Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article about family road trips, with some tips for making it a good experience. Reporters Elisa Crouch and Ken Leiser suggest that, while most people know they should make sure their car is in good shape before taking off, they don't take the same care of the driver. They suggest getting two nights' good sleep before departing. I suggest getting the body in shape to feel better and comfortable. You'll need a strong core to keep your back pain-free during long periods of sitting, flexibility for frequent reaching to the back seats to hand out snacks and pick up dropped toys, muscle strength for carrying children and luggage and endurance for long walks at your destinations.
Here are my ideas for maintaining your fitness while on the road.
1. Strengthen your core with Pilates exercises while you are also: minding a child napping in a stroller;watching your kids play on a rest-stop break; or sending tweets and emails on your handheld device.
2. In the car, use rubber tubing (as in Dynabands or Spri tubes) wrapped around your feet and hands to do bicep curls and shoulder presses.
3. While waiting somewhere holding a squirming child, strengthen your muscles and entertain the kids by doing squats, lunges, bicep curls and shoulder presses. Here's how:
4. Get in some cardio/strength intervals while walking with your family: Jog ahead of them, then do lunges and wall pushups while they catch up (assuming that a grownup is walking with the kids).
5. At rest stops, do park bench yoga. Copy and paste this web address into your browser:
http://www.vermontfitness.org/pdf/ParkBenchPanels.pdf
Do you have more tips like these? Post them as a comment on my blog!
Janet, this trip looks incredible!
ReplyDeleteLove the roadtrip exercise ideas too; I'm no stranger to the Gas Pump Plie :)