Who Needs the Gym When You Could Do These 8 Mom Task Workouts?

Motherhood gives us a lot of things: a newfound understanding of our own mothers, a surprising capacity for love, and the proverbial "eyes in the backs of our heads," for starters. It leaves an indelible mark on our lives. But it can also leave an indelible mark on our bodies, in the form of stretch marks and sagging and even-wobblier wobbly bits. For these reasons, many moms make the decision to hit the gym, putting those yoga pants to use for things like — gasp! — actual yoga.

But unless you've purchased the gym membership just so you can sit in the silent locker room eating cookies during your allotted hour of free childcare (hey, no judgment here!), there's really no need to shell out a bunch of money to get in shape. Because if you think about it, the very act of taking care of a family and a household is intense — if it weren't, why else would we be so exhausted at the end of the day?

Here are eight everyday aspects of life with kids that are totally reasonable swaps for the things we might otherwise be doing at the gym.

Thighs of steel are no problem for the mom of messy kids, which is practically all of us. Think about it: how many toys are scattered around your house right now? If you lunge for every Lego, for example, that's approximately 1,087 lunges in a day (if your floor looks like mine, that is).

Stamina's the word when it comes to running after a tricky toddler, because we have to keep going as long as they do. For them, running is a new skill, one that they enjoy practicing at every opportunity. Chasing them around the grocery store, the park, or wherever else we take them — whether they're supposed to be running or not — is surely just as effective at logging miles on the treadmill. At the very least, it's more interesting, considering the changes in scenery.

Sometimes life requires us to kick it up a notch and break into a full-speed sprint. Toddler legs are short and therefore easier to keep up with; buses aren't quite as slow, so when we're running after one with our kid's forgotten lunch box or running to the bus stop as it approaches, we're required to engage in some serious, heart-pumping movement. (Ditto for running after the ice cream truck, although any calories burned are probably negated once we reach it.)

How is it that a 25-pound toddler can feel like a 250-pound adult when they're sleeping? It's one of the great mysteries of life — but also one of the reasons a mother's arm strength rivals that of any bulked-up beefcake at the gym. Bonus points if your kid falls asleep on the couch and the bedroom is up a set of stairs.

The laundry basket is a catchall for the 12,352 items of clothing that our kids seem to discard daily. Whether it's actually dirty or not, it ends up in the wash (because who really wants to sniff to find out?), and we end up hauling monumental mountains of clothes back and forth between dryer and drawers. It's like endurance training for our biceps.

All those sheets we just washed have got to end up somewhere. Putting them on any kind of bed is enough to make you a little out of breath, but putting them on a bunk bed is on a whole other level. First off, with two beds, you expend twice the energy. And secondly, the top bunk is always tough — because how exactly are you supposed to lift the corners of the mattress to stretch the sheets over if you're sitting on it? You end up with one foot on either side of the bed, orchestrating a well-timed hop while you tuck each corner, hoping your weight doesn't break the slats and send you hurtling toward the bottom bed. You become an expert when it comes to fitness — fitness sheet over this stubborn top bunk, that is.

With children comes stuff . . . lots and lots of it. From the time they're born, our homes are filled with various space-hogging equipment, like bouncy seats and humongous play mats and that three-tier "enrichment tower" that you just knew would help elevate their brain development into genius status. Add in the plethora of toys and books and shoes they leave scattered about, and simply walking through a room can improve your agility — all that dodging and weaving and high-stepping!

Who needs fancy equipment when you've got a cranky, opinionated kid, am I right? They may be little, but nonparents would be surprised at the force of resistance offered up by such a seemingly harmless imp. The more independent your toddler thinks she is, and the less she wants to be confined to her seat, the greater the workout benefit for Mom.

See? It's time to stop feeling guilty that you didn't hit the gym today (for the 485th day in a row), because you can burn tons of calories just by doing the whole mom thing. But if you want to get that gym membership anyway, just to take advantage of the childcare (and maybe the sauna) . . . we won't tell anybody.