Family Fitness

Tips For Family Fitness During Summer

Family fitness should be fun, and a part of your daily routine. It’s about putting phones down, connecting with each other, and recognizing exercise in new places.

Kids need physical activity to build strength, coordination, and confidence, and to lay the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle. They’re also gaining more control over how active they are. Active childhood leads to a healthy lifestyle later and builds the foundation for the social, psychological, and mental skills needed to succeed as an adult. Keep the focus on the fun and exercising won’t be a chore and maybe these ideas will inspire your family to devise more entertaining ways to get moving.

Creating a family fitness plan is the best way to achieve fitness goals for the whole family. Have everyone work together, commit together, and do it together, while supporting one another.

Family Fitness And Ways To Stay Active Together!

Try body-weight exercises

Do squats, push-ups, lunges, calf raises, crunches and jumping jacks together. If you have a small baby, you can prop them in front of you and make silly faces, or hold them while you do a set.

Plant a veggie garden

If you have yard space, allow the kids to have a small plot to garden on their own. Digging, hoeing, and planting all work multiple muscle groups, and your kids experiment growing different vegetables.

Ride bikes

If your children are old enough to ride their bikes, this can be one of the best exercises families can do together. It’s fun, easy, and accessible for most everyone.

Train for a 5k together

Walking or running a 5k (3.1 miles) is a very doable and fun challenge for a family to complete together. Young kids can participate in a stroller, and kids around age 7 and up can run/walk.

Dance Party

This is one of our favorites. Whether someone is feeling low energy or everyone just needs to get moving, turn on some upbeat music and dance!

Healthy Eating Matters

Talk about healthy eating habits too, and positive changes you could all make. Above all, support and respect each other and making this an exciting adventure for the entire family.  Even the smallest step towards a healthy lifestyle can make a significant impact on each of you. As with any team, there’s a leader or coach – and that’s you!

Positive Role Model

Adult family members are important role models for healthy eating and exercise. Talk about why you eat fruit as a snack, take a hike or go for a blade.

Start Young

Don’t wait until your child is at an unhealthy weight to institute good eating and activity habits. It’s much easier to maintain a healthy weight than to lose pounds later.

Stay Active

Make it usual for the family to be active, not sedentary. Being active as a family allows kids to expend energy in a positive way, and adults get the health benefits, too.

Cooking

It may not be possible to do it every day, but invite kids into the process of preparing food. Little kids can learn math skills by measuring and they’ll begin to understand the chemistry of cooking. They’ll also gain an understanding of healthy ingredients.

Eating/Vitamins

Eating a meal as a family sends the right messages about nutrition. Kids will see their parents eating healthy food and may want to try new foods. I talk a lot about the importance of taking a daily multivitamin (but that’s it’s own topic). Your kids will also see that mealtime is a time for being together.

 

Comments
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

About the Author

Tammy Wilson

Tammy Wilson

Tammy Wilson is die-hard health and fitness guru, and her energy is absolutely contagious. Her areas of expertise include cellular health and personal training, and she is also a competitive dancer, model, actor, and loving mother of three. Tammy is known as fierce and fearless and each day sets out to inspire everyone to live […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Read Bio Read Posts