Hopscotch with me.

by

rsz_hopscotch

I know.

I’m gonna stop & gaze lovingly at the photo above as well she types pridefully pretending the whole ‘net is shocked how quickly the Tornado is growing, too.

The Tornado was four and, more even than the fact I wanna eat her face off she’s so little and sweet, the photo symbolizes for me the lost art of exercise as FUN.

Necklace in hand.

Hair flying.

Chortles of joy I clearly recall and  you’ll just have to imagine.

The image for me captures precisely why, as often as I can, I shift my workouts into PLAYouts with her.

Still.

That said, I’m a selfish misfit.

I still need to make time for movement even if much of my motivation to do so is to keep my body strong so I’m around to watch her grow-up.

Yes we play.

Yes it’s vigorous & sweat-inducing.

And YES there are always myriad benefits for the Mama in what appear to ONLY be kaughing, afternoon-killing, play’ventures.

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This is why I firmly believe in the power of the hopscotch.

For all of us.

Mamas or not.

Five reasons we should incorporate hopscotch into our PLAYout routine.

  • It’s a fantastic overall workout we can do in our street clothes. Legend has it hopscotch was invented as a training exercise for Roman soldiers. The course used was 100+ feet long and the soldiers were compelled to ‘play’ in full armor. True? Who knows. We can, however, be clad in “grown-up attire” and still improve our fitness, endurance, & footwork.
  • It’s indoor/outdoor fun! In the Bay Area it’s almost time to grab our chalk & bring our game outdoors.  When we lived in Texas we played INSIDE in the summer and outside during the winter. Whenever whether sends you inside grab some masking tape & make a carpet hopscotch grid!
  • It counts as cardio! Studies show hopscotch improves running economy & distance running performance. Does we care? Not really. All we know is when we play rounds of Quick! Hopscotch as fast as you can!!!  we both get winded and I’m confident I’m burning calories/working my heart.
  • It works on balance, stability, core & reaction time. Not only are these 4 areas we all need to focus on for overall health—they’re areas (especially the last) we can easily neglect when stuck in a workout-rut. Our hopsotch-playouts are definitely more comprehensive in these 4 areas than my ‘traditional’ gym workouts ever were.
  • It targets our gross/fine motor skills and coordination. This may seem more beneficial for the little ones in our lives, but the older we get (*raises hand*) the more we, too, need to make time to KEEP the coordination & motor skills we’ve acquired along the living-way.

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(passes out virtual chalk and painters tape)

That’s it, People.

All you need to know & nary a word more so we’ve time leftover to get to ‘scotching.

Alone?

With kids?

Indoors?

Outdoors?

No matter—just get to hopping.

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Comments

  4. I used to love hopscotch as kid. I wonder if we could set up a hopscotch court (?) in our wide hallway here at work during one of next wellness weeks?

    • YES YES YES!!! It’s always funny to me—as Ive done it at similar events with prizes as enticements—how initially people scoff and then they LOVE.

  19. Love hopscotch, and it reminds me of a lady i used to know who was a non-Catholic attending a Catholic school as a girl, and her saying how when she was little she didn’t understand why the nuns had apoplexy when she used the rosary as a hopscotch marker! She said if you tied it in a knot with the cross hanging out, it was the perfect weight.

    Every time i think of hopscotch, i think of that!

  22. What a brilliant post. I’ve always loved the idea of using hopscotch as learning tool for kids who love to be active – we have also used it with letters, words and sums rather than just numbers…but the whole workout for the brain was brilliantly explained here. It’s good to know that such a simple, cheap game has so many benefits to the body, mind and soul.

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