Beginner-Friendly Tips For Working Out (perfect for a Working Mom)
Since being a mom tends to be a balancing act, fitness often gets pushed to the side of “just one more to-do”. To get yourself started, use these beginner-friendly tips for working out.
Many mamas struggle when it comes to maintaining a workout routine simply because they’re already doing all the other things.
On top of that, most moms feel a bit overwhelmed as to how to start a workout routine.
Staying fit as a busy mom may seem like another chore. However, being strong helps you:
- Stay injury free
- Pick up kiddos easier
- Join in on crazy kid games
- Do something for you
If you’re on the fence about jumping into a workout routine and you’re truly unsure where to start, follow the steps below to help make fitness part of your busy life.
Plank With Shoulder Tap. Image courtesy of Shelby, Fitasamamabear.com
Work Out At Home
The biggest tip for busy moms! If the thought of implementing a new routine is already overwhelming, it’s even more stressful to imagine packing up, organizing care for kids and hitting the gym multiple times per week.
If you go that route, your workouts just turned in to a two-hour situation and that get’s hard to stick to.
Instead, organize and plan to work out at home. Working out at home keeps you consistent and tends to be far less stressful than planning an actual outing. Especially in the winter when the days are shorter.
You don’t need a lot of room, nor do you need fancy equipment. You just need to commit to scheduling it in and finding the time.
Keep It Quick
There’s a common misconception that to be fit you need to work out for at least an hour each day. A strict hour doesn’t exactly work as a busy mom.
If you’re squeezing a workout into nap time, you’re not guaranteed that hour. Or, if you’re working out after work, the thought of spending 1 of your two free hours before kiddo bedtime makes you cringe.
Instead, opt for faster workouts. 20-30 minutes is really all you need to commit to.
If you have more time- amazing! But it’s not a life essential.
Bulgarian Split Squat. Image courtesy of Shelby, Fitasamamabear.com
Opt For Low Impact
Unfortunately, many at-home workouts videos tend to be too intense. There’s lots of jumping or bouncy-like exercises and when you’re just starting out, there’s no way those will be comfortable.
And truly, unless you’re already strong and understand which muscles you should be engaging when I never suggest starting out with anything bouncy or plyometric (like burpees or jump squat). You need to have a base amount of strength and stability to perform those exercises and remain injury-free.
Not to mention as a brand new mom, plyometrics can be pretty detrimental to your pelvic floor.
Instead, opt for low impact exercises and work on the basics (squats, lunges, core, etc). No need to jump into a P90X workout off the bat.
Below is a workout that’s perfect for beginners. It requires no equipment, it’s injury-free, low impact and focuses on muscle engagement. You can scroll through to the end where each exercise is briefly broken down.
Focus On Postural Muscles
Many at-home workout programs focus on getting a great sweat on but they don’t consider the mom life. We need our postural muscles (the back of our body) to be strong in order to:
- Stay injury free
- Reduce and eliminate back pain
- Do all the things we do
So, when starting an at-home workout routine, place your emphasis on the postural muscles. Specifically:
- The glutes
- Hamstrings
- Upper back
Push-ups are an amazing exercise but they’re not the best option for a busy mom getting started. You need back strength to correct the postural imbalances of pregnancy and carrying babes.
This is one of the reasons I love resistance bands. It becomes tricky when working out at home to target the upper back muscles (which is done via rowing).
Unless you plan on becoming a pull-up master, the upper back muscles get left out. Not training them leaves them weak and can lead to low back pain.
Resistance bands allow you to target the upper back muscles in a low impact way and without doing anything too crazy. Plus, they’re cost-effective. So, win.
Table Top. Image courtesy of Shelby, Fitasamamabear.com
Let It Go
Moms place a lot of pressure and expectation on themselves to do it all. And while the dedication is nice, it sometimes leaves us more stressed than anything.
Don’t make your fitness routine part of that cycle.
In order to achieve a goal, you will need to be consistent. If you can work out 3-4 times per week for 20-30 minutes, you’re golden.
But understand that some days will get messy.
Some weeks you’ll miss a workout. Other days your workout will get interrupted by diaper changes and snacks. And some days you’ll only finish two sets and not three.
It’s okay.
At this stage in life, it’s not always easy to dedicate everything you have to a fitness routine. Set practical goals, stick to them as much as possible but know that it’s okay to be a bit sloppy.
5 Beginner-Friendly Tips For Working Out As A Busy Mom
Follow these beginner-friendly tips for working out and you’ll be well on your way to boosting your strength and your all-around fitness. It may not always be easy; in fact, it might be chaos (mom life normally is). But hopefully, these tips help take the stress out of getting started.
You got this mama.
Author Bio
Meet Shelby – a Strength & Nutrition Coach and the person behind the blog Fitasamamabear.com– a health, fitness, and food blog geared towards moms! Shelby is a mom to two little girls, a crazy foodie, and a regular diy beauty lover. She loves sweaty workouts, tasty and super simple meals and living as naturally as possible- though there’s definitely a lot of trial and error there!
Here’s a great infographic to help us with motivation!
[…] challenge is finding time to do it each day, especially when you have kids. You can either find some time in the morning before the kids are up or do an exercise with […]