Get Moving With Your Family
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Whether it's going for a nightly walk or playing a friendly game of soccer on the weekends, it's important to think about physical fitness for the whole family!
Rather than emphasizing specific workouts for youth, it’s important to create an active lifestyle for parents and kids alike. The more active you are before you have children, the more active you’ll be after you have children. Likewise, it’s important that kids learn to live an active, healthy lifestyle from the example set by their parents.
Meredith Rosson, Assistant General Manager at Cooper Fitness Center Dallas, offers advice on how to get your family moving with family activities and exercise.
The Benefits of Exercising as a Family
Exercising as a family provides a built-in support system and accountability for every family member. It also provides opportunities for families to spend quality time with one another.
Experiencing challenges together such as a 5K and overcoming goals provides the family with unity that is unparalleled to time spent in separate rooms playing on tech gadgets or even playing different sports. Simply taking a family walk will provide the atmosphere to get your children talking to you again. Kids are born to move, but if they don’t see good examples leading them to continue to be active, they will quickly adopt the sedentary lifestyle.
Sports for Kids
It’s important for children of all ages to focus on motor development and control, as well as movement patterns. Many sports available to children allow them to develop their motor control and movement patterns. Sports such as soccer, gymnastics, dance and basketball are all great for developing motor skills and motor control. In these sports, children are able to work on flexibility, balance, eye-hand coordination, eye-foot coordination, strength and use body weight for muscle development strengthening of joints.
7 Ideas for Family Exercise
- Go on a family walk or bike ride before or after dinner.
- Break into teams for a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood or at the zoo.
- Sign up for a 5K or kid-friendly adventure race.
- Go on an indoor or outdoor rock climbing adventure.
- Sign up for a Martial Arts program for adults or children to build a great foundation of discipline and focus.
- Take advantage of free local parks around town. Parents: Don’t be afraid to swing on the monkey bars with your kids!
- Head to the pool for a swim. Swimming is a great option for all members of the family at all different fitness levels.
Cooperize Your Kids
At Cooper Fitness Center youth programs, children are able to participate in our IGNITE! program and/or youth fitness classes while their parents workout. Going to the gym together as a family provides an opportunity for family bonding.
Summer is fun-filled and action-packed at Cooper Fitness Center with fitness and sports camps, swimming lessons and more – there’s something for ages 3-18. Read more about our summer youth programs.
Things to Remember
Parents who make a commitment to spend less time in front of a TV or computer screen and more time being active or enjoying the outdoors will set a healthy example for their children. We must instill the values of living a healthy, active lifestyle in our children at an early age. By teaching children that being active really just means “playing,” we are able to create a positive mindset towards living an active lifestyle. As Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, MPH, our Founder and Chairman often says, “It is cheaper and more effective to maintain good health than to regain it once it is lost.”
For more information about Cooper Fitness Center Dallas Youth Programs, click here or call 972.233.4832.
Article provided by Cooper Aerobics Marketing and Communications.