Healthy Home Updates That Encourage Fitness

You don’t have to turn your home into an athletic club to encourage fitness and wellness in your environment. As your strengthening your Diastasis Recti, your goal is to facilitate as much alignment, movement, core recruitment, and even positive pressure points as possible. It’s about making small changes in small areas. It’s also about making some big changes if you get the chance to remodel.

The following suggestions are things I’ve done myself. I’m a fitness professional with over 25 years of experience, but I don’t have a “room” in my house devoted solely to workout equipment. Because that doesn’t work for me or my family. Out of sight, out of mind. Right? If we don’t see it, it ain’t happening. If our “workout stuff” is in another room, it’s not really a part of our daily life.

I’m trying to set up a home for my family that promotes wellness, less waste, stronger cores, and more motion without us even really having to think too hard about it. And I want the same for you. I want it to be natural.

Let’s start with the area where you are right now, looking at your screen…

I’m guessing you are in the place where you usually get a lot of screen time. If not a certain place, then definitely a certain position. We tend to gravitate into certain places and positions when we are using televisions, computers and mobile devices. How can you change your environment to prompt your body and your whole family into better alignment? How can you create more motion here?

• If you are at a desk, how can you better position yourself to improve your spine and neck alignment? If you are jutting your head forward to see your screen, that will take a toll on your cervical spine and core over time.
• Can you create a standing or squatting work station to use for just a few minutes at a time, and then gradually increase the time you work {or read articles or surf facebook and instagram} in those positions? Here are some inexpensive ideas for doing that in this blog I wrote here.
• Do you own a timer? Set it for 30-45 minutes and whenever it goes off, get up, walk around a bit, drink some water and stretch your legs.
• Have you ever tried our office workouts? We have a whole section of routines you can do at or near your desk!

Your Living Room or Family Area

Usually one of the largest {and most cluttered} rooms in the house, this is also the default home fitness zone for many people. Decluttering it and positioning your furniture to facilitate more motion will only benefit all who enter your home. What are some healthy home updates for this area that will encourage your body to be more active – especially in a place we typically associate with relaxation?

• A Clean Rug: Have you noticed how a clean rug just invites everyone to lay on it? Keeping my central rug or carpet area vacuumed is major. If it’s filthy, I don’t want to stretch on it! Yuck! But when it’s clean, I happily choose it over the couches. Get into the habit of sitting down on your rug before you sit on your couches, and do some motions while you’re down there. A new rug doesn’t have to cost much, and it encourages so much great floor time.
• Wood Floors: Yes, I just sang the praises of a rug, but that’s just for padding on the wood floors. If you ever get the chance to have all wood floors, go for it! I’ve filmed a wood floor workout where we use the slip’n slide-i-ness for a great set of exercises. The hardness has never slowed my kids down, and they don’t trap allergens like carpet does.
• Throw Pillows & Cushions: I used to get annoyed with pillows would always end up on the floor until I paid attention to WHY the pillows were on the floor: My children were using them as props for playing! And that’s a good thing! Katy Bowman of Nutritious Movement once says her family uses pillows instead of couches for when they’re feeling the urge to lounge around and cuddle together on the floor. Personally, I’m keeping my couches… for now 😉
• Decorative Devices: Yes, I really do have dumbbells on my end tables, and they’re not just for decoration, although the green color goes nicely with one of my chairs. I also have a foam block that has a pretty flower design on it. And a foam roller and a yoga bolster in a basket behind a chair. And a small kettlebell which means that a common admonition around here is, “Don’t drop that on your toes!” If you leave your workout props and weights in spots where you see them, you’re more likely to use them! It’s so neat to see my kids pull out the foam roller and play with it.
• A Cozy Fireplace: Did you have a fireplace in your home as a kid? Did you have to haul wood or stoke the fire? We have a fireplace in our house, and I love it! Our dependence on electricity and man-made fuels… don’t get me started. I grew up in the country, and taking down a couple trees each year, hauling wood, stacking wood, carrying it into the house a couple times a day, all that was part of my early foundation of strength. As soon as we moved onto our own little homestead, it became my little boy’s job to haul wood into the house each day… at age four. If you don’t have or want a wood stove, I hope you have the chance to haul or chop wood at some point. There’s nothing like the smell of pitch on your hands!

The Bedrooms (both yours and the children’s)

• Rings & Swings: Who says the trapeze rings and climbing ropes must be outside? I’ve got two rings hanging in my son’s doorway, and they’re great for burning energy, practicing gymnastics, being silly, and — what the kids don’t realize — establishing crucial upper body, core, and pelvic floor strength. We hold them out of the way with teacup hooks on the sides of the doorway when we need them out of the way. I’ve also got a rope ladder that has been strung from the ceiling in our home in various places. No joke: I’ve witnessed my daughter at the top of it, reading a book upside down like it’s nothing. So awesome!
• Lofty Beds vs. Low Beds: There’s a case for low beds and high beds. One makes you squat to get up and down from it. The other makes you climb and jump and build forts underneath it. Once we’re in bed, we should be able to relax, but getting in and out of it shouldn’t be a sloppy mess. It should take a little bit of effort. My boy has one of those IKEA loft beds that flips over if we want it lower. My girl has a canopy bed up on stilts so she can stash more under it. I just enjoy watching her hips stretch as she climbs into it.

The Bathroom

• Pebble Tiles: Your feet are trapped in shoes and socks a lot, but they’re designed to handle many surfaces. Natural pebble or stone tiles that are slightly uneven will give your foot a yummy massage while you take your shower or brush your teeth. When we moved and needed to remodel our bathroom, I was ecstatic to install them in my shower. My feet are less sensitive and love the texture and pressure of the slight variations of the rocks.
• Soaking Tub: When we decided to move a few years ago, finding a home with a soaking tub was at the top of my list. Taking detox baths with Epsom salts is crucial to my muscular and mental health. I’m serious, people; they’re a great source of magnesium! If I don’t get at least one soak a week, I’m a crazy mama! After doing my walking races, they reduce my soreness too! If you don’t have a tub deep enough to soak in, I strongly recommend making it your next remodel project!
• Shower Bench: We get a lot of giggles from our friends when they see the bench in our shower that”s built into the tile design. To be frank, I wanted it to facilitate happy times in the shower with my husband. Hey, lovemaking is movement, right? There was a tiled shower bench in our honeymoon suite, and we really enjoyed it 😉 But it’s also a really good way to stretch my hamstrings while shaving my legs.

To sum it all up: What I am advocating for is making your whole home into an environment that prompts more physical activity because your fitness in daily life goes beyond your workout program. Here at Fit2B we use our exercise video routines to get you moving and educate you on how to keep moving well throughout the rest of your day. Join for a few months and work your way through our first 50 routines, and you’ll see some amazing improvements in your body and lifestyle.

Oh! And be sure to check out our F5+ Ecourse that takes you through our first basic routines and several others to get you moving and strengthening right away! Membership to Fit2B gives you access to all our home fitness workouts, and it’s cheaper than a gym membership!

Join the Discussion: So, what do you think of the tips in this article? What are some healthy home updates you’ve implemented? What are some clever ideas you have for  updating your home to encourage  more motion? Leave a comment and tell us! We’d love to hear from you!