Heavy Work Activities for Home: How To Transform Your Daily Routines for Better Regulation

Have you heard of the term ‘heavy work’ before? Heavy work activities can greatly improve your child’s regulation, especially if you incorporate them consistently. We use heavy work activities in every session at the clinic because of how regulating they are! If you are curious about learning how to plug heavy work activities into your daily life, keep reading as we are unpacking what we mean by ‘heavy work’ and will teach you how to build a heavy work routine that can improve your child’s regulation over time. Let’s dive on into what we mean by ‘heavy work’.

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What is Heavy Work? How Does It Help with Regulation?

Heavy work activities provide resistance to our muscles, joints, & ligaments. Activities that involve pulling, pushing, crawling, crashing, & jumping have a particularly regulating effect on the nervous system. 

In fancy terms, heavy work is described as proprioceptive input. When our muscles, joints, & ligaments receive resistance (via proprioceptive input) the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, which helps us transition from ‘fight or flight’ to ‘rest & digest’. 

It almost works like magic as it can calm down or awaken the nervous system to help us be our best in any given situation.  

You really can’t go wrong with heavy work! The more opportunities your child has to use their muscles, the more resilient their regulation will become. Now let’s discuss how you can build daily routines that incorporate heavy work to improve your child’s regulation.

How to Build a Heavy Work Routine to Improve Regulation

#1. Check Your Mindset

First things first let’s address any limiting beliefs & perfectionism. Your heavy work activities don’t have to be perfect to have an impact, and it doesn’t have to be Pinterest worthy to be worth your time. You just have to start. 

Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. When you start feeling resistance come up, pause and remind yourself that you are on a journey. It takes time to create new routines. It takes trial and error to figure out what works best for your family. 

Don’t wait for circumstances to be perfect (they rarely are). Just commit to the journey and start doing something!

#2. Make a Plan

Think of your day in three zones: morning, afternoon/after school, & evening. We know that when you have a family, schedules can be complex and flexibility is key. Here are two different approaches to consider when creating a plan –

Approach A

At the beginning of the week, or whenever works best for you, look ahead at your family’s schedule and identify where you can fit in heavy work each day. One day it might be more manageable for your child to get heavy work in the morning, while other days it might need to take place after school.

Approach B

Choose a zone to commit to. For example, say, after you think about your daily schedule, you identify evenings as a zone of opportunity for heavy work. Then, each day after dinner becomes your heavy work time. This could look like a family bike ride or walk, jumping on the trampoline, wrestling, etc. With this approach it’s important to build consistency over time, in whatever way works for your family.

Set a realistic goal for your family to start with. Ideally, you want your child to do at least one heavy work activity more days than not, but what feels attainable for your family right now? Heavy work every other day? Three times a week? Frequency is more powerful than duration, and consistency is key.

#3. Take Action

Once you have the right mindset, and you have a plan, then you have to take action. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you are struggling to put your plan into action, pair it down. It’s ok if you have to start with something smaller than you originally thought.  Trust that the momentum will build, and that you will continue to learn. New routines usually feel unnatural at the start, but stay committed! 

Transform Your Daily Routines for Better Regulation with our Heavy Work Routine Workbook

It’s one thing to have a desire to build a heavy work routine, and another thing to actually build the routine. At the end of the day what counts is our actions – not what we thought about doing. With this free workbook, we will help you bridge the gap between idea & action by providing printouts that make it easier to get started & stay consistent.

Start Building Your Routine Today

Now that we’ve talked about how to include heavy work activities in your day to day, let’s brainstorm what kinds of heavy work activities to implement.

Easy Heavy Work Activities to Try at Home

Morning: 

  • Morning stretches
  • Animal walks, hopscotch, or walk on stepping stones to the bathroom/kitchen
  • Jump on the bed
  • Hallway movement path
  • Food: drink smoothie through a straw, eat something chewy

Afternoon/After school:

  • Jump on trampoline
  • Climb on the playset or up a tree
  • Play a sport (basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming, ect)
  • Explore in a sandbox
  • Swing (back & forth)
  • Draw with chalk on the sidewalk
  • Play catch
  • Bounce basketball
  • Play tag
  • Play ‘The Floor Is Lava’
  • Play ‘Twister’
  • Make an obstacle course
  • Ride bike

Evening:

  • Wrestle
  • Stretch
  • Yoga
  • Deep breathing – blow bubbles, blow pom poms down the hallway or into a cup on the floor
  • Pillow fight
  • Jump into cushions/crash pads
  • Race up the stairs

If you take anything away from this blog post, let it be that heavy work activities don’t have to be complicated to have an impact on your child’s regulation. Prioritize building a routine that includes heavy work activities into your daily rhythms consistently. Start small, and let the momentum build overtime. Make sure to download the free workbook that we created to pair with this post to get started! 

Feeling overwhelmed? Our team is more than happy to guild you through this process. Together we can identify opportunities for heavy work in your daily schedules, and give you clear guidance on what activities to start with. Reach out to us today through our contact form to get started!

Want to know more about sensory processing, self regulation, child development, & more? Our resource library is full of free crash courses, guides, and tools to help you  understand more about your child & how you can support them outside of therapy.

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