Sunday Family Workouts

The family that workout together...stays healthy together!  Hubby and I are big into health and fitness.  He is in the Army and is known as a "PT Stud".  He is in top of the line shape!  I on the other hand admire his consistency and drive.  I love exercise and really love to challenge myself but I know I'm not on his level.  I love to lift weights, run, zumba, spin class, Insanity, P90X, etc.  Basically I will try any exercise and enjoying doing so!

With Hubby and I usually working out 6 days a week, quite naturally our kids understand the importance of physical activity.  They have tried different types of activities as well such as kung fu, karate, t-ball, soccer, swimming, gymnastics, dance, and basketball.  They of course do not do all of these at once, but at different times of the year.  Recently we discovered a kids zumba class at our gym on Saturdays that they love!  We try to not only be an example to them, but introduce them to different activities.

On the weekends we like to incorporate exercise into our family time.  All summer we have been teaching them to ride their bikes without training wheels so that we can all ride together one day or they can ride while Hubby and I run.  So far we have been successful at teaching Gracee, but is still working on little Georgee.

Since we aren't at the point of having both kids ride their bikes without training wheels, we improvise and let Georgee ride his bike (with the training wheels on), and Hubby and I take turns running while the other one walks with the kids.  When it's my turn to run, I encourage Gracee to run with me.  She is actually very fast, but suffers from a little disease called Lazyitis!  She will run with me for a few seconds and then say she is sweating too much and is too tired.  I keep running and motivate her to take a little break and continue on.  Usually on the walk back I end up giving her piggy back rides because she is tired, but it gives me extra strength training to add to my cardio.  Why not kill two birds with one stone?

On a recent family walk, Hubby decided to pack his bookbag super heavy and do a rucksack march while I did my running.  Both kids walked.  On the way back home, Hubby let me wear the bookbag and I almost toppled over.  It was heavy to hold up, but I walked with it part of the way to again add strength to my cardio.  It felt great!

The moral of the story is that you don't have to have any type of formal exercise to do with your kids to be healthy and fit.  Just go outside and improvise!  Walk, run, bike, hike, or march.  Do whatever floats your boat to keep you all active and enjoying each other.  Remember to be the ones to teach them about living a healthy lifestyle.  Be the example!