Activity Ideas for Busy Families

For busy career families, heading to the gym or exercising in any manner is often not a high priority after a long day of work. Sometimes, you simply want to relax and unwind with your family after a hard day, and that doesn’t include working up a sweat at the gym. However, if you want to stay healthy and active, exercise is an important part of overall health although it doesn’t need to take up all of your free time or leave you without energy; in fact, it should leave you feeling energized. The following are some of the best exercises for busy career families:

Walking

Walking, an ideal exercise for busy career families, is great if you want to slim down, get some exercise or just get off the couch. Walking is free and easy on the joints, making it a good cardio workout when done at a moderate pace. Many people get their daily exercise by spending 30 or more minutes of their lunch hour walking and it’s a great way to fit exercise into your life. You can turn it into a family activity by making time before or after dinner to go for a walk with your family. If you have small children, put them in the stroller and off you go!

Strength training

In conjunction with cardio exercises such as walking, biking and or swimming, strength training is also important for overall good health. Doing ab exercises, squats, lifting hand weights and doing other strength training exercises will increase lean muscle mass and physical strength and muscle burns fat. You will lose weight while gaining muscle tone. Busy career people can do various exercises at work including lifting hand weights, doing squats and lunges and doing pushups in your office.

Scheduling time for fitness

Perhaps the main problem for busy career families is actually finding the time to fit exercise into an already hectic schedule. While getting the kids ready, remembering activities and obligations and coping with an already-full schedule can be hard to make fitness a priority, it’s important to schedule time for fitness so you and your family can stay healthy. With a little creativity, it can easily be done. Consider the following:

• Get up early. While it may be difficult at first, people who get up early to exercise are often more able to stick with an exercise program than when they’re too tired after work to exercise.
• Turn it into a family activity. Not only will you get exercise, but your family will benefit from getting exercise and getting quality family time. Go to the park and play, go bike riding as a family or play Frisbee or baseball with the kids in the yard.
• Exercise at lunch. Instead of going out to eat, consider walking or doing strength training exercises in your office. Then, eat something healthy at your desk.

For the busy career family who is already going in many different directions, it can be difficult to find ways to exercise and stay healthy. The above tips will help you make fitness the priority it needs to be in order for your family to remain healthy and happy.