School holiday workouts: A workout attempted will be way more beneficial than no workout at all. 😉

Here’s a thought of the week for you: Sometimes matters are out of our control – including when the kids are at home on school holidays and we have a small person with us who needs entertaining – it’s easy to knock the idea of a work out on the head. 

I try to keep momentum for my Pilates clients in school hols though. This week on our group Mama Strength Pilates Programme session we worked out with the little ones in the room – the kids dipped in and out – an hour is a long session for the young ones of course. We don’t expect them to engage in anything longer than 20 minutes – and for the moments they’re climbing all over us we just go with it.

I keep some structure of the usual Pilates session going – but yeah – it’s nigh on impossible to get through the whole hour without the little saboteurs getting involved. So Plan B: when the kids start trying to copy or show their own moves we re-engage them in and try something structured (we use team work style exercises/stretches in my holiday sessions – the moves can be tried with kids of all ages).

Obviously a bit of play rolling around with them is great fun – just be mindful of your own safety and of the kids. The little ones love jumping all over us – in Pilates we draw the belly button through to the spine to avoid back injury and protect the lower, inner organs etc.

We just have to re-wire/re-focus the brain and, dare I say, ‘manage’ our expectations of how much structured workout will get done! Keep moving during your workout, know the kids will be in and out of the room…before you know it you’ll have burned more calories than you realise! A workout attempted will be way more beneficial than no workout at all.

I quickly sussed out these family home workout hacks in my lockdown home teaching life…and turned the things I discovered with my Baby-O (my social media name for my little girl) into my parents and kids Pilates session I now teach at music festivals. Photos from lock down Pilates with the family, and my sidekick and I teaching at a festival 🥰😜