Becoming a parent is a huge change, leisurely evenings spent eating out, going to the cinema or meeting up with friends become rare treats.
There is also far less time to get to the gym regularly but becoming a parent doesn’t mean you should resign yourself to becoming unfit.
Fitness is especially important for parents because so much more is demanded of your body. Carrying kids, carrying kids belongings and doing it all on less sleep are things which, while never easy, become easier if you are fit, strong and healthy.
Getting fit as a parent is achievable, it simply requires more planning.
For most people the perfect time to workout is after kids have gone to bed (or before they wake up in the morning if you’re that type of person).
Working out while your children are asleep means that you have to be careful with the amount of noise you are making, so you can’t be slamming weights down in the lounge and sprinting up and down the stairs for cardio!
Here are a few tips to help you get a great workout without waking anyone up:
Use An Exercise Mat
Vibrations travel easily through floors. Even if your kids are sleeping above you the vibrations can travel into your walls and up into their room so they can hear every time you do a burpee.
Obviously, this is far from ideal as light sleepers will soon be awake and wondering what is going on.
Using an exercise mat will dampen vibrations before they hit the floor meaning far weaker vibrations are made and hopefully your kids won’t hear a thing!
Use Quiet Exercise Machines
If you own a treadmill or rowing machine you will probably be well aware that it is almost impossible to use one quietly.
If, like most people, you’ve dumped it in the spare bedroom then your kids are going to hear you as soon as you start running.
Treadmills create a lot of vibrations which are very difficult to stop travelling through your home.
Fortunately there are options available for anyone who loves using a treadmill, or rowing machine (or any other cardio machine)
Gym equipment manufacturers are increasingly creating products which are specially designed to make much less noise than old-style cardio machines.
So if you must run then invest in a quiet treadmill (find out more about these at Soundproofpanda.com) these are designed with noise in mind and have loads of noise dampening mechanisms built into them.
We also recommend that you pair your treadmill with a thick mat and if possible use it on the
ground floor rather than upstairs!
Bend Your Knees
Any explosive jumping movement will create noise when you hit the floor. Whether you do burpees, star jumps, box jumps or any other jumping variation noise will happen.
Landing with straight legs will send the impact straight into the floor, and this is also very bad for your knees over time.
So instead make sure you bend your knees when you hit the floor so that your body dampens the impact of your jump as much as possible, it’s also a good idea to do these on your exercise mat for further dampening.
Go Barefoot
You’re not in a commercial gym so you don’t need to wear shoe or socks.
This is something you can use to your advantage when it comes to keeping your workout quiet.
Barefoot exercise will not only stop squeaking noise from trainers but it also allows you to stay in tune with your bodies natural movements which allows you to learn to avoid landing heavily on your feet.
Use Alternatives To Weights
If you’re keen to build your strength then lifting heavy weights is the way to go.
Unfortunately throwing heavy weights around while trying to avoid waking sleeping children rarely ends well!
If you must lift weights here are a couple of tips:
● Take time to consciously lower your weights slowly down to the floor after every set (place them softly on your mat) to avoid making noise.
● Make sure you don’t lift anything too heavy which may overload you and force you to drop the weight.
Weights are not necessary for building strength, resistance bands are a fantastic alternative which can offer as much resistance as you want (just buy thicker bands for more resistance) and are a great addition to any home gym.
Using resistance band will not create impact noise as you are not moving any heavy objects around so your kids will be able to continue sleeping in peace.
There is no reason why becoming a parent should stop you from getting fit. We hope you have found these quiet workout tips useful for getting in shape while the children sleep.
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