Watch and Workout

For most of us, I think it’s safe to say we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that everyone is spending more time watching TV than they were a few weeks ago.

So why not make it a family activity AND mix in some little bits of fitness? These little spurts of activity won’t really be a workout workout, but they will get you all up off the couch here and there while you’re watching and, depending on the exercises you choose, will get your heart pumping. And yeah - this is totally something you could do just for yourself too!

It’s really quite easy! All you have to do is:

     1)    Pick a Show. Do you have a show, or shows, your family enjoys watching together?

     2)    Sit down together and make a list of things that commonly or frequently happen, are said, or occur in the show.

     3)    For each of the ‘occurrences’ above, pick an exercise or activity that you can quickly and easily do and the number or duration of the exercise you choose. For example: 10-jumping jacks, 15-crunches, 20 seconds-planks, 30 seconds-running in place.  

     4)    And then start watching!

Our family loves all of the series in the Stargate franchise: Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe, and the movies too. This morning when one of the kids said "Let’s start at the beginning and watch Stargate again" – we have all the seasons, all the series, and all the movies on DVD – I replied with a quick "Sure, but..."

And then I suggested the Watch & Workout idea.

Surprisingly, not one of them argued the idea. In fact, Princess immediately ran off to get a notebook so we could write down the exercises we came up with, while both Gamer Boy and Angel Face started yelling out exercise ideas! Within minutes we had a ‘Season 1 Workout List’. And within half an hour we hit play on Season 1, Episode 1 and right away we were doing jumping jacks.

Give it a try with one of your families favourite shows or movies – and have fun!!! 

**We don't profit from the mention of Stargate (or any of it's affiliations) nor do we intend any infringement on the copyrights for the series.**