Turn exercise time into fun family fitness time!

By jazzing up family time with fun physical activity, you’ll be increasing the fitness level of your family and building strong family bonds ~ all at the same time! Fit Families are happy, healthy and strong families. You can start today with my ideas for Family Fitness.

In our technology happy world, we’re seeing it more and more: obesity among children and adults alike. Diabetes is on the rise and even our children are being diagnosed with high cholesterol. As moms, we face the challenges of a difficult balancing act between family, career, our own health and the health and wellbeing of our families. Creating fit families takes an eye for fun and a dash of flexibility. Our fitness routine might be a bit boring for a ten year old so we have to be a little creative and add fun stuff to the mix in order to build our fit families.

Check out these ideas for fun family fitness. Send me your ideas, too! We may post it on our website for other moms building fit families!

Family Olympics

Add some family competition to really spice things up during your family playtime. Pull out the Hoola Hoop®, jump rope, or potato sacks and let the games begin! Any kind of movement is great for building a fit family. Get them running, jumping, swimming … even laughing! Laughter is a great fat burner! You’ll have your family fit while making wonderful memories going for the gold!

Biking

A good bike is worth every penny. Not only is it a great full body workout, it’s terrific for fine-tuning your child’s motor skills. The cost of a bike ranges from $70 way up into the hundreds of dollars. But you don’t have to spend a lot to get a good bike for family outings and if you take care of it, it’ll last several years. Make sure you and the kids have helmets (which cost in the neighborhood of $15) and find a suitable park or trail. For your more experienced child biker, let them call the shots by taking the lead.

Swimming

Family fitness is easy to achieve when water is involved! We all love water play from Marco Polo to water volleyball. And the fitness possibilities are endless. Have a walking in water race. It’s a terrific calorie burner and bun firmer. Go on a treasure hunt by tossing a quarter in the pool and then racing to find it. Just treading water burns fat and calories and is great fun when the family is doing it together.

Frisbee® Fun

There are tons of games to play with a disc. Even the dog can join in at the park! Frisbee Golf is a great way to add movement as well as competition to the fun. Just pick a tree, post or other object, decide your par and work your way all over the park or yard.

Indoor Fun Away from Home

Go roller skating at your local rink or swimming at an indoor pool. Rock climbing walls, batting cages or even walks through the mall can be very enjoyable as you find creative ways to work on your families fitness.

Indoor Fun at Home

Some days you just can’t leave the house but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to pursue family fitness inside. Little kids love to dance! There are several workout videos that incorporate dance moves into the workout making it fun and effective. Wii ® has a wonderful exercise program along with some cool games that will get the whole family moving and involved. But you don’t have to spend a penny to enjoy indoor fitness fun. Blow up a balloon and try to keep it off the ground or just turn on the radio and boogie till you sweat!

Family fitness can be a whole boatload of fun for your entire family if you choose your activities with everyone’s interests in mind. Mix things up with a game of basketball, badminton, tennis or touch football or make up your own games. Your children will build memories of the fun times they had with you as well as enjoy the health benefits that come with fit living.

By: Adriana Martin