, working at a desk all day, driving all day, or even going through your day without doing any exercise to counteract the effects gravity and your daily activities have on your body.  Everything has its equal and opposite, it’s yin and yang.  And when the yin is stronger than the yang, that is when problems can start, whether it is posture, immobility, cramps or pain.  A good start to solving the problem is to even out the strength and flexibly of your opposition muscles.

Many of us today sit at desks (or now with COVID), laptops on couches all day long, causing roundness in our shoulders, our necks to go forward, our hip flexors and lower backs to tighten, and even tension in our hands and forearms.  So, it makes sense that we should be doing stretches for the tight areas, and strengthening the areas that oppose them.  Stretching hip flexors and strengthening glutes, stretching chest and shoulders and strengthening mid back, stitching our low backs and strengthening our abs and pelvic floor.

Now, I want to make a disclaimer that without doing a thorough evaluation I can not tell you what specifically you should be doing, and getting a full workout in is a big part of feeling your best, but here are some ideas to help your day feel a little more “in balance.”

• Before you start your day, take a few minutes to stretch those tight areas and warm up the opposing ones.  

• Take frequent breaks.  Set a timer for 50 minutes as you are working out of each hour.  Take the other ten to stretch and strengthen, get a glass of water and a restroom break.  

Some of my favorite, quick and easy stretch and straighten combos to get started are:

• Stand in a doorway and grab the frame with your arms and then take a step or two forward until you feel a light stretch in your shoulders and chest.  Then lay face down on a yoga mat and bring your hands in line with your shoulders about six inches out and press your fists into the floor while squeezing your shoulders back and down.  Hold for 5 seconds and then relax and repeat this for a full set of 12 - 15 reps.

• To stretch your hip flexors, stand in a lunge and engage your abs and pelvic floor.  Then tuck your tailbone under like a scared dog and squeeze your tush!  You should feel this in the front of your back leg, just below the crease in your hip.  Hold this position on each side for a minimum of 20 seconds.  Then do a set of 12 - 15 squats, keeping your chest up and back, tailbone down, and squeezing your tush as you rise.  Do the squats just in front of your chair if you need to keep proper form.  You always have it there to catch you just in case!

• Lay flat on your back and tuck both knees to your chest to stretch your low back.  If you are flexible enough, grab the bottoms of your feet and pull your knees toward the floor (yoga pose happy baby) and hold 20 seconds to several minutes.  Then place your feet on the ground and keeping the back of your ribs and sacrum on the floor and stomach pulled in toward your spine bring your knees to table top and down one at time without letting your stomach rise or moving your hips.  For more of a challenge, straighten the moving leg,

Hope these ideas help bring some balance to your day!  Subscribe for to my monthly newsletter for more fitness tips!