At Home Family Physical Fitness Ideas

At Home Family Physical Fitness Ideas

As families continue to shelter in place together, it can be challenging to navigate the stress and stay in shape. Exercising as a family is one way families can, at once, cope more adaptively with pandemic-related stressors and maintain physical health.

What follows are ideas for families to exercise together without the resource of a public/private gym.

Make Fitness A Game

Take a pack of playing cards and turn them into fitness cards: hearts are crunches, clubs are push-ups, diamonds are squats, and spades are jumping jacks (substitutions are, of course, permitted). Each family member takes a turn selecting a card and doing the indicated activity. For example, drawing a five of hearts would mean completing 5 crunches.

Go For A Bike Ride

Strap on your helmets, hop on your bikes, and take the kids for a bike ride around the neighborhood or to the park to picnic or for an outdoor game night. Advance route planning can be helpful to ensure safety and a good fit with respect to riding capability and physical demands of the ride selected.

Have A Dance Party

Decorate your living room with a disco ball or other fun string lights, turn on some good tunes, and have a dance party. You could also record yourselves to share with friends and family.

Play Classic Outdoor Games

Perhaps over the years your kids have asked you to play games like hide-and-seek or kickball? Now is the time to embrace these requests and head outside for some family fun. Consider tag, jump rope, dodgeball, or kick the can as well.

Timed Scavenger Hunts

This game can get all family members participating in aerobic exercise. Split the family into teams. Team A could start by hiding objects around the house or yard. Team B would have 10 minutes to find these objects. Then swap roles such that Team A finds items hidden by Team B. The team that finds the most items wins – perhaps earning opportunity to opt out of accomplishing a specific chore across the next week?

Go For A Family Walk

Walking is great exercise and provides families opportunity to connect while being active. Consider adding a family walk to your daily schedule. Perhaps after dinner the family walks a different route around the neighborhood in an effort to walk each street in a specified radius surrounding your home?

Of course, there is also ample opportunity for creativity. What are your family physical activity ideas? While Covid-19 has added stress and challenge to our lives, perhaps one silver lining is increased opportunity to reconnect with family. If you are interested in further exploring your relationship with your family or physical activity, I invite you to call or email me to get started working together. Telehealth appointments are available.

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