Backyard Workout

Here's me in my backyard! Today, I read an article about backyard fitness and I thought that was a good idea, but they had you essentially doing boring things in the yard... I mean, planks... whatever. So, to the garage I went looking for props and ideas...

Our list of exercises included:

1. Obstacle course (aka outdoor seating rearranged) w/weight and burpee-- you pick up the kettlebell and then weave in between the furniture and back. Put it down, do a burpee with no pushup, and then repeat.
2. Roundhouse leg kicks-- I found one of those long squirt things and pushed it into the ground. We just did five reps on each leg of kicking over it and then touching the ground and repeat.
3. Chair runs-- two lawn chairs and you run sprints from chair to chair
4. Tree pull lunges-- I had $1 gadget that I put my stretchy band thing on and hung from a tree branch. We just used it to balance and as resistance and stepped into a reverse lunge.
5. Surfer log jumps-- We have a few wooden things in the yard near a tree that you can step on. So, I put a few of those water foam things you float around on and you just jump off the log over them and repeat.
6. Trampoline-- Yard trampoline #1, do what you want (I have a pogo stick... if I didn't have a trampoline that might have been fun...)
7. Racket Ball-- I had an old racquetball raquet and a lightweight kids ball. It was a balance or toss and catch activity (keep it off the ground). I wish I'd have had a badminton racket and shuttlecock. It would have been better.
8. Trampoline-- Yard trampoline #2, do what you want (if I didn't have a yard trampoline, I might have done jump ropes or something like that)
9. Soccer buckets-- I put two buckets as guides. We just run the soccer ball from one to the other and around the bucket.
10. Cooler pull and frisbee run-- I had a cooler that I threw 2-liters in. I set out two frisbees, one to mark a spot and one to use and then set a marker (box) on the other side. You drag the cooler to the frisbee and leave it, pick up the spare frisbee and run to the other spot to drop it, and then repeat. You are either toting the cooler or running the frisbee each time. 

Demo video by my kids--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsaJB__lCSQ&list=UU9wQQEwTOd0KKonVpoxvpAA

As usual, we did 20 rounds (2 full circuits of 10 stations) of 45 seconds on, 15 second rest/transition. My heart rate was 151 average and high of 161, so it stayed rather consistent with no real lows. We did have two stations that were low activity (lunges and leg kicks) but most kept you jumping or jogging. 

So... challenge your kids to find fun ways to exercise in your own backyard!