Youth and Working Out

Let’s be honest. Motivating youth to do workouts after school or on the weekends can be hard enough, and now not only are doing their workouts at home, but they are also taking their classes online at home! With so much times at home, how do you keep your children/teen motivated? How do you set boundaries so you can do your work, and they can do theirs?

The easiest way to motivate any child or teen is to make it social. Teens in particular (ages 12 and older) need to socialize with their friends. We realize that doing so challenging right now, but online platforms are great resources.  Maintaining socialization/a sense of community is a way for teens  to release stress, decrease anxiety, learn about themselves, connect with others going through similar experiences, as well as helps facilitate some autonomy. While socialization is also important for children (12 and younger), children often don’t mind participating with their parents or siblings and thrive on competition and game-like activities. Children want to compete and face challenges with others. They are still constantly learning new activities and ways to move. It’s an important time to learn to take-turns, develop strength and endurance, and learn basic competition/sport rules, like winning and losing like a “team player.”

We have some tips for you to help motivate your child/teen when working out at home!

• Workout with friends using online platforms: Download a workout to follow and call in a friend(s) to do it together!

• Schedule in the workouts: pick a similar time, 3 days a week for 30 minutes to workout. Try not to rely on, “we’ll wait and see” to plan a workout, because life is often hectic and other things will take its place.

• Create month long competitions with friends and/or family: Print out some calendars and make a month long competition with prizes! Some ideas:

  • Track who can do the most push-ups, squats, etc. in a month

  • Track who can walk the most miles

  • Track who can run the most miles

  • Track who does the most 30 minute workouts a week

• Create daily exercise challenges

  • Pair exercises with times and/or counts and see who can do the most in a set amount of time, or who can get the highest count before needed a rest

• Switch it up: getting outside, dog walks, house cleaning, dancing, yoga, etc. all count!

  • There are many ways to fit in movement and it does not always have to be a pre-planned workout