You can make family fitness fun by adding or changing a few elements of your routine. If fitness isn’t enjoyable then your children won’t make a habit of it. There may be some forms of fitness you all enjoy just for the sake of the activity itself. Other types may not be so enjoyable. Then there are the activities that some individuals don’t like and others do. Sometimes you have to increase the fitness fun level just to get the teens interested in spending time with you! Don’t take it personally. It’s just a teen thing. Use these tips to keep everyone interested and enjoying the fitness activities.
Tips to Make Family Fitness Fun
Challenge each other
If competition causes a problem in your family you might want to avoid this tip. On the other hand, it might be a great way to help develop some healthy sportsmanship. Challenge each other to meet personal goals. You might even place bets on each other. You can also challenge each other to do crazy things, like keep an egg balanced while doing yoga.
Take turns picking activities
Create a suggestion box. Ask everyone to submit ideas. Choose a fitness activity from the box on workout days. This makes the activities more fun and interesting because everyone’s ideas get used and you are never sure what’s next.
Change the location
You don’t always have to workout at the same location. Take your workout to the park. Join a gym and workout there. Take walks in different neighborhoods. This helps your whole family become more social. They also get to enjoy different landscaping changes. This addition of variety just makes the fitness goals more interesting.
Involve other families
Ask other families to participate in your family fitness. The more people there are the more interesting it is. This will also help you come up with new ideas for fitness activities. In some cases you can even get discounts in places because you come as a larger group.
Encourage each other
Encouragement is one of the most important parts of your fitness goals. Everyone goes at their own pace so they may not see the results right away. Others have stamina problems that can be discouraging. When you encourage each other you aren’t just more likely to meet your fitness goals as a family. You develop a stronger family because you lift each other up instead of dragging each other down.
Family fitness is about more than just exercise. It’s about healthy eating habits and thought processes as well. If your family is going to get fit together, make sure you are getting fit on more ways than one. For example, forcing a child to jog after feeding her french fries and telling her she is fat is going to turn fitness into a nightmare. On the other hand, talking about fitness goals and challenges before working through them together helps develop trust and self-esteem. Keep in mind that each person has their own goals and challenges. As a parent, it’s up to you to make them more pleasant.
What do you do to make family fitness more fun for everyone? Tell us in the comments!
