Working out with your family, or children, can be more engaging and possible than you think. Yet, there are things that can make it challenging to start out on the right food with a fun workout routine. Mainly, it can be hard for parents or caregivers to find the time for exercise. Between school drop off, teacher conferences, work, dinner and everything in between exercise can quickly go on the back burner.

But, there are some helpful tips and tricks to ensure you and your little ones are staying active to reap all the benefits that come with an active lifestyle.

Let’s explore some of the ways you can work out with your kids, while making it enjoyable for the entire family, from the personal trainers at Carbon Performance.

Benefits of Exercise and Working Out

The benefits of exercise can be seen in more ways than just physical. Exercise has been shown to improve your mental and emotional well being when done consistently. Working out is not only helpful for adults, but children too. Both benefit from staying active, but in more unique ways based on their age and physicality.

Here are the different ways quality exercise can impact adults and children.

For Adults

While exercising as an adult can help to build muscle, lose weight, and tone the body, it can also impact other aspects of your life that you may not even realize need improvement. Exercise for adults can also improve:

  • Sleep: After a 30 – 60 minute workout you may find your muscles not only feeling tired, but you yourself feeling ready for a good night’s rest. Exercise is powerful in the way that it “decompresses the mind” by focusing on your breathing, form, and flow during a workout that can afterwards usher in a sense of calm. From exhausting out your muscles, to relaxing your mind, these factors can play a key role in helping you fall asleep and stay asleep!
  • Mental Health: Adults who are consistent with their workout routine may find a decrease in stress, anxiety, and depression due to an increase of endorphins (happy hormones) released during low or high intensity workouts. The increase of endorphins improves your mood overall, making exercise an excellent tool when wanting to improve your mental health.
  • Metabolic Health: Consistent exercise has also been shown to impact and improve the metabolism, helping to protect you from metabolic disorders, like diabetes. Working out improves your body’s ability to regulate glucose levels which impact your insulin levels, improving both for your overall health.

These three factors all impact your life and how you live day to day. Because of this it’s important to keep them in check, and balanced, through exercise. The future you will thank you!

For Kids

It’s no doubt kids have a lot of energy, and sometimes it can be hard to find where to challenge that energy. Instead of shifting their energy to screens or video games, which has been linked to an increase in anxiety and depression in excess, channel it to physical movement. It won’t only help burn off energy, but benefits them in other ways, such as:

  • Life Skills: discipline and mental strength
  • Emotional Health and Regulation: Helps with brain coordination, confidence, nervous system
  • Physical Health: decrease risk of type 2 diabetes

As a Family

Working out together as a family can help to create lasting memories, and meaningful bonds. By teamwork and encouragement, your family can become closer through quality time spent exercising either in a gym or at a park!

Strong father and son.

How to Make Time to Workout as a Family

You may be reading this and thinking, “sounds great, but how do I make the time for it?” and this is a valid question for many guardians and parents. There is already so much on your plate as a caregiver that it would make sense for carving space for exercise to fall to the bottom of your list. However, we have put together some tricks and tips to make the time to workout as a family. Some ways include:

  • Writing It Down: With your entire family go over a day, and time, where all the family is available to devote 30 – 60 minutes to exercise together. This could be a Tuesday afternoon, when parents are back from work, and kids are done with homework. Or a Saturday morning where no one needs to be in the office or the classroom. This timeframe will look different for each family, just find what works best for you and your family. Once you have solidified the time and day, put it on the calendar. Either put it on your phone’s calendar or one with a physical calendar. Putting it on a physical calendar can be helpful as you can place it in either your kitchen or living room as a reminder for what’s on the agenda as a family this week. You can also let a neighbor or family friend know about your desire to hold space within the week to exercise as a family, and ask them to keep you accountable to your goals.
  • Set an Example: One of the best ways to lead as a parent is by example. This translates to how parents interact with others, show up at work, but also how they prioritize their health in all areas. You can set an example to your children by staying true to your word to exercise together as a family when your selected day on the calendar shows up. This may mean pushing through the temptation to “push it to next week” or avoid it altogether.As the leader of your house, don’t forget to lead by showing how important physical health is by setting aside the time for it. Even if you do miss a week of working out together, that’s ok! You should always be reaching for improvement, not excellence. So, the following week be mindful to stick to your plans to exercise together as a family.

