Family fitness makes exercise fun. Often overweight or obese children don’t see fitness as something “fun” to do. Instead they look to more passive activities like playing videogames, watching television, reading or just talking with friends. By creating a family fitness plan you are showing your children by example that fitness is fun. Even if you haven’t had a fitness plan before, your children will pick up quickly on your good example. Families that exercise together get fit together. If you are overweight too, you’ll lose weight as well.

There are many activities you can do as family fitness. Try starting out with something simple, like walking or biking. Walking is an ideal activity as you don’t have to buy any equipment and everyone can start no matter their level. The key to walking is to create a route ahead of time and know where you are going to walk. Try making it a goal to walk to a specific destination and then back again. Or get in shape to walk a charity walk together.

Family fitness is a social activity for many families. This is a great way to spend time with your children. As you participate in the fitness activity, you are spending time together. You can enjoy being with each other. So it is not just the sport, it is doing the sport together. It is critical to select sports and fitness activities that your family enjoys together.

There are fitness activities you can do to enjoy every season of the year. Families can ski and skate and sled in the winter. You can hike and go apple picking in the fall. You can rollerblade and play baseball in the spring. Your family can swim and surf in the summer.

Family fitness is something your family can do either indoors or outdoors, depending on the activity. There are some activities you can do both indoors or outdoors, like playing basketball or even swimming or ice-skating. Then there are other activities you’ll need to be either indoors or outdoors, like surfing is very much an outdoor sport. This is an ideal way to enjoy the outdoors and the seasons.

As your family gets in shape, there are more sports to explore. Your family can start with walking and then advance to hiking or mountain climbing. Or you could even look at rock wall climbing, which is done indoors and can be very challenging but is great exercise! You can participate in many sports no matter your fitness level, but some sports are more suited for the intermediate to the advanced level fitness enthusiast.

Best of all, as your family participates in fitness you’ll see your children change. You’ll see them get healthier and lose weight. If they have asthma, you’ll see it reduce or even disappear completely. They’ll find it much easier to go to sleep. They’ll have reduced stress and higher levels of concentration. Family fitness can improve every level of their life!