DadCAMP » Gym

The DadCAMP Winter Workout

Buzz — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:41:31 +0000

If you’ve got kinds under 5, you know that messing around with them is a great workout.

You’re running, you’re stretching, you’re lifting 40 pound squirming dumbbells. It doesn’t do much to mold and sculpt your body (Dads have beer guts. It’s from how we hold our kids, we can’t help it.) but at least it’s some physical activity that is challenging different muscle groups.

Go ahead, chase a 3 year old around a playground and try to tell me that’s not a P90X level challenge.

With the playground covered in white and the temps near freezing, your usual workout needs to be modified.

Here’s a way you can try to trim it down this winter, with another DadCAMP Workout: Hill Repeats.

It’s simple:

Find a toboggan hill. Push the kid down the hill. Listen to him scream. Beg him to climb back up the hill. Run down the hill to get your kid. Pull him in the sled back up the hill. Repeat for 45 minutes or until one of the kids has to go potty.

The DadCAMP Workout

Buzz — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:10:51 +0000

Sure, having a beer belly is a side effect of having children, but if you mix in the right amount of play with your kids, you can get a pretty effective workout. It’s not going to get you into the Olympics anytime soon, but it will help you fight the aging effects that are soon to follow when they grow into aggravating teenagers.

A trip to the park is an easy excuse to demonstrate your masterful skills on the monkey bars. Okay, I can’t make it one from one to the other, but make that trip a daily occurrence and you never know the progress you can make.

Engaging in a game of tag with your kids is a great way to burn off some steam in a field. You’re zigging, zagging and starting and stopping. Even with a 3 year old, I can work some masterful magic.

Sports in the driveway are a great way to raise your heart rate. From shooting hoops, to tossing a pass or chasing down a frisbee, you can burn a few calories in just a few minutes. And the younger the kid, the easier the workout. Trust me, 3 year olds can’t throw a frisbee with accuracy, you’ll be chasing it all over the neighborhood.

I also like to pretend to do weights with my infant son. He’s 5 months old, about 16 pounds and reaching him up in the air is a great arm and chest workout. When I need harder sets I lift up the 3 year old.

Bike rides and running can be worked in to the workout mix too. I have a bike seat for my son to sit on the back of my mountain bike and we’ll ride around the nearby neighborhoods checking out geocaches and searching for new playgrounds to explore. An after dinner ride can go for an hour and it’s fun for both of us. Running with a stroller like a Mountain Buggy is easy to do too. The kids love the breeze on their face and the extra weight of the stroller extends the benefits of your workout.

When it comes right down to it, being an active and participating parent is the best way to get a workout. Running your kids will give you exercise, will tire them out for a better night’s sleep and will bond the whole family together.

YouTube stars Rhett and Link demonstrate some other ways kids can be used in your workout.

What’s your DadCAMP workout?

Why Dads Have Beer Guts

Buzz — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:48:54 +0000

We’ve always had them. Since we were old enough to go to a bar more often than study hall, we’ve had beer guts. It’s just that before we had kids, we could suck them in.

Let’s do a demonstration .. Stand up.. and .. suck in. Great. No gut. No problem.

Now, go and grab a niece or nephew or something between 20 and 40lbs and hold it on your hip. Now try to suck it in. You can’t. To balance that extra weight, you need to push your extra weight out. It becomes extra support for that crazy little son or daughter.

Now, if you’re a dad like Brad Pitt, and start fatherhood with a spectacularly chiseled physique, while your beer gut will exist, it won’t punch out as far as .. say .. mine.

All dads have beer guts, we can’t help it. We’re dads and we love to hold our kids.