Men, women, boys, and girls need to get exercise every day to stay healthy. Even when you’re at home, you can still do things to get your blood pumping and your muscles moving. Sometimes, staying active takes a little creativity, but you might be surprised at the things you can do to stay moving. Keeping fit will help you feel good physically, and you’ll probably feel happier, too.
Staying Active Inside
If it’s too hot or cold outside for you to get out into the fresh air, you can still be active indoors. Try to find at least one active thing you can do every day inside.
- Put on your favorite playlist and dance it out. Turn up the music so you can really get into your dance moves!
- Grab a hoop or a jump rope and have a contest to see who can keep it going the longest. Practice every day with a hoop or jump rope and you’ll probably find your skills improving.
- Stream a yoga or workout routine from the Internet. There are lots of options that are kid-friendly, so you can try a different routine or program each day.
- If you have an unfinished basement with a cement floor, try roller-skating or rollerblading to get some exercise.
Getting Outdoors for Exercise
If the weather permits, getting outdoors for physical activity each day will help you feel great. Everyone needs daily sunshine and fresh air!
- Take family walks every day. If you have a dog, make it a family affair to walk the dog for a mile or two each day.
- Do yard work as a family. Plant a garden, mow the lawn, rake leaves, or shovel snow.
- Set up a family field day in your yard. Have a three-legged race, plan a relay race, make an obstacle course, and toss water balloons.
Additional Resources
- Get Movin’: 15 Fun Fitness Activities for Kids: Playing follow the leader or having a scavenger hunt are two things you could do to be active indoors or outdoors.
- Fitness Circuit Course: Make a circuit of different activity stations in your yard and spend time going through each station to get some outdoor activity.
- Indoor Physical Activity Ideas for Families: Jump around while you watch a movie or TV show, or play Simon Says with siblings or friends.
- Fitness Games for Kids: Set up some cones for an obstacle course and time yourself to see how fast you can run around the cones from start to finish.
- Kickball Variations: Kickball has been a favorite playground game for generations, but try a few of these different variations to make the game even more exciting.
- Stepping Across the States: With a map of the United States and a pedometer to count your steps, you can keep track of how many miles you walk each week.
- Recess Helps You Think: Of course, recess is your chance to get fresh air and run around a little, but recess is also important for helping you concentrate better on your schoolwork.
- Games and Activities: Read through this book and find a few fitness activities you’d like to try to incorporate more activity into your daily routine.
- Five Fun Gym Games to Get Kids Moving: Play a fun tag game like midnight or sharks and minnows to get exercise and have fun at the same time
- Uno Fitness: You’ll need a deck of Uno cards to play this fitness game that involves doing specific exercises for the different cards played.
- Keeping Children Active During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Play paper plate badminton or basketball with a soft ball or balloon indoors to stay active.
- Benefits of Exercise Crossword Puzzle: Print out this crossword puzzle and work the clues to see how much you know about the benefits of exercise.
- Study Break Yoga: Take a break from class and try some deep belly breathing with this yoga video.
- 14 Ways for Kids to Increase Physical Fitness and Awareness: Take a walk or a bike ride, learn a new sport, dance to music, or work toward earning the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.
- How to Play Hopscotch: Hopscotch is a fun game you can play by yourself or with others, and all you need is some chalk, a small stone, and some space on the driveway or sidewalk for drawing.
- Red Rover: You’ll need a group of people to divide into two teams to play Red Rover, which involves running between two lines of players.
- Banana, Banana, Meatball! Learn about patterns and get your body moving at the same time with this fun GoNoodle video.
- Indoor Activities for Kids to Get Their Brains Working: Music classes and kids’ yoga are two ways you can challenge both your brain and your body.
- Make Physical Activity a Part of Your Family’s Routine: Get your family moving by swimming, playing catch outside, jumping rope, walking the dog, or going for a hike at a park.
- Tips for Making Exercise Fun for Kids: Being active as a family is always more fun. Go for a bike ride together, kick a ball around the yard, or try a game like basketball or soccer.
- Kids and Exercise: At the playground, you can cross the monkey bars, swing high on swings, climb on the jungle gym, or play tag on the grass.
- DIY Fitball: Fun Fitness Activity: Play fitball with your family with some music and a big beach ball, which you’ll pass to each other while the music is playing. When the music stops, you’ll do a physical activity such as jumping jacks or running in place.
- Nutrition and Exercise Activities: Organize a fitness scavenger hunt to find people who can do things like jump rope ten times without missing or who choose playing outdoors instead of staying inside to watch TV.
- 25 Exercise Games and Indoor Activities to Get Kids Moving: Have crab or bear-walk races to exercise and have fun at the same time.
- 16 Mind-Blowing Exercise Games to Make Kids Active, Fit, and Healthy: Gardening might sound like a chore, but planting and growing vegetables or flowers can be fun as well as a great form of exercise.
- 15 Ways to Keep Kids Active Indoors: Practice your dance moves, and then play freeze dance to your favorite playlist.
- 31 Fitness Activities for Kids That You Can Do as a Family: Draw an obstacle course on the driveway or sidewalk and practice your agility moves to make your way through it.
- Five Fun Workout Games for Healthy Kids: Work on your speed and coordination with activities such as a shuttle run or a crossover relay race.
- Fun Fitness Activities for Kids: Tell or read stories out loud and as you go through the actions in the stories, act them out so you get exercise at the same time.
- Six Easy and Simple Exercises for Kids: Many exercises you might do are simple but very effective, such as running, jumping, climbing, and calisthenics like sit-ups and push-ups.
