Here's a ten-minute "functional fitness" strength-training workout for moms, designed to keep you strong enough to pick up your heavy kids, from Kara at Mama Sweat (and Ryan McDowell and Darcy Franklin of Crossfit Minnesota). When Darcy demonstrates picking up an item like a medicine ball or a car seat and using its weight as resistance, she notes that you can use your child's weight instead. I assume some of us would have to work up to that...
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I've been enjoying her blog so much, I'm really looking forward to when Kara's book comes out!
Kara explains what is "functional fitness:"
You've probably heard the term "functional fitness" being thrown around a lot the last few years. (It's listed at #9 on the American College of Sports Medicine's Top 20 Fitness Trends for 2011 and is the main reason why boot camp classes are so popular.) What I once considered the territory of an occupational or physical therapist--using exercises to rehabilitate and strengthen specific muscles involved in their patient's particular activities of daily living--is catching on to the fitness masses. And why not? Why not strengthen your muscles in ways you're going to actually USE them?
Since ditching 5-lb. dumbells (because really, do I ever do 25 reps of bicep curls with a soup can before serving it to my family?) for a 45-lb, 65-lb, 85-lb and beyond barbell I am training for motherhood: Carrying a sleeping 7-year-old from the car upstairs to her bed; lifting my 5-year-old from the ground after a fall; playing airplane with my 2-year-old high above my head.
No doubt about it, motherhood requires some heavy lifting.Follow the link to Kara's post to see another video in which Ryan (the male trainer), who has small twin boys at home himself, explains what "functional fitness" means for a parent of small children.
(I took a running clinic from Darcy a few months ago, held at that same CrossFit facility. I was really impressed by the CrossFit philosophy, and I was very pleased with my results!)
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