Ah, The Joys of Parenthood…
Ah, I remember my life before kids. I could workout in peace without many interruptions… then my kids came along, and boy did life change. Exercising with kids around is completely different. Don’t get me wrong, I love it! They bring me double the joy AND double the worry and tears. But if I didn’t have those tears, I wouldn’t have double the joy either, right? Although I love this life, exercising with kids can be hard! I needed to finds ways to continue exercing with kids who were ALWAYS AROUND!
How Do I Exercise When My Kids are Always Around?
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- Plan a daily physically active game you can do with your child. Play tag, catch, soccer, or freeze dance with your children. You are playing and checking exercise off your list all at once. And just like that you are exercising with kids!
- Make your weekend family outings physical ones like biking, swimming, or miniature golf. Go to an amusement park, or a park and play on the playground. Try canoeing, rock wall climbing, hula hoop, fly a kite, ice-skating, or jump rope. Go to a bowling alley, batting cage, or hit golf balls at a driving range. Set up fun obstacle courses using fun outdoor toys, play outdoor games like catch or tag. Play laser tag or ultimate Frisbee. Okay, now I am ready for a weekend just thinking about these fun activities.
- Walk around your yard while you kids play outdoor games.
- Play with your kids 30 minutes a day.
Photo by donnierayjones 
- Buy a set of hand weights and play a round of Simon Says with your kids. You play Simon Says with the weights; they play without weights.
- Swim with your kids.
- Walk the dog with your children.
- While watching your child’s sporting events, walk during time outs or half times.
- Play a physical Wii or Xbox One game with your children. I like the Wii sports: Wii with Wii Sports Game – White
and the Just Dance 2018 – Wii
or Just Dance 2018 Xbox one
.
- Play Physical board games with your children like Classic Twister
, Peaceable Kingdom / Feed the Woozle Preschool Skills Builder Game
, Disney Junior Super Stretchy Game
, or gofindit – Outdoor nature scavenger hunt card game for families
.
- Take a family walk after dinner.
- Push a stroller.
Photo by Serge Melki - Exercise or go for walks while you are waiting for your children at practices like dance, soccer, or piano practice.
- Exercise while child plays at park.
- Walk in the pool with your baby or while your older child plays.
- You can even do sitting exercises when you are trying to be subtle like flexing your stomach or legs. Hold your legs just above the ground to strengthen you leg muscles. Do this while you are waiting in waiting rooms at your children’s check-ups.
- Go for a run with your stroller.
- Do exercises with your stroller like squats, lunges, and jogging.
- Take the stairs with child.
or 
.
.
- Set a timer at home and dance with child before and after meals.
- Walk the perimeter of the playground while your child plays.
- Do squats, step touches, or march in place while you are pushing your child in a swing.
Fun Games to Get Your Family More Active
Did you like the games mentioned above? Below are the links for those games and a few more fun phisically active family games.
- I hope you found some great ways to continue exercising with kids. What were some of your favorite “exercising with kids” ideas? This is a post in my DIY weight loss series. If you would like to evaluate your own diet and determine which tips work best for you, please take the free DIY Diet Self Assessment and evaluation developed by a registered dietitian.
Other Related Post
How to Develop You Own Exercise Plan
How to Lose Weight When You Are Too Busy to Exercise
DIY Diet Self Assessment and Evaluation
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There is always a way isn’t there!
Walking and playing in the park together make it fun and it doesn’t feel like exercise.
Yes!!!! There really isn’t an excuse to avoid exercise at some level just because you have kids. My kids would gladly help me exercise with a game tag or a bike ride. My daughter rode her bike with me last year for 12.4 miles!!!
GREAT ideas! Very helpful
This is a such a great article! I have two toddlers at home and some days I’m able to squeeze in a quick workout while they color or amuse themselves and then other days I get interrupted every 2 minutes or someone climbs on my back while I’m trying to do a push up…sometimes it’s maddening and sometimes it’s hilarious. I love your tips for making fitness a family event!
My boys and I love walking to the playground near our house to run around, and we also LOVE having Nerf wars in our yard- definitely makes working out more fun than just hitting the gym!
Oh, I love the idea of nerf wars!
I love this post! Just today I played tag with my boys until I hit my step count goal. I agree- a little creativity can always make it work 🙂
This is absolutely perfect! I think I’m going to try this!
Great tips! I’ll be referring to these soon after my baby comes in May!
This is such a helpful post! With my first little one on the way I have thought about how much my workout routine will change. Thanks for the tips!
You are so smart to already realize this. For some reason, I didn’t realize how different my exercise schedule would be until after my first baby was born.
My favorite is DANCE with your kids! Who doesn’t love a good boogie skakin’ experience in the living room?
Yes! Dance is my favorite way to workout, period! I may start an after dinner dance party every night with my kids.
My favorite one is DANCE with your kids! Who doesn’t love a good boogie shakin’ experience in the living room?
I do miss how easy it was to get in a run whenever I felt like getting out. Now, I am a slave to the weather to be able to get out in a running stroller. These are some good ways to stay active though when you can’t get your desired intensity in.
Thanks Tom! I am glad you found some ways to exercise when that rain puts a damper on your run.
Love your ideas! Sometimes it’s easy to forget that playing with our kids can equal exercise. There were some really great ideas in your list. I’m going to try to be more intentional with including my kids in my work out times by making it more fun, or allowing myself to join in their fun times and call it a work out 😉 Thanks for your list! I’ll definitely come back in the future! 🙂
I love it, Jess! Yes, it feels good to be able to call our fun play time a workout.
Lot of great ideas! You can do an actually workout with your kids or come up with something that is lots of fun while you still move around a lot.