Use this soggy Seattle Labor Day as an opportunity to give
your family a fun "rainy day" activity by setting up workout
stations in your garage or basement. 

The Labor Day forecast in Seattle calls for showers and highs in the 60s. Native Northwesterners never let a little rain dampen their outdoor plans (or spirits), but if you prefer to stay dry this holiday, here's an indoor activity that's fun for the whole family.

Getting Started.

The beauty of this kind of a workout is that it requires no special equipment. You can use what you already have in your home. All you need is a large, open space (i.e. garage, basement, etc.), plus a few household items such as:

• Post-it® notes
• Minute timer
• Jump rope (optional)

Setting Up Your Stations.

Take your pad of Post-it notes, and write one exercise per note. Start with a few basic conditioning and strengthening bodyweight exercises like push ups, squats, sit ups, lunges and planks, just to name a few. Add a few aerobic exercises like jump rope, jumping jacks or jumping squats. There should be an element of fun for your kids, so include common P.E. exercises like the Bear Crawl and Crab Crawl (see eHow videos below for a demonstration). After you've written about 10-12 different exercises on your Post-it notes, stick the notes up around the room to create your workout "stations."

Ready. Set. Go!

Ask each member of your family to pick a different Post-it note for their starting position. For example, mom starts with squats, dad with push ups, brother with bear crawl, and sister with jump rope. Set the timer for one minute, then everyone does the exercise written on the Post-it at his or her current station until the timer goes off. At the end of one minute, everyone rotates clockwise to the next closest station. Repeat until every family member has gone through all the stations. If your family is competitive, every person can count the number of reps he or she completes during each one-minute station.  Using CrossFit's "Fight Gone Bad" protocol, you can go through the entire circuit three times, and tally the grand total number of reps for each person to determine the winner.  

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