How to Keep Your Family Active

How to Keep Your Family Active

If you’ve decided to make some changes and focus on making sure your family are keeping fit and healthy, that’s great! Helping your children learn to love keeping active is great for their future exercising habits.  Change can be difficult, especially when you’re changing deeply ingrained habits such as trying to limit ‘screen time’! But there are lots and lots of ways to keep your family active, so we’ve put together our top tips on how to build exercise into your family’s routine, with some exciting ideas for family activities you can enjoy together.

1. Get outdoors

Coming into the nicer weather, it is so nice to be able to get outside into the fresh air, sunshine and natural light. It may seem like a simple suggestion, but taking a walk together as a family is a great introduction to your physical activity routine.

Taking regular walks will improve everyone’s mood and help you bond as a family! Children need at least an hour of activity a day, so start them off with a walk or get them to help you out in the garden. And try and make it fun – bring a picnic along, bring your dog and change up where you go for your walks! Why not visit a local scenic route or drive somewhere for your walk? The fresh air will do you all good.

2. Schedule it and set goals

Family life is a busy life! If you feel you are having trouble making time for physical activity, then try to schedule it on your calendar or kitchen planners. Set alarms on your phone and treat it like any other important appointment. This way you can build physical activity into your family routine.

It’s also important to set goals and commitments. Maybe your kids won’t be interested in goals, but you should definitely keep track of them! Try to use these goals as motivators, and as ways to track your family’s activities, like aiming to be active for a least 200 minutes each week.

Invest in a FitBit! This way you can share goals with others. Plus, if you’re the competitive type, you can virtually challenge friends, other family members or co-workers and see who can consistently meet their goals over time.

3. Try something new, different and exciting

Routine, goals, schedules… these won’t sound too exciting to children, will they? If you want your kids to be enthusiastic about keeping fit, you need to get creative with your activities! At Mobile Team Adventure, we offer exciting and adrenaline-filled activities such as Canoeing, River Tubing, Orienteering and Mountain Biking!

Being more adventurous could mean your child discovers a new love for being outdoors or discovers a new talent. Everyone has to start somewhere. Whatever your age, ability or interest, there’s a sport or hobby out there to suit everyone, and getting out and trying new things is the way to help your family find their new talents.

 4. Make time for regular Family Days Out!

We live in a hectic world today. A lot of the time we are so focused on work and school, we forget about fun and adventure as a family! You don’t want to miss out on spending time together, so it’s time to start planning great days out doing exciting activities of your choice. At Mobile Team Adventure we offer you this chance to get away from everyday life while enjoying quality family time together, whether it’s just you and the kids or the entire extended family.

So, why not organise your own bespoke fun family day out here with us? You decide the activities – there is something for everyone and activities are suitably delivered for all ages and abilities. You could try our ultimate Canoeing Experience, have a go at Archery or Shelter Building, hire bikes for Mountain Biking or try Rock Climbing. Whatever you decide to do together, you are guaranteed to have an amazing day, and the kids will be itching to know when they will be coming back for another fun family day out.

5. Get active for a cause

There will always be local community events that you can get involved with as a family, like the Colour Run, Twilight Walks and charity walks such as ‘Step up for the Hospice’ in aid of Northern Ireland Hospice.

This is a great way to do something fun and healthy as a family while giving back to the community.

6. Focus on teamwork, bonding and having a laugh

Another fun way to keep your family active is by playing games and encouraging a bit of competition. At Mobile Team Adventure, family activities include team games such as crossing the Acid River. We also love our ‘golf ball challenge’ – see if you can get a golf ball from one side to another without it touching the ground. These encourage good strong team work and communication, and help families bond and have fun!

We also love bit of healthy competition, and this is another way to encourage physical activity. At Mobile Team Adventure, families can see who is the strongest by testing their strength and Tossing the Caber, or seeing who can Put the Shot the furthest. We also play games to see how far you can throw a Wellington Boot and see who can Catch a Haggis! Plus, our Skittles Alley is also a really great way to get the whole family involved, working together in teams and having fun at the same time.

 7. Make sure to stay active together

So, while there are LOTS of activities to choose from, keep in mind that you should try to continue to do physical activities together as a family. That way it’s more fun and you get to spend some more quality time together!

If you find there are certain activities that some family members love more than others, then that’s okay! Just try and ensure everyone exercises at the same time each day to maintain structure and so as a family you can encourage and motivate each other.

So, now you have your list of activities, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get active, have fun and start your families new ‘keep fit’ adventure.

Here’s some more ideas from Mobile Team Adventures for your family – https://mobileteamadventure.co.uk/activity-group/family-fun-days/