Whether we lead an active lifestyle can be greatly influenced by the people we surround ourselves with, so making sure family members are on board when it comes to fitness can be a game-changer and means you’re more likely to get motivated for movement.

The benefits of exercising with family

Getting in your weekly exercise sessions can be challenging when you’re busy, but including family means:

• You can double it up as spending quality connection time with your loved ones.
• Any form of exercise has health benefits – both physically and mentally. You’ll all be improving your health together.
• Social exercise is typically more motivating and fun that training on your own.
• Training with family, you can explore different types of exercise you might not do if it was just yourself.
• If you’re training with children, you’ll be demonstrating how to include exercise as part of your everyday life which sets a great example while gifting them a useful life skill.

Try out the following practical but fun ways to get moving together.

Go for a walk

This low-impact option is probably the easiest of your family-friendly exercise activities and is generally suitable for all ages, including grandma and grandpa! This could be as simple as a short brisk walk to the local park, taking a dog out for a neighbourhood stroll (if you don’t have a dog, you could borrow a friend’s!) or walking to school each day.

For next level walking action, check out local hikes and pick one that’s suitable for everyone as they can range from a short bush walk to a mountain hike, flat and level or a decent hill climb. You could also mix up the location for variety – go for a beach walk, find a forest path or explore other options in nature.

If you’re going to be walking with younger children, consider aiming for a flat terrain and bring a stroller, baby carrier, or if they’re older you can let them ride a bike or a scooter alongside you.

Get on your bike!

Rolling on from the previous suggestion, you could get the whole family on wheels. If footpath and road cycling aren’t your thing, take the bikes down to the local school or a park with a bike trail or pump track.

It’s an ideal cardiovascular activity to strengthen the heart and lungs, gives you strong legs and core muscles and helps to improve your balance.

Lounge dance party

Put together an epic playlist for a home dance party or just crank a favourite song whenever you feel like it. Listening to uplifting, energising music is a fantastic way to boost everyone’s mood, improve flexibility, coordination as well as lung strength if you want bonus points for singing along at the same time!

When Taylor Swift trained for her Eras tour, she built her fitness by singing on the treadmill. Take a leaf out of the pop star’s book and give it a go as a family.

If freestyling it isn’t your thing, look into structured dance classes that you could all attend together or pop on a dance workout video at home.

Yoga for every body & everybody

Exploring ways to move your body that aren’t high intensity/high impact is important for a sustainable fitness approach, so yoga or a stretch session are good options to practice stillness, mindfulness and to help prevent injury through flexibility.

You don’t need any fancy equipment for this, do some stretches or yoga poses that feel good, are fun to give a go – or if you’re in the right mood for it – challenge your body (think handstands, bridges, splits…).

Try to include a moment at the start and end of your yoga session to be in stillness. Even if nobody lasts long with it, practicing meditation and being still build tolerance for those activities over time and can help foster the skills that alleviate stress and anxiety.

Scavenger hunt

This one takes a bit of preparation but it’s a great way to get outdoors and explore your surroundings as a family. Assemble a checklist of things to ‘collect’ on your nature adventure either making a physical collection of items or having a requirement to take a photo snapshot on a phone. This could include things like a pinecone, a green bird, an orange leaf, an acorn etc.

See who can complete the list by spotting everything first. This is a great exercise in observation and mindfulness of our surroundings.

To go next level with this activity, look into geocaching or painted rock hunting. If these aren’t available in your community, consider starting it up and other families will also be able to join in the fun.

Family play time

Playing games doesn’t have to be reserved just for kids! What games could you play with your family all together? Hide and seek, Tag, Octopus, or even a game of kicks or catch (mix it up with small balls like a tennis ball, and larger ones like a football).

This is a great opportunity to get in exercise that doesn’t ‘feel’ like exercise. Engaging in play activities helps build coordination and can be a whole lot of fun.

Sports day

This one’s especially fun if you’ve got a lot of family members to participate. Plan a sports day and get everyone involved. It could focus on one sport, like netball or volleyball, or you could put together your own version of the Olympic Games for variety and something a bit more unique.

Get into the garden

Pulling weeds, pushing over stumps, squatting and bending to tend to plants, lifting wheelbarrows and tools… Gardening provides many unique opportunities for exercise.

It helps lift your heart rate, gives your family a project to work on together, and can also be incredibly satisfying to see the end results. Pick an area of your garden that needs an overhaul, create a new focal point for flowers or a vege patch, or see if any elderly neighbours could do with some yard work assistance.

Bonus for this activity if you’re planting vegetables as kids will see where food comes from and learn how to grow their own vegetables in the future.

Make family fitness a priority

Having family involved in your exercise doesn’t have to be frustrating, difficult or time-consuming, and you can absolutely make it fit into a busy schedule. Pick activities that everyone will enjoy doing together and take your workouts beyond the gym for training sessions that fill your cup in more ways than just exercise.

Work on developing a healthy lifestyle together, make it a family tradition and you’ll create fun, lasting memories for all involved.

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