Parents and children should set up a regular time for exercising to realise important health benefits. For example, exercise lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, increases blood flow and circulation to bathe organs and cells in oxygen-rich blood needed for wellbeing and repairs, pain relief for chronic illnesses, etcetera.
Many exercise programs do not require equipment and can be performed on a suitable surface at home with little effort, apart from the actual exercises themselves. This means that you can exercise daily, weekly, or when you have time. For example, on a rainy day, you may not be able to keep up with your cycling or running exercises but can still put in the time and effort to reach your goals, such as weight loss, toned muscles, and core strengthening.
On the other hand, you can still get exercise by being physical, and this is something that families can enjoy doing anytime they want to be active and spend time together. Both types of exercises are useful for health, although games may not provide clear targets and outcomes. They are still great for the whole family and prevent you from leading a sedentary life. We will look at both types of exercises in this article.
YouTube Workout for Families without Equipment
YouTube has videos for everything. Choose an exercise video that is suitable for the whole family and one that does not require equipment. Push back the chairs and have fun, knowing that the program is designed for its physical benefits. Here is one video that meets these objectives. Feel free to try out other videos too.
Dance
Dancing is fun and also burns off a lot of calories. When parents and children exercise together, you may have to take turns choosing the music. Make sure that everyone gets a turn. Check out KIDZ BOP UK for ideas.
Obstacle Course
Fostering People, a foster agency encourages foster carers to spend time doing activities together to foster the bond between the child and the carer. This need not be a structured activity, like an exercise program, but it can be a fun-filled activity that will have everyone laughing and out of breath. One such activity is to build an obstacle course. Depending on the weather, this can be built indoors or outdoors.
Make sure that the obstacles are safe and age-appropriate, for example, cardboard boxes, sofa cushions, stuffed soft toys, and children’s chairs. Design the course so that everyone knows what to do, e.g., jump over the toy, go around the box, slide under the chair, and sit on the cushion. Each person gets a turn and is timed. The winner completes all the steps correctly in the shortest time.
Musical Chairs
This is a great game that most people are familiar with. Set up chairs in a line, back-to-back, making sure that there is one chair too few for the whole family. Then, start some music while everyone dances or moves around the chairs. When the music stops, the person who can’t find a chair to sit on is next to control the music.
Exercising together creates memories of family fun time and enhances bonds.
