When you have kids, your personal time at the gym may get cut short or get cut out altogether.
Don’t despair!
This is an opportunity to start a family fitness program at home. It doesn’t matter how young your kids are. If they can walk, they can get some exercise.
Family fitness is a concept that more families should embrace.
Kids are so impressionable that it’s important to teach them about staying in shape.
There’s no better way to teach them than leading by example, so you should try to work out with them often.
This guide will give you some great suggestions on how to start working out with your kids.
Starting Young is the Easiest Way to Teach Them
Ideally you want to start teaching kids about fitness at an early age.
Babies start learning when they’re born, however they begin to imitate gestures as early as 9 to 12 months of age.
Note that I’m not suggesting you start a fitness program with your one year old. I’m simply pointing out that they start learning early.
One great idea is to do bodyweight exercises using your baby as additional bodyweight!
Drop the dumbbells and pick up the baby. You may not think your baby is aware of what you’re doing, but they will pick up on your fitness habits faster than you can blink.
Kids start to understand more complex thoughts between the ages of 3 to 4 years old. They get curious and begin to analyze things.
This would be a great age to start teaching them about fitness.
This doesn’t mean putting them on a treadmill. However, teaching them about being active over sedentary is a great start.
Ages 4 to 5 years old is where your child may start to imitate your actions. This is where the fun family fitness can begin.
Mommy-and-me yoga and tyke swings with Dad are all a part of the agenda.
Your child may not fully understand the purpose of being fit, but they’ll understand that physical activity is a part of life.
If you start young, exercise will be as normal as playing with toys. You’ll avoid having the kid that turns into a couch potato. You will have set your child up for a healthy, happy life.
Starting With Older Children Can be a Lot of Fun
After the age of five, kids go through an adorable phase of wanting to be pretty like Mom or strong like Dad (or whichever configuration you have in your family).
Until they hit their teenage years, they really want to spend time with you.
In fact, they may have a bit of anxiety being away from you. That makes it easy to implement a family fitness routine.
While you can still focus on movements and fun playtime activities, you can begin to transition them to actual exercises around the age of 9 or 10 years old.
They can start learning to use small equipment like dumbbells or barbells. Teaching them proper form is key, so they don’t injure themselves.
Making it Fun Keeps Them Interested
Kids aren’t going to be motivated at the amazing health benefits of exercising like you will.
It’s going to take something different to motivate them, and that something different is usually something fun.
This doesn’t mean you should turn your exercise ideas into a joke. It simply means that you need to make it interesting for them.
Even if you’re a fitness guru, don’t try to push too much on your kids at one time.
It may be too intense for them, and they’ll quickly lose interest.
Instead do exercises that are fun as well as effective. This could even mean going outside and playing as a family.
You could even consider a rewards system.
Kids get extremely motivated when they are going to receive a reward at the end of a task.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a small reward or a big reward, just the idea of receiving one is enough to make them get up and move.
Extra Curricular Activities
School is a great place for older kids to stay physically active.
There are so many sports and clubs that kids could join.
Not only are these activities great for their mental and social development, but they keep your child physically fit.
Consider convincing your child to join a club or team at school. In fact, you may not have to do much convincing. Kids usually discover these interests on their own.
The way this ties into family fitness is through practice.
Whatever club or team they join, you can help them practice at home. They will love getting the attention from you while improving their skills.
Make Sure They Eat Healthy Foods
It would be pointless to implement a fitness routine for the family if your kids are living off a diet filled with burgers and pizza.
Kids need to eat healthy, nutritious meals to go along with the exercise that they do. This ensures that they get the nutrients they need as they grow and get into better shape.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s pretty much the same rule for adults.
If you’re going to eat unhealthy foods, you’re basically going to undermine your exercise efforts. Teach your kids about total health, including eating right.
Foods that need to be a regular part of your kid’s diet include:
- Milk
- Water
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Whole grains
- White meats
You’ll notice that kids essentially need the same foods that adults need if they’re trying to eat healthy. This makes it simple for the whole family to eat a healthy diet.
Use Suggested Exercises by Age Group
Here are some great ideas that you can use to develop a family fitness routine in your home. The exercises are grouped by age to make it easier to navigate.
