Guide To Exercising with Family

Around the world, life in lockdown brought families closer, helping them to discover renewed value in quality time with one another and creating an environment to inspire new ideas for time together. One way families have been bonding is by getting up and getting active, reaching health goals, and exercising for a lifelong of fun as a unit. At PT Academy, we have been helping personal trainers develop their skills and repertoire to attract new clients and grow their business for years, and have proudly helped many to explore how they can get more people to exercise.

When parents exercise with their children, it helps to instill healthy habits for the future and helps to bring the family closer together having accomplished a task with a common goal together. Families with older children or couples without children can benefit from exercising together too, and can have just as much fun breaking a sweat as they would lounging on the couch. Exercise doesn’t have to be a grueling solo activity, and there is no reason it can’t be fun and engaging for the whole family, no matter their age or physical ability.

In this guide, we’ll be sharing a few secrets to getting families to exercise together, plus offering some tips for creating fun, active activities that will help to get everyone moving and having a great time. Finally, we’ll share how you can expand your career as a personal trainer by participating in continuing education courses to increase your knowledge and give you inspiration for working with clients of all ages.

Walk to Local Attractions

If you are lucky enough to live somewhere where you can find interesting businesses, exciting museums, beautiful architecture, or magnificent nature nearby, you have the perfect reason to get your family out the door for a walk every week, or even every day! Walking to your local shops, parks, and other attractions is a great way to get exercise in easily, and become better acquainted with your surroundings. Whenever possible, try to forego the car, train, or bus, and walk instead. Quick trips to the grocery store, a visit to the coffee shop, a viewing of a nearby park, and similar activities are the perfect excuse to walk rather than drive.

TIP: Remember that you have to travel both ways! If the first leg of your journey to the destination is as far as your littlest family member can walk, you may want to choose something shorter to avoid trouble on the second leg/return journey.

Get Inspired By Music

If you love music, or your kids love music, it can be a great tool for naturally getting yourself excited to move. Dancing is a practically universal joy, especially for kids that have found a song they love. Dancing is excellent cardio, especially if you are singing along to your favorite tunes at the top of your lungs. Try planning a family dance party, or incorporating music into chores so that everyone gets a little extra motion in during the process. Even a few minutes of dancing can help you break a sweat, and could even get your family more interested in being active as long as music is involved.

Garden Together

If you have a garden, try to get your kids or partner involved in keeping it nice and tidy. If you have spent any time pulling weeds, raking leaves, or digging in the garden, you know that it can be quite a strenuous activity and requires a certain amount of strength and stamina. Recruiting your kids to help you pull weeds, dig, and haul brush away is a fun way to get everyone moving and accomplish something that needs doing.

Walk Around a Mall

While shopping may not sound like much of a workout, walking through a large busy mall can be quite physically demanding for children. An hour or more of walking at a normal pace through a mall can be more than adequate exercise for smaller children, or older members of your household like grandparents. A walk around the mall can be as quick or as leisurely as you like, but keeping a moderate but steady pace will yield the best results. If your kids want to stop to check out a shop, don’t worry, adding a few shopping bags to your hands will help increase the intensity of your workout!

Wash Your Car

Going to the car wash may be quick and convenient, but if you have busy kids to keep occupied, you are better off putting them to work with buckets and sponges. Washing an entire car can be very tiring and physically difficult, especially if you do a thorough job cleaning and polishing all of its surfaces. Not only can washing your car provide you with good exercise, but you’ll also end up with a sparkly clean car, free of charge!

Visit the Beach

A day at the beach can be calm and relaxing, or it can be active enough to count as a good workout for you and your family. Firstly, walking on sand creates more resistance, and is more difficult than walking on regular flat ground. Simply walking, running, and playing in the sand at the beach can give you a great core, leg, and cardio workout, even without putting in any extra effort. Furthermore, swimming is an excellent form of exercise, and one of the best ways to get good cardio without putting strain on your joints. Bring a beach ball, badminton rackets and birds, a volleyball, or anything else that you’ll enjoy playing with to keep you active at the beach.

Turn On the Sprinkler

One of the greatest joys of childhood is running through a cool sprinkler on a hot day, but this time-honored childhood tradition isn’t just a good way to beat the heat, it can help you break a sweat and stay fit at the same time. Running through a sprinkler and romping in the yard is great cardiovascular exercise, made even better if you can organize a game like tag to keep the running going. Remember, don’t let the kids have all the fun, you can join in on the sprinkler running too!

Adopt a Dog, Go for Walks

Walks are a fun, low-impact form of exercise that can include virtually the whole family, but if you just can’t seem to find a reason to head out for a daily walk, we have a solution for you. Millions of dogs need loving homes that will care for them, give them love, and keep them active both mentally and physically, which means there is certainly a dog out there that is the perfect fit for your family. Adopting a dog is not only an amazing way to enhance your life and do good, but it can also be a good way for you to get the whole family to go on walks and begin improving your health as a unit with your new canine friend in the lead.

Ready to start inspiring families to get up and get active together? Visit PT Academy online today to sign up for a course, or to discover our incredible resources for fitness professionals!