Out of the mouth of babes, thou hast ordained…booty gains?
That’s certainly the case for one savvy mom who decided to turn a morning with her daughter into a fitness challenge that exploded on TikTok.
“I’ve had so many moms commenting that they want to try it or tagging other moms to do it,” Jess Sharp told The Post.
In lieu of her usual morning walk, the 34-year-old mom in upstate New York decided to shake up her fitness routine with an unexpected trainer and an even more unusual cue.
“I’m going to do a squat every time I hear the word Mom,” she explained in a TikTok video.
Her four-year-old daughter Amelia clearly has ambitious goals for mom’s glutes, as the toddler dropped M-bombs left and right, including a flawless quadruple: “So what are you making, Mommy? So what are you making, Mommy? So what are you making, Mommy? So what are you making, Mommy?”
And exactly how many squats did Jess drop and give Amelia?
“I actually did expect the number to be pretty high because I already know how often I hear ‘Mom’ in a day,” she recalled.
“But I don’t think I really thought about what 200-plus would feel like when every single one meant doing a squat. Seeing the number and actually having to squat that many times are two VERY different things.”
The comment section was equal parts astonished, impressed and triggered by Jess’s toddler bootcamp.
“You’ll be skinny af by 6pm,” wrote one user, while another quipped: “You’re gonna be quadzilla by the end of the week.”
“‘Hey mommy do you like me’ it would’ve been nap time right there,” a third chimed in.
“Yeahhhh I’m gonna skip this one. I have 6 kids. My legs would fall off end of the day,” yet another wrote.
What began as a fun side quest ended with a painful posterior that lasted for two days, making it difficult for Jess to navigate the house: “I was so sore I could barely go up and down the stairs!”
Still, she might be on to something.
A 2022 study found that fewer than 50% of mothers with young children meet recommended general exercise guidelines, managing an average of only 18 to 19 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous daily physical activity.
While Jessa hasn’t done the squat challenge again, but it inspired her to try other versions, like a burpee question challenge. She sees them as a fun way to get in a workout snack — a quick burst of exercise that can be done anytime, anywhere. For parents with small children, that can make fitting in movement a little easier.
“I think the funniest part is that 200+ times wasn’t even a full day,” Jessa added. “I think that’s why the video was so relatable every parent knows how many times you hear ‘Mom’ in a day, but you don’t really realize HOW many until you start counting.”
Jessa’s gains have also included financial growth.
She racked up hundreds of dollars after putting a spin on the challenge by having her husband shell out a dollar for every ‘Mom’ over the course of a day.
“That one ended at 405 ‘Moms,’ so apparently I should’ve just started charging him sooner,” she said.
