Working out with your family

[spezzy]

We're working on an article on working out with your family and would love to get all of your input  

 

So  -  Does your family find ways to exercise together? What kinds of activities do you do? Have any tips/tricks to make it work?

 

THANK YOUU!

[JPrev]

Not a workout in a regimented sense, but my family plays a *lot* of tennis together, and has ever since I can remember. When I see other parents "teaching" their young kids, I see how my own parents made my sister and I love it so much: they never pressured us. They were endlessly patient and only ever made it about having fun. The best workout is the one you enjoy doing, and does it even feel like a workout when you're having fun?

[Salty]

Well me and my son workout together. And he's only 11 but in great shape and super jacked because he loves doing bodyweight work with me and i try to make the workouts fun by either adding explosive moves like clap push-ups or jump squats or making a super hard workout and see who can do more rounds and make it a competition. Also skill work usually makes kids like it more because of the fun factor and how it can be used to impress freinds lol .

[A banana]

I walk the dogs with my dad once in a while and work out with my brother at home/gym sometimes.

[Shortgorilla]

My kids like to do pushups and situps and stuff with me.  And they'll watch me lift in the basement sometimes.  They like to do bodyweight exercises and run with me for 'treasure coins'.  We try to teach them that exercise is fun and rewarding.  The kids will a combination of squats, burpees, situps, pushups, jumping jacks, and mountain climbers.  My four year old likes to pretend to clean and press too. 

[Raev]

My wife and I go to the gym together on M/W/F.  We decided that it was better for us than sitting on the couch watching TV after work and dinner.  When we get home, we make veggie smoothies and then relax for a little bit after the gym, curled up watching some sci-fi show or another. 

 

I have a teenage daughter as well.  She doesn't really care about exercising but this coming weekend we are driving to a good hiking spot, so we can all hike to the waterfalls.  Where she doesn't care about exercising, she loves the outdoors - so we do things outdoors where she can get moving and get the heart rate up in a way she finds fun, so she doesn't even realize dear ole dad is making her exercise.  Hiking, exploring, climbing, swimming...these are the things I do with her.

[Haikoo]

We tend to have the most success when they don't realize it's exercise We go to the park and kick around the soccer balls or shoot hoops. They love to fly kites--if you go on a not terribly windy day, the only way they can get their kite to fly is RUN! They don't even realize they are wearing themselves out  Hikes are great as well as  swimming. Anything disguised as a game. They also love to ride their bikes or get into little challenges at home on the living room floor. "I can do xx pushups, how man can you do?" 

[LittleOne]

My mom and sisters live in a lovely area so I'm always coaxing them out for walks, and one sister also likes to go for bike rides together; Sister #2 is interested in getting a gym membership together and getting into weight lifting workouts; and Sister #2's boyfriend is into sports and likes getting us outside to play amateur rounds of floorball.

[Huntress]

Depends on your definition of 'family' and 'work out', but my boyfriend (who I think of as family) and I go indoor rockclimbing together once a week or so. I think it has benefits beyond just the exercise side of things because it means we work as a team, build trust through safely belaying each other, support and encourage each other.

 

The biggest tips I would have are COMMUNICATE and respect where the other family member is at in their fitness journey. I am not a very good climber, and I'm afraid of heights. My boyfriend on the other hand has more climbing experience and skill, but a lower fitness level than me, so he tires a lot faster. We put a bit of work into showing the other respect for their abilities and support for the things they need to work on.

We also tailor our climbs to ensure we're equally challenged - he suggested I climb twice for every time he climbs, which ensures we're both tired and sore by the end of a climbing session!

[Ripple]

I take mini-me on lots of walks, and try to plan walks that include a stop at a playground. I relax, she burns off some extra energy, everyone wins.

 

Once I feel like I can handle it in addition to the circuit training I'm doing, I want to incorporate some playground workouts into this time too. We are normally at the playground early enough that there aren't too many people to stare at me.

 

The mister and I take walks together. Before we had kids we used to go on full day fly fishing excursions (lots of wading/hiking involved, we'd travel miles over the course of a day) and I'd love to get back to doing that occasionally and to get mini-me into it when she is older. Our home gym isn't currently set up because we moved last year and we're still working on basement renovations, but once it is I'm hoping to do some weight training together. We'll see! 

[Waldo]

My wife and I work out somewhat together at home. After we put kiddo to bed, we both do our thing until dinner time. Though we stagger our workouts so that we aren't using the pullup bar or treadmill on the same day. So while we are both working out at the same time in the same house, we don't do the same things and we are in separate rooms.

[Nymeria]

I'm not fully sure whether this is what you're wanting, since my kids (6 and 4) are a little too young to work out.  But, I have spent a lot of time over the last year coming up with ways to get my own exercises in while simultaneously playing as a family.  We've had a lot of success in working out/playing together for:

 

-follow the leader type bodyweight workouts.  Little kids are more than happy to join in with jumping exercises, acrobatics, footwork/agility drills, handstands/HSPUs (as long as you spot them during their turns), and quadrupedal motion/crawling.  It's pretty easy to even add in some dumbbell stuff, and give the kids some sort of prop or light object, so they can follow along.

 

-Using the kids as added weights for things like deadhangs, planks, squats, lunges, push-ups, and backbends.  The kids love it.

 

-Zombie parkour tag.  Because nothing beats climbing and vaulting over playground equipment while running away from a bunch of 6 year olds. 

 

-The whole family does rock climbing.

 

Also, now that hooping has taken over the Assassin guild, I ordered a fitness hoop for myself and a kids' hoop for my daughter (the 6 year old).  I'm hoping we can enjoy some hooping together. 

[Elastigirl]

My husband and I geocache together or go on hikes. More than working out together we just like to do fun things together, go for walks after dinner, play tennis, or dance. My son is in college, but when he is home he will join us for geocaching. And for Mother's Day I requested we all go geocaching together.

[Jittersthe.Clown]

The kids like to do their own workouts while the wife and I are doing ours.  When it comes time for our push ups, they like to climb on my back and "help daddy" with them.  My almost 7 year old like to run with me, so we will go on runs together and he's had a race with me already this year.  We're thinking about one more.  

[Machete]

Used to force my siblings to do pushups and prisoner squats when we were younger. They hated me for it. But later my sister came home one day in high school bragging about how she beat everyone out in her school at pushups (I think she knocked-out like 40 unbroken). My brother also approached me later, asking for a good workout, but I wasn't there to supervise him anymore. There was a time in my old boxing gym where we would all go. The staff knew me well because my entire family boxed there for like a year.