10 Fun Exercises To Do With Your Baby
6 min read
Being a new mom is not easy for any woman. Many fail to find time for themselves post pregnancy and give all their time and attention to their baby. At the end of the day this can be really exhausting and can drain you of all the energy. Incorporating an hour of exercise on daily basis will help you deal with tasks at hand in a better manner. It will help you relieve your stress and leave you feeling more energetic. When exercising your motive should not be to lose the weight gained over pregnancy but to get more healthy and fit. As you exercise and adopt a healthier diet you will gradually lose weight. Here we have tried to put together few simple and easy to do exercises you can do along with your baby so that you two can bond as you are working out.
10 Fun Exercises To Do With Your Baby
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- Cardio with strollers: This is easy and simple to follow. You have to aim for 15-20 minutes of cardio daily to keep your metabolism high. Pushing the stroller as you venture out with the baby totally counts. Make it even better by practicing interval training. Walk for 2 minutes with the stroller and then with the stroller brakes locked you may do jumping jacks facing the baby. Start with small counts and then you may gradually increase as it suits you. This will keep the baby entertained as you do your workout
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- Squats: Once your baby is grown enough to hold up his head, neck and torso by himself you may opt to do this exercise with your baby. Hold the baby in your arms and squat by going down slowly and aligning your thighs parallel to the floor. Ensure your knees are in line with your ankles and toes. After squat when you return to your standing position “curl” your baby in towards yourself. Also make sure that you do not stand straight with your knees locked
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- Planks: Planks are considered to be one of the best forms of exercise as it engages more than 2 kinds of muscle and body parts as you workout. You hold your body parallel to the floor like you do in the up position of push-ups and hold it in that position for a minute or two . Use a stop watch to keep a track of the time and repeat the same 3-4 times. Make sure you do your exercises in the right form. Your shoulders should be directly over your wrists, hold your tummy tight, your pelvis neutral and legs straight and parallel to floor with toes tucked under. If you find this difficult to perform, you may do it keeping your knees in contact with the floor
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- Sit ups : This is an easy way to sculpt your thighs. Doing this exercise with baby can be challenging but it is worth the effort. To begin with sit on your heels in a kneeling position holding your baby in front of you. Keep your knees a few inches apart. Now slowly lift your seat a few inches off your heels and keep your torso upright. Now push yourself up an inch and go down an inch without touching your seat to your heels. You may start with 10-15 reps at start then gradually increase as it suits you
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- Opt for Swing : When you are out in the park with your baby and your partner is with you, go enjoy the swing. It is one of the most fun ways to work out our abs. You can do this provided you have you partner to take care of the baby in the stroller or your kid is grown up enough to give you company on the swing beside you. Look out for two swings that are placed side by side to enjoy it with your child
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- One leg balance : If you are familiar with yoga, then you may know how to go about this. You tend to feel little off-balance post delivery since pregnancy tends to mess with your balance. Your ankles and joints would be relatively weak post delivery, so start with practicing to stand on one leg first. Try to hold it for as long as possible for you. Do not stress yourself much, because your joints and ankles are still weak and they will get stronger and stabilize with time. If you wish it to be more challenging, try the tree pose. Start with standing on one leg and slowly bend the knee of the other leg and place the sole of the foot anywhere on the inside of the standing leg. You may hold your baby and do this exercise as your get stronger and get a better hold on balancing yourself
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- Lower Body toning: This exercise can be done to tone your lower body. It requires lying flat on your stomach and then placing your hands beneath your chin. Now bend your knees and raise your legs such that the sole of your feet face the ceiling. Now try raising your lower body from the knee and push it towards the ceiling and then bring it back to the floor. Repeat this for 10-15 times and you may do 2-3 sets of this. You may slowly increase the count to increase the challenge. You can keep the baby in front of your eyes so that you can interact with the baby as you do this exercise
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- Lunges : To do this first place the baby in the stroller and stand facing him. Keep little distance between you and the stroller. Now move one leg ahead of you towards the baby and go down to sit such that your thighs are parallel to the floor and the knee is at 90 degrees angle. Then rise and push back your leg to the starting position and repeat the same movement with other leg. You may keep your hands on your waist or you may blow a kiss to the baby as you step out and go down to keep him entertained. Start with 10-15 reps on each side and then gradually increase the counts and reps
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- Side leg raise : Your Hips tend to increase during the pregnancy. This simple exercise will help you get back in shape. Look for a raised platform where you can make your baby sit such that he is at your eye level and stand facing him. Now stand straight with your legs and hips apart. Now putting weight on your one leg slowly raise your other leg out towards the side and then hold it for 5 seconds and get it back to the original position. Then repeat the same with the other leg. Start with 10-15 counts for both legs and 2 sets each and gradually increase your counts
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- Wall Push-ups: This exercise is easy to do and will help you tone and strengthen your upper body and arm muscles. Stand at a distance of 2 feet, facing the wall in your room with legs placed together. Now slowly lean in towards the wall bending your hands at the elbows. Stay in the said position for a count of 5 and push back to return to the original position. Repeat this exercise ten times to begin with and then gradually increase your count
There are many more fun ways to get you healthy and fit and the ones suggested above are just few of them. Exercising your way to better health as your nurture your baby will brighten you up and make you look and sound happy through- out the day. If you wish to add to the above list of exercise please feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments box below.
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