Alexandria Wyckoff
A clip featuring Teyana Taylor has been flying around, with the singer and actress claiming that motherhood has helped keep her body tight and in shape.
It has sparked the question across social media: Is chasing after your young children a way to stay in shape?
Teyana Taylor’s Story
Teyana Taylor shared his post-baby story with a news outlet, and it is now circulating on Yahoo and AOL. While some mothers struggle after birth to get back in shape, Taylor has a different story.
She claims that motherhood is the secret behind her killer abs and slim body. She even shared that after each of her two kids with ex Imian Shumpert, her body bounced back even tighter than before.
Of course, it’s not just child chasing keeping Teyana Taylor in shape; she always exercises and dances.
Is Child-Chasing Cardio?
So, is child-chasing cardio? While some busy moms may feel run ragged by the end of the day, they may not have had as much physical activity as they think.
A study was done with 58 women with children under age 6, and only about a third of them got around 30 minutes or more a day of moderate or greater physical activity.
Study author Kelli O’Neil added, “There was this ongoing theme of the women reporting more activity than they actually were getting.”
During the study, the women wore a device to monitor their physical activity, along with filling out a questionnaire about their exercise involvement.
O’Neil claimed, “The most physical activity actually came from sports and exercise. The women who are meeting physical activity guidelines report higher levels of sports and exercise,” she continued, “and those are planned behaviors.”
Importance of Staying Active
Physical activity is super important not only to keep the pounds off, but also to improve a person’s heart health and overall mortality rate.
Even those who are at a healthy weight can be more susceptible to disease or future issues compared to someone who is overweight but works out.
Other than planning time to go to the gym, there are ways for parents to stay active with their kids. This includes walking to your kid’s school pick-up, playing tag in the backyard, kicking a ball around, going for a walk with a stroller, or even going for a family bike ride.
Any way to get your body moving is a great way to stay on top of your health, even when it sometimes gets pushed aside for the health of your child.
Many of these activities might already be a part of your routine, so it’s important to continue them and add planned exercise, if possible.
Finding Time to Exercise
Saying you need to exercise is one thing. Doing it? A totally different challenge.
O’Neil notes that busy moms may find it “very difficult to fit everything in.” However, she advises to “Schedule your workouts just like you do a meeting.”
That way, you’ll have a planned event that you know about and can prepare for, whether that’s with childcare or donning your favorite workout gear.
While some gyms offer child care, working out when your spouse can watch the kids is also a great option. Or, exercise at home and involve the kids, so everyone is moving around and burning off steam.
There are ways to stay active, even with children. Who knows? You may even get a body as snatched as Teyana Taylor.