As a mom, I know how hard it can be to work out with kids. You can’t find time to go to the gym and then your kids make home work outs impossible. Or maybe you’ve only worked out a gym and don’t know how to work out at home. Maybe you’ve never been that into working out at all and feel like it’s too late to start now that you have kids. Whatever it is, I’ve been trying to find the best way to work out with my 14 month old, so I came up with this lower body strength training at home work out with tips and tricks for exercising with a young kid around. This isn’t my only lower body exercise routine, but it’s a pretty solid place to start. I plan on adding more and more content about working out as a full time mom so keep your eyes out for that coming up! If you’re not interested in strength training and are thinking about what other ways to work out as a mom then check out my post about different ways to work out as a full time parent.
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For most strength training in a gym you’ll see people do 8-12 reps for 3-4 sets. This will follow that basic structure without needing to be in a gym. If you happen to have dumbbells, great! If not, your kid is a great, already at home, weight for you to use! You can also find any easy to hold heavy household object if you’d like instead. Each move should be done with a short 1-2 minute rest in between sets. Make sure to take a slightly longer (2-3 minute) break in between each move. I’ll do my best to explain the form for each exercise, and include what works for me to entertain my son while I do it. Whenever you feel ready start the workout. Good luck mama!
Warm up Stretch:
First, it’s important to warm up your muscles. Since this is focusing on lower body you want to make sure your warm up targets those muscles as well. You want to make sure your warm up stretches are dynamic and prepare your body for working out. Examples of this would be rocking from your heels to your toes, side lunging back and forth, stretching your hip flexors with baby gates, and doing standing high knees. Once you feel sufficiently warmed up you can begin the actual work out!
Squats:
I like to start lower body days with my son with squats for two reasons. 1) My son absolutely loves them so he’ll get excited for the work out. And 2) they’re also a great warm up move for your entire lower body. With squats it’s also fairly simple to involve your kiddos. If they’re small enough for you to hold, just hold them against your chest and use them as your weight. If they’re a bit bigger, have them squat with you! You want to make sure your back is as straight as possible, and sink back as if you’re trying to sit in a chair. Depending on how easy or hard it is for you choose how many reps and sets you want to do and get started.
Bulgarian Split Squat:
Bulgarian Split Squats are an amazing lower body move but you have to be cautious about your form depending on what specific muscles you want to work out. To do this move you’ll want to put one leg behind you on a bench, couch, or other elevated object while the other leg is underneath you. You’ll then squat down till your knee touches, or is close to, the ground before pushing yourself back up. If you send your body backwards, closer to the leg that’s elevated, you’ll target your hamstrings more. If you go directly down, slightly extending your front knee forward, you’ll target your glutes. When you push up you want to make sure you feel the weight being mainly pushed by whichever muscle you’re targeting, or you might have to adjust your form. Bulgarian split squats are one of my least favorite work outs to do, but boy do they work! If you want to add weight, similar to the squats you could hold your child against your chest as you go down. These are hard though! So if you feel more comfortable with lighter weight, or just your body weight, that’s great too.
To do this work out with kids you have a few different options. If you have young babies that can’t run away yet, putting them on a blanket in front of you and interacting with them as you squat down can be one way to keep them happy as you work out. Once they can crawl and walk around you can turn your work out into a game. My son loves to crawl under my back leg every time I stand up. We make it a game to see if he’s “fast enough” to crawl underneath before I go down. If your kids are a little older, have them do some reverse lunges while you do your Bulgarian split squats. Since this move is a bit harder it’s okay to do less reps if you don’t think you can handle more!
RDL:
A romanian dead lift (RDL) is a type of deadlift where you hinge at the hips to lift up weight. Most of the time when you do this at a gym you’ll use a barbell, but you can also use dumbbells if you have any at home. Using traditional weights would probably be the easiest way to do an RDL, but when you’re a mom sometimes you got to be a little flexible. I’ve absolutely done these while using my son as the weight. Basically you just want to hold your weight, or your child, with both hands hanging down by your hips. Then you hinge your hips and push them backwards as you bend forwards towards the ground. I’ve heard a great way to get your form right is to pretend you’re shaving your legs. The idea is to bend your knees as little as possible, if at all. It’s okay to bend your knees if you need to in order to push your hips further back, but just be cautious you’re not JUST bending your knees instead of hinging your hips. If that’s the case, you’ll be pulling up with your back instead of your glutes.
Again, put your kids somewhere you can interact with them, use them as the weight, have them copy your move, or turn it into a game! A silly game I play while doing RDL’s is simply just to say boo to my son when I go up and down. As stupid as it sounds, it cracks my son up! I also recently saw a kids toy weight set. Having your kids join you with fake weights could be a blast! Do this for 8-12 reps for 3-4 sets and then go on to the next move.
Step Ups:
Step ups involve finding a sturdy chair, bench, or elevated surface of some kind and simply stepping up using one leg and slowly lowering yourself down. You want to make sure this is a slow and controlled movement. Once you touch the toe of your other leg against the ground, immediately start stepping up again. Make sure you don’t ever lose the tension on the working leg. You can do step ups with just your body weight, any weights you have at home, any heavier objects you can hold, or, again, with your child against the front of your body. If you’re not holding your kid try involving them in some other way. We sing the ants go marching song since my son recently learned how to march and he thinks it’s funny to do that while I’m stepping up. This work out is one that could benefit from having an actual work out bench at home.
Hip Thrusts:
The hip thrust movement can be done in a few ways, but for this work out you want to find something like a bench or couch to rest your upper body against while sitting on the ground. You extend your legs out a bit, with your knees bent, and plant your heels into the ground. Then you press your feet against the floor and lift your hips up and clench your glutes at the top. You can do this exercise with just your body weight, but you’ll see better results with weight on top. You can use dumbbells, other heavy objects like a full backpack, or place your child in your lap while you do this. My son thinks it’s hilarious! Similar to Bulgarian split squat, you could also have your kids crawl underneath your bridge to make it a game.
Calf Raises:
These are an easier exercise that tends to need more weight, so I find it hard to really see results at home. That’s why I like to put them at the end of the work out when my legs are already tired. You can hold any sort of weight or have your kid in your arms, on your back, or even on your shoulders. Then you simply press up onto your toes and then lower yourself back down. This exercise I usually do more like 12-15 reps for four sets in order to feel it more when I’m just at home lifting my son, since in the gym I used to have a lot more weight.
Cool Down Stretch:
You’ll see the best results, and have the least injuries, if you stretch after a work out too. Again, since this work out targeted your lower body, you want to make sure your stretches do too. Toe touches, butterfly stretching, the pigeon stretch, hip flexor stretches, the standing quad stretch, and the seated hamstring stretch are some of my favorite stretches after a leg day. You can take some time to interact with your kiddos while in each stretch so you can really feel it. Hopefully by the end you feel accomplished, refreshed, and relaxed! It’s not easy to get in a full work out with kids, but hopefully this gave you some ideas or inspiration to take time for you too.