Exercising as Family During the Closure

We understand that it’s not easy to carve out time for exercising when you are taking care of your family. And under normal circumstances, exercising daily could be a mission impossible for any individual. We thought about how to find a new way to incorporate exercise and have fun with your whole family!
We understand that it’s not easy to carve out time for exercising when you are taking care of your family. And under normal circumstances, exercising daily could be a mission impossible for any individual. We thought about how to find a new way to incorporate exercise and have fun with your whole family!  

Five Social-Distancing Ways to Exercise 

1. Dance your Heart Out
While you and your kids may have had more screen time lately - video conferencing with family, teachers or friends. There are many dance tutorials on YouTube or Just Dance gameplay where you can improve your dance skills. 
For a screen-free option, take a break from work and turn on the tunes. Dancing with your kids can be fun for them, and you can burn some extra calories while showing off your dad moves. This mainly works for smaller kids, and it’s an excellent way to blow off steam. So let the music play and shake it till you drop. 

2. Have a Weekly Sports Night
Are you missing NBA basketball too? Usually, making a schedule and sticking to it can be challenging. In place of watching sports on television, pick a day of the week (or two) for a pick-up game. If it’s not basketball, pick a sport you and your kids both like and set a weekly match or drills. It could be a one on one game or involve the whole family. 
Chandler Middle School students have logged basketball, volleyball, soccer drills, baseball, football, and tennis! And there are ways to modify all these sports for social distancing. If your kids are not into competitive sports, see below for solo sports where you can compete against yourself.  

3. Take it Outdoors 
Kids sure love to play in the park, but park equipment is off-limits for now. However, you can still enjoy the outdoors. If you can, walk around your neighborhood or go to the nearest open trail. Please heed local orders on social distancing as some trails are now closed to the public too. Furthermore, local public health officials are recommending not going to places with packed parking lots. You can still walk around your neighborhood, keeping six feet of distance between you and others walking. Many kids are in this together and are participating in the rainbow hunt and bear hunt on their walks. Also, remind kids not to touch surfaces or their faces, but encourage them to look at the scenery – trees, flowers, birds, and squirrels. 

If you want to stay home, go on an outdoor excursion to the backyard. This might be a time you can dig up plants, harvest neglected plants, or recruit the kids to clean up parts of the yard that they can convert into a play area/ outdoor gym. 

4. Get to Stepping 
It is recommended that most people should strive to get at least 10,000 steps in a day. Depending on your stride, that might be close to five miles! Walking five miles is very hard when you’re stuck at home, so find ways to walk more. Plan walks around your community, walking a safe distance from others, of course, and do a scavenger hunt with plants, car models or animals in nature. 

Make it a challenge! Mr. Anderson set a challenge for all his Middle School class to beat his 14,000 steps recently. Get the pedometers out or make your phone into a pedometer. If you have a particularly competitive kid, but not sports, this is really fun. 

5. Run or Bicycle Together 
These activities can be boring if you are doing it alone, but it can be super fun if you all do it together. Put on your jogging shoes and challenge your older kid to increase miles weekly; soon, you will be half marathon-ready! 
For families with younger kids, family bike rides can be a lot of fun. Find a bike path or a route where there is not a lot of car traffic. Practice safety by wearing helmets and following traffic signs. If your child still has training wheels, this might be a time to learn, and they will come back to school with a cool story and a win. 

Our Chandler team believes that exercise helps everyone improve their mood, have more energy, and it can even add years to your life! Movement has many health benefits, but the most important right now is that it gives you a chance to unwind, enjoy the outdoors, or simply engage in activities that make you happy. 
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