Exercise can be a challenge when you’re working from home, and your teenager is sitting in front of a screen all day. You and your teenager are mentally but not physically tired.
Working and studying from home also means a lot less movement as a parent so again you are mentally tired but not physically tired.
This is where exercising as a family can be helpful, whether it’s out for a jog together, or join one of our virtual classes so parents and kids get the physical exercise we all need (Leap has over 20 LIVE STREAM classes each week, plus a library of easy-to-do exercises from home).
Here are some tips to get your teenager off the couch and into exercise mode, written by the Leap fairy who is herself a pre-teen –
1. Setting Achievable Goals
If you set achievable goals, you can encourage your teenager to also set goals. Setting goals gives you something to work towards and the feeling of reaching that goal can make you and your kid want to set more goals. There isn’t much point in setting unrealistic goals that doesn’t work with your day or your teenagers. Setting goals such as doing 2 to 3 weekly 45-minute classes.
2. Make it enjoyable
Teenagers like to have fun, so they’re more likely to continue exercising if they find it enjoyable. To make exercise fun in your COVID-friendly exercise space, try turning exercise into a game. You could even make a music playlist to exercise to. You can also change each session to work on different parts of your body.
3. Get the whole family involved
Getting the whole family involved can make exercising more social and the more people you exercise with the more motivation from each other to keep pushing through. It doesn’t have to be face-to-face you can also work out with each other via Zoom, Skype or FaceTime. Don’t forget to bring your furry friends in as well.
4. You can make it competitive
Many people love making day to day activities a competition. With many people being in lockdown, you can make exercising a competition with your family. You could start some fun family banter, you can track each of your workouts with your family to see how you are improving. You can see who is improving the most. You can do this by creating a list and write down how hard each exercise was during your class.
5. Mix it up
Mixing up the types of exercise can make exercising more fun for you teenager. Instead of repeating the same exercise program, bring in something different each time to keep it fresh and challenging. At Leap, we provide our members with many different variations of exercises, and we mix up what exercises to do when it comes to working each muscle.
There are many ways to get your teenager to do some exercise with you. This includes family goal setting but don’t forget to set achievable goals, making each workout fun for both you and your teenager. It always is so much more fun to exercise as a whole family and don’t leave out your furry friends. At Leap we can help you get your teenager to exercise by joining our studio classes, or using our Online Exercise Library!!