Toddlers
Song and Dance Time
Toddlers love music.
It doesn’t matter what kind of music; they absolutely love it. Once they learn how to talk, they quickly learn the concept of singing.
You can implement a regular song and dance time for you and your toddler.
While the singing is a bonus, make it more about the dancing. This is an excellent way to get in a fun cardio session.
Crawl Around
By now your toddler has likely learned to walk.
However, that doesn’t mean he or she can’t crawl anymore. Crawling around is a great way to get in some cardio.
You could even turn it into a game or a make-believe session.
Pretend you’re an animal and see how fast you can go. Just be careful not to become the horse while your child rides you. You’ll be getting all the exercise alone which defeats the purpose.
Running Around
Toddlers love to run as much as they love to dance.
You may want to go outside for this one, so you don’t encourage running indoors, but outside the world is their oyster.
You could make up a game where you’re simply chasing each other. If you have a puppy, your toddler might want to run with the puppy.
It usually won’t take much convincing to get a toddler to run.
Jumping
This is another activity that toddlers love to do.
You can teach them jumping jacks while turning it into a play session. Toddlers have a lot of energy, so they may even be able to do more jumping jacks than you can.
Children
By this age, the aimless jumping and crawling has probably ceased. It doesn’t mean they aren’t still jumping (and maybe even crawling for fun), but it’s usually for a more specific purpose.
More importantly, you can start introducing real exercises to them with modifications for their abilities.
Push Ups
This is great to start developing upper body strength and working on their core.
They may need to do pushups from their knees or possible lay on the floor and push up from their waist.
However, the more they do it, the faster they’ll get around to real pushups.
Yoga
Kids are naturally more flexible than adults, so yoga may come easy to your child.
Remember not to push them too much or to bend them into a pose.
Let them learn on their own. They’ll do their best to mimic you and eventually they’ll get good at it.
Zumba
Just because they’re not a toddler anymore doesn’t mean they don’t like to dance anymore. Zumba classes are great for the whole family.
Plus, they’re easy, fun, and incorporate modern music that everyone loves.
If you can’t attend official Zumba classes, you could try the Just Dance video game or something similar at home.
Squats
This is a good bodyweight exercise for kids so they can begin building strength.
You’ll need to put emphasis on teaching them the right form so they will get the maximum benefits from the exercise.
In fact, you can start teaching squats at a pretty young age.
Teenagers
Working out with teenagers is a whole different ball game.
By the time they hit this age, they’re up for just about any kind of exercise. They probably aren’t very strong yet, but the more they workout, the more eager they’ll be to improve.
This is especially true for boys who want to be strong like their Dads.
At this point, your child is beginning to develop into an adult. Their fitness needs will vary depending on their lifestyle.
If your teenager is an athlete, they need strength training and endurance exercise.
If they are a bookworm, cardio and bodyweight exercises can help them maintain their fitness. Dancers and runners will need to focus on their lower body.
You get the idea here.
Focus on Overall Health
Implementing a family fitness program at home is an excellent idea, but it won’t be effective if you aren’t focusing on your child’s overall health.
They need to visit their doctor and dentist regularly. Get eye exams and hearing tests. Make sure their shots are up to date.
As a parent, you are fully responsible for your child’s health until they become an adult.
They can’t make it through a family fitness program if their health is failing in other areas. Make sure that you pay attention to your child’s health needs.
Don’t forget about their mental health, especially when they reach the teenage years.
Teenagers have raging hormones that can affect their mood, self-esteem, energy, and cognitive function.
It’s a tough time for them because they don’t know how to handle those changes that happen in their bodies.
Make sure you talk to them as often as you can and get them counseling if they need it. In order for them to remain interested in a fitness regimen, their mental health needs to be good.
Final Thoughts
It’s a great idea to want to focus on family fitness.
The family that exercises together stays together.
More importantly, teaching your kids about fitness at an early age is teaching them valuable life skills.
Exercising will be so common to them that they couldn’t imagine a life without it.
Being a responsible parent is tough, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably doing a great job.
I applaud you for taking your child’s health seriously and I hope you find good use for all this information.
Good luck on setting up your very own family fitness regimen.
