The things you share with loved ones are meaningless if you don't have a healthy body to share them in. Today, the majority of both kids and adults have low fitness levels and are overweight. Family attitudes towards fitness can go a long way to change this.
Often, important activities such as exercise get tossed aside for other sedentary family activities such as watching television, playing computor games and eating out. Here are a few ways to get your family back on the way to togetherness and fitness:
* Write down the physical activities each family would like to do and that everyone could participate in.
*Decide what things you could easily do on a daily basis at home that would enhance your family's fitness level. Your family is more likely to participate in activities that are convenient and require little equipment.
*Make it a family habit to do some sort of exercise during commercials while watching TV. These exercises might be crunches, stretching, jumping jacks or squats.
*Join your local Y or other family fitness club with family and youth programs.
*Spend 10 minutes a day doing calisthenics. Music can make this more fun. Some of the basic exercises you and your kids can do at home are pushups, crunches, squats and resistance training.
*Choose some aerobic activities the whole family enjoys. These might be a family walk or hike, bicycling, jumping rope and jogging.
*Play sports with other families in your neighborhood.
*Do yard work or gardening together.
*If you go on a family vacation choose an activity oriented vacation.
*If you have pets, especially a dog, make sure every family member participates in walking, caring and playing with the animals.
* Do some stretching exercises together at least three times per week.
*Keep track of each family members progress. For example, every 3-4 weeks see how many crunches or pushups each individual can do in a minute and look for the improvement.
It's important to realize that family fitness is about everybody feeling better now, not about rigid structured workout schedules. Fitness should be a way of life, not a chore. Just get your family active and moving. Whatever fitness activities your family members decide to partcipate in, do them for overall wellness and the sense of togetherness. It's true that the family that plays together stays together.
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Dr. Lanny Schaffer is an Exercise Physiologist and President of The International Fitness Academy. For more cutting edge fitness ideas go to
http://www.aerobic-exercise-coach.com
