Collaborative Post
Finding the time and motivation to workout when you’re a parent is tough. As well as it being difficult to muster up the energy thanks to the many sleepless nights, you may also struggle to find someone to look after your children while you head off to the gym. Exercising as a family is a great way to get your blood pumping and improve your health. But, how do you start? Read on for some simple ways to begin exercising as a family unit.
Hit the road!
During lockdown, so many of us have been getting our daily exercise in by going out for an evening stroll. Lockdown may be coming to an end, but this activity needn’t, setting yourself a daily routine that involves some form of exercise can help keep you feeling great.
The summer evenings are perfect for a quick stroll around the local area and it will really help in boosting your mental health and wellbeing.
Bored of walking? Why not race each other back to the house to really get the blood pumping!
Get the kids involved in the housework
Housework is a really great way to exercise without really feeling like you’re exercising. By getting the kids involved, you’re not only getting your daily exercise in, but getting help with boring chores too.
Choose something age appropriate for them – dusting for the toddlers and hoovering for the older ones.
Gardening is also another great way to exercise and the health benefits from being outside are huge, including getting in your daily vitamin D requirement – assuming the weather is nice of course!
Have activity days
Set it in stone that one day a week you’ll take part in a family activity!
To keep things interesting you could try a different activity each week such as swimming, hiking or cycling. Slot this dedicated time into each week to do something fun and different. You could even try classes such as yoga or dancing! The important thing is to make it fun so everyone has a blast!
Head to the park
An easy way to get loads of exercise in, is to walk to the park and then set up an activity whilst you’re there such as playing frisbee or football, before walking back again. You could also try playing rounders, cricket, or taking your bikes there. Try these simple exercise ideas as a family and make sure to fit in rest and recovery time, which is equally as important! Recovery equipment such as a massage gun or foam roller will help you to wind down and relax after a particularly gruelling workout.
Such great tips here, we used to love going for walks we have some great woods around us and used to look for the Gruffalo, love the getting them to help with housework x
Look at Jack go, bless him. These are some great tips – I have to admit I really want to go swimming as I can just bob about in the water, it’s a shame the pools are closed.
One of the things my youngest son has been missing while under coronaquarantine is sports. He loves the physical activity as much as he loves seeing friends.
I love the idea of family activity days. Doing something as a family is a great way to encourage kids to be more active
Some fantastic ideas here to workout as a family. Since the lockdown we have been walking a lot as a family that this has become a routine. Anywhere from half an hour to two hour walks, dependin on the weather or the day.
These are absolutely excellent points – and having a nominated day for excercises each week is genius. My husband and I are going to be setting up a schedule to keep us (literally) moving!
These are all great ideas! Getting kids involved in housework and gardening is brilliant, learning essential skills and working together is always a plus.
I used to love going out for walks and cycling with my family as a kid. Now I’m a twenty-something living with flatmates during a pandemic, we make sure to go for walks around the local parks and canals to exercise together for motivation.
We have really enjoyed working out as a family during lockdown- we have ventured to new areas to find walking paths suitable for the pram and woods with things like Fairy houses and treasure hunts.