Get Family Active
The best performances are always about teamwork; if you all pledge to take more exercise as a family, you’ll be amazed how much more motivated and focused you become.
It doesn’t have to be a lot. Just a brisk walk or a bike ride together once a week, or a game in the local park at the weekend. If you’re more serious about your exercise, many leisure clubs offer discount family membership nowadays. You can even swap your two weeks in the sun for an activity holiday on wheels, in a tent or out on the water.
Here are our ‘All for one, one for all’ active family tips:
- Celebrate birthdays with ‘activity parties’, like 5-A-side football or swimming.
- Challenge the rest of the family to see who can do the most press-ups, dance the longest or walk the most steps in a set time – make it fun and have prizes for the winners and runners-up.
- Pick days out where you know there’s a certain amount of walking involved, like the zoo or country park.
- Go back to basics and play games from your childhood with your kids. Remember hide and seek, hopscotch and catch?
- Investigate different sports for your child to take part in. Some leisure centres coach kids from as young as four in basketball, tennis and martial arts.
- Put your family bikes back into service. If you don't have any, look for second-hand bargains in the local newsagents' windows, on ebay, or check out your local car-boot sale.
- Dig out your swimming costumes and check out the times of the family swimming sessions at your local leisure centre. Kellogg’s has helped more than three million people learn to swim since 1997 in a partnership with the asa. Find out more how to get swim active with Kellogg’s and the asa.
- Get your skates on! Try inline skating. Many leisure centres will have indoor rollerblading sessions for both adults and children.
- Set aside a part of the garden that's for games and play only so there's no worry about damaging the flowers or the lawn.
- Get into the good life. Growing your own food can save you money, keep you fit and give you tastier, healthier fruit and veg. Kids love growing their own food as well.