Exercise plays a crucial role in the healthy development of kids, but getting kids into action is not always an easy task. So here are 6 creative ways to encourage your kids to exercise.

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6 Fun Ways To Encourage Your Child To Exercise
The importance of exercise in children’s healthy development is difficult to overstate: physical movement is vital to building strong muscles and bones, and of course helps to ward against future health issues such as adulthood obesity. If getting your kids to exercise is proving more trouble than it’s worth, though, you may be seeking some new tips and tricks to make life a little easier – which is why we’ve dreamed up the following fun ways to encourage your child to exercise.


1. Don't call it exercise!

Heed the cardinal rule for actually getting kids to exercise: call it anything but! For example, if you’re trying to target your kids’ core strengthening and coordination skills, don’t tell them as much – just supply them with a trampoline, and watch as they reap the physical benefits of jumping.

In this vein, try to locate exercise outside of the running track or the gym as much as possible. Going for a family hike in a beautiful location will soon make it more about the surrounding sights and sounds than the activity itself.

kids on trampoline

2. Introduce a rewards system

We all remember the gold star chart for good behaviour at school; institute the same kind of thing with exercise, and see your kid enthusiastically bound at the door for their 60 minutes of play per day.

There is, however, an important coda to this suggestion, and it has to do with the type of rewards on offer. You don’t want to teach your child bad habits by putting a pie or a chocolate bar at the end of the finish-line, so steer clear of junk-food related treats and compile a list of alternative rewards. These rewards may include your kid’s choice of dinner at their favourite healthy restaurant, a movie night or a new book.

kids run through grass

3. Expose them to new activities

Consider planning a sneaky spectator trip to your local sports field one Saturday morning while all the football, rugby, and hockey games are in full swing. There’s no better way to motivate your kids to engage in a group sport than to show them just how collaborative, competitive and fun these activities appear from the outside. Plus, they’ll be able to have their pick of which sport to take up, and autonomy is always an essential component to children’s sustained exercise.

boys play football soccer

4. Make a tradition of it

If you turn a weekly sports game or dance training into an event rather than a task, your child will be far more apt to associate it with pleasant and fun memories. If it’s winter, for example, you may want to take your budding athletes out for a hot drink after the match, or you might have a weekly TV show scheduled in that everyone can sit down and watch.

girls in rollerblades sit and feed pigeons

5. Make sure you get involved too!

Exercise is no fun for kids if they feel their parents are surveying their every action like drill sergeants. Get involved yourself by taking every opportunity you can to be an active exercise partner for your child. Introducing your kids to your favourite physical activity can also be a wonderful means to reigniting your own passion for exercise – so dial the years back, and show your kids how fun exercise (and you) can be!

boy and parents play baseball

6. Get the help of some digital aids

Not all apps encourage couch-potato behaviour. Indeed, many actually facilitate exercise, and since modern kids love to tap away on an iPad or phone, they can be a great way to get kids started on a fitness journey. Games like Pokémon Go will get your children up and moving with minimal encouragement (especially if their friends are keen too), while other applications and devices will allow your child to track and visualise their own exercise progress (FitBits and other step-counting devices can be ideal stimulators for some children).

girl sits outside with phone

Kids push their bodies to the limit when they exercise, so they need shoes that can keep up. Shop the range of Bobux shoes today.