Are you finding yourself exercising less these days because your gym is closed, the weather is cold, or you’re just not finding the motivation to work out?
This is how a lot of people are feeling right now, but sometimes you can get the motivation you need by making exercise more of a social activity than a solo chore. Winter is the perfect time to embrace at-home workouts that you don’t even need to leave the house for to start sweating.
Here are some exercise ideas to try at home with your significant other or kids.
Jumping Jacks
An exercise that is as good for adults as it is easy for kids is simple jumping jacks. This exercise gets the heart rate up and is fun for little ones to join in for. Host a jumping jack competition to see who can do the most jumping jacks in a minute. You can also use commercial breaks while watching TV shows together to get up and do jumping jacks until the show comes back on. There are also different variations of jumping jacks that you can try together for fun, such as adding squats into your jumps or crossing the hands and feet over each other for an extra challenge.
Lunges
Lunges are great leg workouts to do at home and can be modified to involve a partner or child. The basic exercise involves stepping forward with the front knee bent at a 90-degree angle. To get kids involved, you can hold a small child in your arms and lunge while walking across the room. With a partner, lunge towards each other and clasp hands when you cross-jump from lunges on one side to the other.
Burpees
Burpees give both kids and adults a serious challenge because they involve jumping, planking, and doing pushups. Since burpees are pretty challenging, they work well with circuit training so that each person in your household takes turns doing different exercises for 30 seconds before switching to the next one.
Yoga Poses
Yoga has benefits for everyone’s body, and it’s definitely something you can do at home with a YouTube video or smartphone app. There are yoga poses that are very kid-friendly and that little ones really enjoy trying. For example, tree pose promotes balance by placing one foot on the opposite inner thigh, and cobra pose stretches the back while kids can make hissing noises like a snake.
Dance to Some Music
However, some of the most fun exercises to do around the house are totally unscripted and spontaneous. From club music to salsa music, techno music, or hard rock, putting on anything upbeat can help you get moving around and having a blast with your household members.
Use Baby as a Weight
Finding time to work out if you have a baby in the house can feel pretty much impossible on many days. But instead of trying to work around the eating and napping schedules, try including your baby in your exercise routine. When very young babies are doing “tummy time” on the floor, use this time to stretch and get in some pushups, squats, and sit-ups. When babies get old enough to hold their heads up, you can use baby as a weight that you lift up while lying down or out in front of you while doing squats. This is a way to squeeze a workout in while your little one squeals with delight at the fun motions and movements!
Get Fitness Trackers for the Family
Another good way to promote fitness in your household is to get fitness trackers for everyone who’s old enough to use one. This is fun for creating healthy competition over who got in the most steps moving around the house or completed activity goals based on exercises completed. Between you and your partner, whoever gets the most activity for the week might get treated to a homecooked meal or a massage. And if there are kids in the house, reward the weekly winner with the opportunity to choose a game or TV show for the evening or to request something special for breakfast.
What’s your favorite way to work out at home with your family? Share your favorite ideas with us in the comment section below.