A Workout For A Couple With a Young Child

All too often you come across workout routines designed for a single individual. That’s great for those planning on doing the activity all by themselves but sometimes there are situations where a couple may want to exercise together. To make the situation even more challenging, let’s say for example this couple has a six month old child. Question posed, is it still possible to work out together even with a child that needs to be monitored?

The simplest solution is that each person exercises on their own leaving one person to take care of the little guy (or girl) however for the sake of argument let’s imagine this couple has agreed to only workout when they’re able to do so together.

There’s a number of reasons when this situation may potentially arise.

Say for example the Mrs. does not want to work out by herself and there’s no babysitter that’s willing to work for a mere hour while they workout. Or maybe the husband does not want to work out without his loved one since he’ll feel guilty that she is unable to partake in the activity also.

Any of these situations sound familiar to you?

Here’s an easy way to solve this problem and potentially get a hour-long workout for the both of you. Best yet, even though you’ll both be working out your child will still be taken care of so you can bring the little one along in the stroller, car seat, or portable playpen. Hopefully it’s nap time or he/she keeps himself occupied on something for this workout session to leave you both in relative peace.

Ideally if there is a local track or high school nearby that allows you to use their facility that would be perfect since it will be easy to tally the total distance traveled. If not, you can always simply use your neighborhood block for reference. If you don’t live on a typical “block”, then first use your car to mark what 1/4 of a mile is from your house and back preferably in the shape of a circle or rectangle. This way when you start from your house by the time you get back the distance traveled will have been 1/4 of a mile.

Once you have the 1/4 mile length set and both of you are dressed in your workout clothes, it’s time to begin.

The main point in this tandem workout is while one of you is running/walking the 1/4 mile lap, the other is doing calisthenic exercises right next to your child. When the first person comes back from their one lap, you switch.

If you both are starting to workout for the first time, be sure you take it slow. It’s important to warm up properly so first take a walking lap together with baby to get the blood pumping and body/legs moving. Then take 5-8 minutes to gently stretch. After that you should be pretty loose and ready to go.

Here’s a potential schedule of exercises you can start with. One complete circuit should take about 20-25 minutes which means from start to finish including warmup time will be right around 30 minutes per cycle.

After warming up like mentioned above, decide who will jog the lap first while the other does the calisthenics. The goal is that as long as the person is running, the other person continues doing that exercise until they return, then you switch spots. However if you feel too tired or exhausted to continue, then stop. Remember, your body needs to build strength and stamina which will not happen all of a sudden. It takes time and consistency to get there.

As you both get stronger and build up endurance you can change-up the exercises, but for now let’s stick with this schedule.

Lap — Exercise

————-

1 — Squats

2 — Situps

3 — Lunges

4 — Pushups

By the end of this 25-30 minute session each person will have completed one entire mile along with doing 50+ squats, situps, lunges, and pushups. Not bad for a 30 minute workout right? If you both still have some energy left, do another circuit for a grand total of one hour worth of exercise. After that hour you will both have run 2 miles and completed 100+ squats, situps, lunges, and pushups!

Keep in mind that the person who’s doing the calisthenics also needs to keep an eye/ear on baby and always attend to his/her needs first, even if that means stopping the exercise to take care of business. Before taking any advice from this article please remember, being an attentive parent ALWAYS comes first!