Home Workouts for Kids — 6 Fun Ideas

Are you worried that your son is lazy?

Or your daughter spends all her day eating and you are worried about her health?

If you ever hoped that your kids would adopt a fit lifestyle, you are not alone.

Fitness is the oft-ignored underlying factor among the busy lives of professionals and their families. High levels of fitness can improve our lives in ways we often fail to fully appreciate.

Is fitness even important for kids?

We often compartmentalize fitness as an area of discussion for adults. We leave it to them to figure fitness out in their adulthood.

As parents, we care about not exposing them to undue stress and we often have sufficient idea of what our kids are capable of.

But as Jackie Joyner-Kersee, often regarded as the World’s Greatest Female Athlete, puts it:

This is true whether you are over 40 years old or have young kids. But since we are talking about kids, let’s look at the benefits of exercising (and a regular fitness regimen) for kids:

• A fitness-focused lifestyle will help them make healthier choices and avoid the sedentary lifestyle as adults
• A fitness regimen in combination with a healthy diet can help combat childhood obesity and help them welcome puberty with better self-esteem.
• Aerobic exercises help them improve numerous cardiovascular health markers and stave off diseases such as hypertension, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
• It helps them cope better with stress.
• It helps them perform better in school as they develop better focus and concentration.
• Kids who focus on fitness have stronger joints and muscles and therefore can recover faster from any injuries.

6 fun at-home workouts for kids

While kids may still be able to play with a limited number of friends, a structured and planned fitness regimen will help reap all the benefits for kids that we stated earlier.

Here are 5 at-home workouts that kids will find fun to do.

1. Running

Running doesn’t have to always be about 100m dashes or marathons. It’s fun for kids to follow because it has little structure.

The Little Gym is the world’s premier enrichment and physical development center for kids aged between 4 months and 12 years. Jacquelyn Oldham, the Director for Curriculum and Development at The Little Gym states:

Running is particularly healthy for kids since it helps them build strong bones while strengthening their muscles.

So, relays, competitive timed-laps, and games like tag are incredibly beneficial to kids’ health and easy to incorporate in their routines.

2. Homemade obstacle course

Does your child have a high amount of “naughty, wild energy”? This game-like exercise would be perfect for them!

This is cheap and takes little time to make.

Create an obstacle course with blankets, pillows, stuffed toys, and other items. Then invite friends of your kids over or just get all your kids together to play. To make it a little competitive, use a timer to see who completes the course in what time. Use a candy or more TV time as a prize.

To make it even more fun, give them a light book to balance on their head or give them specific motion to imitate (like a no-stepping-only-full-jumps rule).

This is great especially for kids under 10 as it is not hard on their bodies and doesn’t require as much agility.

3. Skipping

This is slightly more complex but still quite a fun exercise for kids.

There are numerous advantages to skipping:

• An increase in the heart-rate
• Workout of the total body
• Improve core strength
• Weight management
• Improves balance and coordination

Buy a skipping rope in an appropriate size for your kids and one for yourself. Skip with them an enjoy the combined benefits of cardiovascular fitness and emotional bonding together.

Just be watchful of their exertion levels. If a child seems to get exhausted soon, it’s better to switch them to an exercise that requires less agility. This way they can develop their strength and coordination until they are ready to take on a more challenging workout.

4. Crab walks

They are easy to do:

1. Keep hands on the ground
2. Put feet on the ground
3. Lift hips
4. Move the body in all directions using your limbs, like a crab

This is fun for kids and helps develop their core and arm strength.

Make it more fun by letting them balance small items on their bellies like a coffee-table book or their favorite stuffed toy.

5. Bear crawls

This is another low-on-form and high-on-fun activity that kids will just love to do. Crawling like a bear on their limbs without using the knee to move their body around looks silly and that’s why it’s fun to do with their kids.

Technically speaking, this is a superior full-body exercise that involves all muscles — arms, legs, core, back, and joints.

6. Stretching and light Yoga

Not only does stretching reduces soreness, but it also:

• Improves range of motion
• Helps build strength and reduces injury risk
• Keeps muscles flexible

A simple butterfly stretch with controlled breathing can help begin (or end) their day on a calm note.

You can also explore simple Yoga poses to get more benefits from these techniques.

You can make fitness a part of your kids’ lifestyle

Don’t let your kids’ fitness fall by the wayside on your way to embracing a fit lifestyle. Get them involved and set them up for more active adulthood.