I love my workout time. It’s MY time, alone in my head with my crazy hip hop/pop soundtrack blaring in my ears . . . or to chat it up with my heavily tattooed buddies over weights at the gym. But my 10-year-old daughter loves to work out too, and guess what? She loves the same music I do (not sure what that says about me, but that’s for another post). So on weekends and vacations, we strike an accord: I go to the gym to lift, then come home to do HIIT cardio drills with her.

For those of you who’re unfamiliar, HIIT stands for high intensity interval training, and it is a short-circuit to increased stamina and endurance. You can change the exercises and intervals to suit your special needs (bad joints? no jumping for you!) and your fitness level (shorten the work intervals and then progress yourself by lengthening them gradually . . . and do the reverse with the rest periods).

Last week, my daughter made up this routine, and we did it several times through for about 50 minutes. I don’t know if our music was loud enough for the neighbors to hear, but it was earsplitting and we were jumping around and laughing and working up a great sweat together. Gather up your littles and give it a go!

Lil’ hint: if you click on that image, it’ll make it bigger. You can right-click on it and save it to your computer, print it out, and take it with you! Even without kids, it’s a great little circuit.

How do we keep track of time? I use the Bit Timer app on my iPhone – you can set your work, rest & repeat times and not only does it count you down with special tones, but it coordinates with your playlist so your music can be playing along AS YOU ARE TIMED. Best use of $.99 evah!

Do you ever exercise with your children? What do you do? Inspire us in the comments below!

© 2014, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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Can you believe that Christmas week is upon us?? Even if you don’t celebrate the holiday, the kids are out of school and chances are your workout schedule is going to be disrupted. What to do? Skip it? Nah, I’m here to help – here’s a roundup of great sites and free no or low-equipment workouts for you to do while you’re housebound for the holidays!

This first one’s a real quickie, made up by my distance-trainer, Tamara Grand a.k.a. “fitknitchick.” (hint – click on the graphic to make it larger) Perfect for squeezing in when you feel like you have “no time to exercise.” 10 minutes is ALWAYS better than zero minutes, peeps! If you’re in the mood for something longer, visit Tamara’s site, where you’ll find lots of other great free workouts to choose from, many of them with video. Psst – you still have time to get in on her 10-week Female 40+ on-line group training program which starts in January!

If you’re hooked on HIIT workouts, Melissa Bender’s your gal. Her site’s chock full of workout vids, and she is a workout-at-home maven – heck, she even trained for a bikini competition COMPLETELY AT HOME. There are some bodyweight-only workouts and most have minimal equipment. Get your sweat on and reap the stress-reducing benefits of working out while you’re on holiday.

Bodyweight workouts are Ray Pelekas’ specialty – I trained here for a while and LOVED it. Rayfit introduced me to some of my all-time favorite moves, which I incorporate into my workouts all the time: burpees, t-pushups, ball slams – I jacked my heart rate up so high – all with no jumping (’cause remember, this arthritic mama don’t jump so much). Check out this killer bodyweight workout featuring Ray himself. Or consider adding this 5 minute “ab blast” workout as a finisher for your cardio routine.

Caitlin over at Fabfitcities has great printable workouts for you. This little 15 minute fat burner will get your juices flowing fast. If you have more time, I LOVE her Tank Top Arms 1 and 2 workouts – I do these back-to-back, 3x through and am feeling it the next day! Likewise, her Short Shorts workout is terrific on legs – all bodyweight!

And last, but not least, my very own full-body HIIT workout for your sweaty enjoyment!

What’re some of your favorite workouts for when your stuck at home or traveling? Let me know in the comments below!

Image courtesy of sattva/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

© 2013, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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