Exercise Fitness Balance Ball Workout and More Quick Workouts for Busy Moms

This hub is for anyone looking for quick workout ideas, but it’s dedicated to busy moms that, like me, don’t have much time for exercising yet desperately want to be in better shape!

There are many things you can do in a short amount of time to help tone and/or lose weight, but of course, the more time you can put into it the better and quicker you may see results. That being said, below are several tips to help you find the best quick workout for you.

Remember, too, that your body can become accustomed to the same exercise if you do it over and over again without variation, so take several of the following tips and vary your exercise routine to keep your body responding to the exercise and to help keep your interest in your workouts!

An exercise ball - also called a balance ball or stability ball - is a great investment as it’s affordable and you can do so many different toning exercises with it for your legs, arms, butt, and core muscles. This is one of my favorite pieces of exercise equipment. A few exercises are explained below and they are pictured to the right, as well as a few more quick stability ball exercises.

• Lay on top of the exercise ball with the ball under your lower belly/hip area, arms outstretched to the floor; do push-ups while letting your legs go up toward the ceiling as the ball rolls slightly forward.  Make sure you don't over-arch your back. 
• Lay on the floor on your back with legs bent, calves on the ball. With your arms at your sides, push down on the ball while you lift your butt and hips off the floor – this is a great exercise to tone your butt and hamstrings and it also works your core because you really have to work at keeping the ball steady.
• Another great quick exercise is doing abdominal crunches while you lay on the ball, on your back, with feet on the ground.

Try fitting in 15 minutes a day with the exercise ball and you’re sure to see results. Many of these exercise balls come with videos, or you can find inexpensive workout videos at places like Target or Wal-Mart that teach you the many different exercises you can do with it.

Another great and affordable piece of exercise equipment that you should have at home is a resistance band. There are several exercises that you can do with one of these bands to help firm your muscles that are easy and quick - you can even do them in bed if you want to or have to.

Most resistance bands come with several recommended exercises, and you can find many suggestions online, too. I love to use the resistance band while standing on it with feet close together, just wrap it around your hands as much as you want (the more you wrap, the more resistance) and then do bicep curls or tricep pull-ups or push-backs.

You can also sit on the floor with your feet flexed out in front of you, band wrapped under/across the soles of your feet, and use the band to do rowing exercises.

If you like to use exercise videos, there are so many on the market that include quick exercise routines. See below for links to read more about them or to buy them from Amazon. Here are some of my recommendations:

1. One example is the 10 minute solution videos – there are about a dozen of them available and they all have 5 ten-minute workouts to choose from. If you’re pressed for time, do just one, and if you have a few extra minutes, do one or two more!
2. One of my favorite workout videos is Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home series - you work up a great sweat and you can choose to do only a 1 mile walk, or 2, 3, 4, or 5 miles.
3. There’s also a great video series called Quick Fix that includes all 10 minute workouts designed to get the most results in the least amount of time.
4. The exercise DVD series, “The Firm” has received some rave reviews for its total body workout; I’m actually considering giving this one a go. It's doesn't exactly fall under the "quick" workout category, but as with any workout routine, you can stop whenever you want, so if you only have 10 minutes, stop at 10 minutes, do your cool down and you're done!

Sometimes it can be tough setting aside time to pop in a DVD or to get in any exercise without interruptions. What you can do is keep hand weights and resistance bands in the most frequently used rooms of your house.

For instance, the laundry room! When you go to put your laundry into the dryer, do 3 sets each of bicep curls and tricep presses while you’re there - before you leave the room. In the office or den, do an exercise for your back and chest. In the kitchen, do pushups off the counter or you can keep a set of light weights in a drawer. While waiting for things to cook, get out the weights, break out a step stool and do step-ups. Before you leave the bathroom, do a few lunges.

Of course, you can always get on the floor and play with your kids, maybe even do some sit-ups while you're there.

We moms are used to multitasking, right? Why not get some ankle and/or wrist weights and wear them as you go about your day at home (or out!) and especially while cleaning the house!

Here are some great ankle and wrist weights available at Amazon:

Have fun while getting an incredible exercise jumping on a rebounder, or mini trampoline. Bouncing or jumping on a rebounder even just 5 minutes a day can do wonders not only for your fitness, but for your overall health, energy and lymphatic system. When you exercise on a mini-trampoline, you are forced to engage your core muscles and the benefits can be quick and great. Learn more about the incredible health benefits of rebounding here.

An important note here is to make sure you get a quality rebounder; if it's not a quality one you could suffer joint injuries.

Try yoga for great arm toning, as well as all over body conditioning and flexibility. There are tons of DVDs on the market with great yoga exercises. Or you can also go to You Tube (dot com) and look up Sun Salutations - or check out the video below! Do a few of these yoga moves several times a week and it’ll help tone your arms.

One of the best arm toning exercises you can do is good old-fashioned pushups! Pushups are just about the fastest way to tone up your arms, shoulders and strengthen your back muscles and it doesn't cost any money! You can start by doing the modified version, with knees bent on the floor - do as many as you can and work up from there. Pushups really help to define your arm muscles without adding bulk like heavy weights can do. You also work your abs and core while doing pushups. Do some morning, noon and night and your arms will be well on their way to being toned in no time! Start with 3 sets of 5 and work your way up to more – a good goal can be 3 sets of 12-15. Add small weights and do some side lifts and bicep curls and get even better results.

Triceps dips can be done quick and easy at home, or anywhere. Just put your hands behind you on a chair, bench, or step, legs out front, fingers toward your butt, then bend your elbows and lower yourself towards the ground, but not all the way. Do this every other day, starting with 3 sets of 5 and working up to more. Working to tone your triceps will really help you take control - and get rid of - that “jiggling!”

Whatever you decide to do for your quick exercises, make sure you have fun and mix it up a bit so you – and your body – don’t get bored of the same old thing!