Encouraging Exercise and Activity to Kids and Teens

Are there kids or teens in your life asking questions about exercise? There are numerous pitfalls in the fitness industry that we want to protect kids from. Magazines and social media promote perfection and set unrealistic expectations. We want to promote health and fitness and the value of it and avoid making it a way to impress friends with their looks. If we model a healthy, balanced lifestyle ourselves, we set the best example for how we want kids to approach fitness. If we demonstrate what good eating looks like, then our kids will have a baseline to measure their own eating against. The same goes for exercise, if we demonstrate how to honor our bodies and keep them healthy, we will be able to help them do the same.

If the kids and teens in your life are not drawn to fitness and exercise it can be a challenge. They most likely have not found the activity that suits them. We can encourage them on their journey to find what it is they do enjoy. Strength training is a great place to start. Higher intensity fitness like running, biking, and swimming can be overwhelming and lead to avoiding exercise all together. Trying to find a physical activity they enjoy doing is one of the best ways we can encourage them to become active. Fitness can mean different things to different people. Keep asking questions and find out what is important to them. Summer is a great time to get outside and get moving with a fun activity!