Staying active as a family is a fantastic way to spend time together, decrease stress, and improve overall health, not to mention that it expends a great deal of energy at times when families are snuggled together for protection from the elements. During the live panel titled “Family Fitness at COVID-19,” fitness experts addressed methods to assist clients who want or need to workout as a family while having fun. The panelists provided guidance on how to create interesting and efficient programming. Brett Klika, CSCS, CEO of SPIDER fit Kids and an international leader in fitness, Anna Woods, ACE Certified Personal Trainer, founder and owner of she STRENGTH, and Kathleen Tullie, MBA, founder and executive director of BOKS (Build Our Kids Success), a physically active program for children that has been scientifically proven to be effective, were among the panelists.
According to Kathleen, physical exercise benefits young people in a variety of ways, including relieving anxiety and depression symptoms, improving concentration, and encouraging better sleep. During this time, it is crucial to reevaluate the notion of physical activity for young people so that it stays a regular part of their life. Anna continues by stating that maintaining control of one’s own training regimen is crucial.
Invite your children to exercise with you, if it is appropriate for them to do so, so that the whole family may remain active. Anna includes her children in the selection of a warm-up and cool-down activity so that they would feel more connected. If your children are too little to participate in the activity, Anna recommends assembling a “exercise toy box” in which some toys are earmarked for use during exercises with the parents. In addition, there are a multitude of live-streaming and pre-recorded exercise programs intended just for youngsters. Both Brett and BOKS conduct daily sessions, making them good options for the family’s new workout routine while they are housebound.
Encourage engagement among teenagers by using creativity and flexibility. Hold friendly competitions as a family, participate in fitness challenges on social media, develop a reward system (such as exchanging exercise time for screen time), or assign the teenager the task of coming up with a family activity.
In the end, all experts reached the same conclusion: Don’t worry too much about it; instead, priorities having fun and being adaptive. The most essential thing is to stay moving, which may be as easy as taking a family stroll one day and attending a live-streaming class the next. Although some of the aforementioned solutions may need more consideration or planning on your part, the most essential thing is to keep going.
Utilization of Common Objects to Create Obstacle Courses
With a little ingenuity and some basic household items, you can create entertaining and difficult obstacle courses. Brett suggests that each barrier be traversed with the youngsters in order for them to grasp the activity (e.g., run around the chair then do 5 frog jumps).
Encourage your children, as they get more familiar with the many options for obstacle courses, to construct their own courses that may be utilized to test the family’s limitations. The following is a list of prospective things that might be utilized in an obstacle course; however, feel free to be creative and use any available resources.
- You can get around chairs by walking over, around, or under them.
While standing on some cushions, your balance and footing will improve.
Placed on the ground, plastic containers and Tupperware may be used as makeshift cones.
On non-carpeted flooring, you may use blankets to push and drag other players or objects. It is also feasible to create tunnels by wrapping blankets around chairs.
Using sidewalk chalk, draw agility ladders, following lines or arrows, baseball bases, and hopscotch squares.
Cannot get outside due to the tape? Tape off some interior locations.
Carton-based packaging You may use smaller boxes to create crawling tunnels, or you can use bigger boxes to jump over.
