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A Joint Effort
Involving Mom and Baby in Your Exercise Routine
By I.J. Schecter
Many of today's strollers are tailor-made for the fitness-conscious parent, with streamlined shapes designed specifically for jogging. It might take you a few tries to become accustomed to the form required for jogging while pushing a stroller simultaneously, but you'll become a pro before long. If you and your partner both like to jog, you can take turns pushing. And if you thought the daily or weekly run was enjoyable before, just wait until it's accompanied by the sound of your baby's laughter!
Your baby will love being swung up and down in a spinning, swooping motion (i.e. you twirling around slowly while alternately lifting and lowering him). This is also a great exercise for your back. Just make sure you keep your knees bent. It's even more fun for your baby if both you and your partner are involved, "tossing" him back and forth between you.
From early on in Julian's life, I would greet him at the end of the workday by saying, "Should we go for a run?" and then taking off with him in my arms. He laughed all the way to the end of the street and back, so of course I kept doing it. Now, when he sees me at the end of the day, he's already laughing in anticipation. The daily run, though short, still helps my fitness (it resembles all those suicide drills my basketball coach made me do in high school, but it's A LOT more fun), and carrying a weight that gets bigger all the time makes me work increasingly hard. (In fact, the only drawback is that now, when I arrive back on the driveway and say, "That was great!" Julian thrusts his arm back in the direction of the street and says, "Adeh!" which means "Again!") He finds it even funnier when my wife gets involved, intercepting us when he isn't expecting it.
