You probably don’t need an excuse to spend time with your family, but it never hurts to have one. National Family Health and Fitness Day is celebrated every year on the last Saturday in September. This year it falls on September 25. This special holiday encourages families to partake in physical activities together.

Here are a few ideas to get your family up and moving!

Tap Into Your Competitive Spirit

Sports are a great way to make fitness fun! Basketball, soccer, baseball, and flag football are all good choices. If you don’t have enough players for a full game, work on a specific sport skill like dribbling or throwing. 

If sports aren’t your thing, classic outdoor games like hide and seek, kickball, hopscotch, tag, and jump rope are all active games that you can introduce to your kids. 

You can even turn a deck of cards into a fitness race. Each suit becomes an exercise, and whichever card gets picks is the number you have to do. For example, hearts stand for push-ups, clubs for crunches, diamonds for jumping jacks, and spades for squats. If you pick an ace of spades, that would be one squat, and a six of hearts would be six pushups. See how many cards you can get through in 15 – 20 minutes. 

Get Outdoors!

Everyone can use some fresh air and sunshine. That’s why exercising alfresco is often more enjoyable. Build family walks into your daily routine — a good time is either before or after dinner. If you have younger children, let them alternate between riding in the stroller or wagon and walking. And don’t forget to take your dogs! After all, they’re part of the family too!

Take a bike or scooter ride around the neighborhood. Roller skates are another option for when you want to move at a little quicker pace. If you're feeling really adventurous — and the kids are up to it — ride to the park. While there, hit up the playground. Monkey bars, rock climbing walls, swings, and more create an excellent location for getting active. Keep in mind that if you rode there, you will have to ride back, so make sure to leave before the kiddos get too tired to complete the journey home. 

Flow Together with Family Yoga

Yoga doesn’t have to be an adult-only zone. Yoga can help with a child’s fitness, breath control, and relaxation — kids get stressed, too! A yoga practice can also enhance their focus in the classroom and work out the brain by learning a whole new set of skills. Once your family has mastered the basics in breathing and poses, you can move into the more advanced partner poses. These joint poses can be fun when you’re working side by side to try and balance in poses together — and pretty darn funny when you mess them up!

Click here for some simple stretches you can do with the whole family.

Take a Family Wellness Vacation

Enjoying a wellness vacation as a family in a beautiful destination is sure to make for an incredible bonding experience. A vacation like this is planned with your family’s health as a priority: That includes your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Choose a destination that embraces an active lifestyle and appeals to the whole family. For example, a week at a mountain resort or cabin will provide plenty of activities like canoeing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and hiking. On the other hand, tropical destinations can provide relaxation and water activities such as snorkeling, sailing, windsurfing, and diving (plus swimming, obviously). If you find a resort that offers a fully equipped kitchen, you can even make your own healthy meals!

Learn more about the benefits of wellness travel here.

Getting your family moving, exercising, and eating healthy is the first step to improving everyone’s health and well-being! F3 can help you with tips for fun activities, dietary plans, virtual exercise classes, and more. Contact us today to learn how you can make wellness part of your family’s everyday life.