No time for exercise? Fit the kids into your routine

Having a child can seriously cut into a workout routine -- just try squeezing in even an hour at the gym. Exercise instructor and grandmother Barbara Colby has come up with a solution: “Mom & Tot Workout” (Kiddie Village, 2006), a fitness DVD that moms can do solo or with their young children.

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“Mom & Tot Workout”: The beauty of this beginner-geared DVD is that it’s meant to help moms get back into shape, but doesn’t exclude children. The various segments include warm-ups for kids and moms, muscle toning and moves for the abs and lower body. The muscle conditioning (done with light dumbbells) incorporates easy movements, such as stepping side to side, to boost cardio benefits. Some modifications are provided for pregnant women.

Infants can be stretched and moved by mom in the warm-up section, which features leg and arm stretches, while bigger kids can do the exercises by themselves. Toddlers and older children can mimic the movements of mom during other segments that target the entire body, such as shoulder presses, tricep kickbacks, planks and lunges (kids should use plush dumbbell-shaped toys, not the real thing).

“My whole concept is to be involved with your child [during exercise], not to use the child as a weight,” says Colby, a fitness instructor and certified personal trainer in Boca Raton, Fla. “The workout is about the mother, but the children can watch or you can incorporate them to keep them interested. When I teach classes, the kids are right there with them, having fun, jumping around.”

Price: $14.99, available at www.kiddievillage.com and www.amazon.com.

-- Jeannine Stein