It’s really important that our children stay active throughout their childhood.
There is an obesity pandemic happening across the world and more children than ever are unfit and lead sedentary lifestyles.
This affects their health, their happiness, their social life, and even their performance at school.
In order to keep our children as healthy and happy as possible, it’s key that we promote an active childhood in the home and that we encourage regular exercise as much as possible. If you are noticing that your child is too idle and is starting to struggle with their weight, don’t worry too much, you can also get them back on the right path with slow and steady progress.
Being active is a lifestyle rather than one static goal and so the best thing we can do for our children is set them up with the tools they need to be active in childhood so that they can carry these with them through to their adult lives.
If you want your child to be more active or to continue being active for longer, here is our best advice on how to help.
Include them in your own exercise
If you are sedentary, your child will be too.
If you want to encourage your child to be active and do regular exercise, one of the best things that you can do is get out there and exercise yourself and include your child.
Take them for your weekend jog, take them swimming with you, take them with you when you walk the dog.
Show them the exercise that you like and get them involved as early as possible.
This will not only be a great bonding exercise but it will also help exercise and fitness seem like a normal, natural thing to them and not something that is a chore or a pain.
Keep exercise fun and game-orientated
An important thing is keeping the narrative around fitness and activity light and cheerful. We don’t want our children to feel shamed or criticised about their weight or their exercise habits as this can cause problems down the line. What we do want is to help them enjoy being active and to encourage activity in such a way that they will do it without even being told.
Keep incorporating games, sports, competition and fun in exercise, regardless of what age your children is.
This will take the onus off exercise as a weight loss system and put the emphasis back onto fun and joy. As it should be.
Cut down on your driving
One of the biggest reasons that we are more sedentary as a society than ever before is because of convenience, and driving is one of the biggest conveniences we use.
There are lots of times that we could walk or cycle instead of driving somewhere but we simply don’t feel like it.
Wherever you can, encourage your child to walk or cycle with you to shops, parks, cafes, museums, or friends’/family’s houses.
It is a small thing that will add up to a large overall success.
Which is exactly what we want.
Small changes, big effects.
