New Year’s Resolutions.  We start out with the best intentions, but often those intentions get derailed by kids, jobs, breathing and life in general.  As parents, we need to learn how to fit things into our schedule that are good for us (like exercise, eating properly and drinking wine) in addition to everything else.  Some of us are great at training for marathons, lifting those kettlebells or rocking the Bikram, but some of us might just want to get Ugi.

Ugi is a ball that has been designed as the ultimate home (and gym) exercise tool. This magical ball was created by three women, all of whom are mums and fitness junkies, who wanted a challenging, effective and sustainable workout that could fit into their busy lifestyles.  The original program was designed by Sara Shears, Vancouver celebrity personal trainer and owner of Gracie Barra Gym.  Over two years of R and D led to the Ugi ball itself, which is squishy like a bean bag, has bounce back like a stress ball and is weighted and looks very similar to a medicine ball.  Its fifteen inches in diameter, so it will tuck easily into a corner at home…unless your toddler steals it to play with…and it comes in weights from 6lb to 12 lb.

We headed down to Gracie Barra Gym to give the Ugi a test drive.  For thirty minutes, we were pushed to our limit.  We lunged, lifted, bounced and sweated…oh we sweated…as Sara took us through the paces.

We hated every minute of it. But in a good way.

We liked how the series of one minute exercises moved us through warm up, cardio, strength exercises, balance and cool down.  We could see how easy these exercises would be to do at home, especially with the work out guide and app that come with the ball.  And we liked how we could do these exercises in a class instead of relying on our own impetus to get us up and sweating.

This system isn’t for everyone, but we like how it could be for just about anyone, from the complete novice to the hard core fitness goddess and anyone in between.  If you’re interested, the Ugi team will be hosting free classes Tuesday evenings at 7:30 pm at Lululemon Oakridge and at the Gracie Barra Gym.

Now if only we could get someone to hide in the corner like the ball and motivate us.  That would be the ultimate home exercise tool.