At 5:20 AM my alarm starts playing the song, "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" by Mr. Rogers.
It's dark outside.
I'm already wearing my workout clothes. I sleep in them so when I wake up and don't feel like working out, I can tell myself, "Well... you're already dressed for it... might as well get up and just do it."
I take a deep breath, and roll out of bed.I grab my phone as I tiptoe to the bathroom in the dark, careful not to wake up my wife.
I flip on the light switch, and as my eyes adjust to the light in the bathroom I text Jon.
We've been best friends for over 25+ years, and we've been daily workout buddies for a solid 3 or 4 years now.
"You up?"
About 30 seconds go by...
"Yup." He replies. Then the inevitable next text comes in. "*sigh* I was hoping you wouldn't text today. I'm tired."
We both know the other person won’t show up at the gym if the other isn’t going.
I get off the toilet, wash my hands, brush my teeth, take a BIG drink of water, put on my shoes and head out the door.
We are typically at the gym right around 6:00.
We do calisthenics, spin classes, powerlifting, racketball, swimming... whatever we're in the mood for that day.
By 7:00 am, I've started my day off with a solid win. And it feels good.This is how I start off my morning roughly 5 days a week (unless one of us is on vacation or something).
Then Corona Virus hit.
I don't know about you, but since this quarantine thing, I'm finding it a lot easier to sleep in every morning.
I'm also finding it a lot easier to spend an embarrassing amount of time playing video games, or on my phone, or just sitting around and worrying if everyone is going to be ok.
This week I decided, "Enough is enough!"
So, I sat down to interview my friends Franzi and Ted Gonder. They have an AMAZING philosophy around family-oriented exercise, fitness, and health.
They provided a bunch of tips to help families stay fit, and keep from going stir crazy. You can watch the video here:
They talked about:
Simplifying your workouts! They don’t need to be so formal or so long. Instead, put together some basic movements like pushups, burpees, sit-ups, chair dips, and air squats, and do them for 5-20 minutes!
Involve your kids! Teach them the movements. Have them pick the rounds/reps and to them with you. Or… use your kids as weights! Put them on your shoulders when doing squats. Blow on their bellies during pushups.
Create an epic workout playlist with songs that gets everyone in your family energized and pumped! Blast the music in your house and get everyone moving a few times a day. Before bedtime might be ideal to get kids tuckered out before sleep time.
If you want to start your own quarantine family workout plan, you can get one here:
If you want more videos about how to preserve and protect your relationships and your sanity during Corona Virus, I’ve got more helpful lessons like this coming up! Just type your email in here:
