Family Fitness in Lockdown
How to encourage kids to embrace the great outdoors and incorporate exercise into their everyday lives - even in lockdown, even when it snows! ❄️⛄️
We recently collaborated with www.ladywimbledon.com to provide our top tips for family fitness during lockdown, see the post here. Like most parents with toddlers, children and teenagers lockdown has come at a difficult time this winter. The weather is wet, grey and cold so encouraging the children out for daily exercise is definitely proving challenging for many of us. Online school lessons also make it hard to get out during daylight hours.
My children are 10, 12 & 15 and keeping them fit and active during lockdown is my main priority. With childhood obesity and mental health on the alarming rise, I believe regular exercise is key to survival right now.
Here are my top tips to encourage family fitness during lockdown:
Lead by example - Your children are more likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle if you do. Have you signed up to any online classes? If you have, encourage them to join in. Never criticise or try to correct, as long as they are moving and watching you workout that’s great!
Do you run? If you are a runner, always invite the children out for runs with you, it’s very important to let them set the pace whilst they build confidence. The couch to 5k is a great place to start.
Online Classes - if your child’s sports club are offering online live classes, sign them up! This is a great opportunity for them to see their peers and exercise at the same time. My son trains 3x a week online with his gymnastics squad and my daughter attends 3 dance classes a week. Join in with them off camera if it helps with their confidence to add a bit of fun.
Family Fitness Challenges - if your children are competitive and enjoy laughing at Mummy or Daddy, set yourself a family fitness challenge. There are plenty of free online fitness challenges you can all do together.
Fresh Air - If your teenagers are like mine, they are fed up of going for a walk. During the week with online lessons all day this is hard to fit in. Let them know in advance the weekends are for enjoying the great outdoors. Encourage them to meet up with a friend for a socially distant run/walk.
Be Creative - scooting, cycling, even roller-skating counts as your daily exercise. My daughter and I received rollers skates for Christmas and we’ve had great fun trying them out, it’s actually a great, fun workout.
FREE online classes - We all know Joe Wicks and many other celebrity trainers are offering free online classes. Take some time to find a class that fits your child.
However, if you can afford to sign up to a local instructor's live classes please do. These classes will be much more personal and beneficial. I ask all my clients to add their children’s names to our live zoom classes. A bit of personal motivation and encouragement goes a very long way.
The key is to try to make exercise and movement part of your everyday life. Leading by example really is key. Planning an exercise timetable for the week also really helps in our house.
At Merton Health and Fitness we encourage the whole family to join in our online Pilates & Fitclub classes. We have children, teens and many husband/wife duos joining in.
Booking is open for all our online classes. If you would like more information on how we can help keep your family fit during lockdown or if you are an individual looking for a great interactive live class please contact us