Workout Routines for Kids

Now that you have some tips to make the time to workout, you may be curious about what some kid friendly workout routines are. Some of these you may have already incorporated into your personal workout routine, but are still excellent movements for kids. The focus here is to keep the routine engaging and impactful for you kids, and weights and equipment are not always necessary.

Let’s look at some workout routines for kids below.

Kid-Friendly Cardio

  • Jumping Jacks: This is a classic kid-friendly workout routine that helps to burn off energy quickly. Consider adding as a warm up before you and your kids get into your workout.
  • Cycling: Cycling is an excellent cardio option for kids, and the entire family. This can look like biking around the neighborhood after dinner, or visiting some local trails for a longer trek on a weekend.
  • Swimming: Another fun cardio option for the whole family is swimming. You can either make it low impact by playing pool games, or more high intensity with relays and races. And swimming is not only an option in the summer, many local recreational centers have indoor pools to keep you active in those winter months.
  • Jumping Rope: Whether its double dutch rope or single, jumping rope is a certified way to get the heart rate up. You can get creative with jump rope by either jumping to a beat of a song or seeing who can jump the longest. Count each jump and see who can count the highest!

Kid-Friendly Strength Training

  • Squats and Lunges: As an adult you have probably seen how squats impact range of motion and can build strength in the lower muscles. The same goes for incorporating squats and lunges into your kid’s workout routine. You can either add them as reps or a quick warm up.
  • Plank: Planking is known to help with your core and strengthen the core muscles. During your next workout session with your family either sprinkle in 30 second planks throughout your session, or make it a game and see who can hold theirs the longest.
  • Push-Ups and Sit-Ups: Another simple exercise for strength training are push ups or sit ups. You can get creative with these too, but either incorporate them into your family workout routine as a set of reps, or see how you can do the most in a set amount of time.

Father and daughter doung push ups in living room.

Ways to Make Exercise Fun for Your Kids and Family

The bottom line with working out with your kids and family is to make it fun and engaging for all ages. You may have children who are far apart in age, or close, which may bring its own challenges to keep everyone focused and willing to work out. Don’t get discouraged if you find your kids or family members checking out 15 minutes into your workout routine. Here are some simple ways to make exercise fun for you, your kids, and family.

  • Make It A Theme: Have each family member pick out a theme for each workout session. It can be based on their favorite artist, band, movie, or book! You can center the music selection around the theme, and maybe even have some of the movements inspired by the theme.
  • Dress Up: If you do decide to go with a theme, play it up by dressing up. This can get kids engaged and can help them to feel more focused on their workout session. Put on some cat ears or wear the same colors as your favorite movie character.
  • Family Olympics: If you have a competitive family, then divide family members into teams or “countries” mimicking the Olympics. You can even plan out different workout sessions to be similar to actual olympic events such as swimming, running, and cycling.
  • Offer Motivation: When in doubt, offer motivation! This can look like offering a healthier sweet treat after, but walking to get it instead (if able to!). Or if you have competitions during your workout routine, maybe allow the winner to pick what’s for dinner or what movie your family will watch for movie night. Again, find what motivates your family and see how you can implement it.

Get Into Your Workout Routine at Carbon Performance in Nashville, TN

If you’re ready to set the tone for your family’s physical health, then get into a workout routine with the team at Carbon Performance in Nashville, Tennessee. With two locations in the greater Nashville area, Franklin and The Nations, you are sure to find one convenient for you. At Carbon you can join in on a variety of classes from Yoga to Cycling, or create your own routine with our state-of-the-art exercise equipment.

Our personal trainers would be happy to answer any questions you may have, and can help you create a gameplan to reach your personal goals so that you can best lead your family in the world of physical fitness.

Don’t wait another day to start your fitness journey, contact us today to get started. We look forward to meeting you.