Exercise for kids should be fun. Think of it as ” fun games to play with kids ” instead of “working out.” Keeping the focus on the fun and exercise won’t be a chore and perhaps this fun work out for kids will inspire your family to come up with more entertaining ways to get moving.
Do screens this season suck your children’s life and energy? Your children must move both their minds and their bodies. We have fun exercises for kids to share with you if you are looking for an easy way to get rid of wiggles and crazy or if you simply want your kids to shift their bodies more.
These exercises help build strength by using your own body weight. They are perfect to do together for the kids and the whole family. So what follows are ideas for fun exercises for kids — motions and games they will surely love and enjoy, and no equipment or wide outdoor areas are necessary to perform it. They can be done in 5 to 10 minutes small bursts, or for longer play-time you can string several together. Start with a couple of minutes of warm up exercises to push the muscles and get the heart moving.
Running
Running is just about the easiest type of exercise available and it is great and ideal for children. They just love it! Children can run outdoors, but also inside: in a gymnasium, down a hallway, or even around and around. Running, like relay races, can also be paired with other moves into games.
Change things while running: Vary the patterns of movement by having children switch from running to skipping, or try running in place with feet very close to the ground, this is called “fast feet.” Children can also run with high knees by lifting alternating knees with each step towards the chest or “butt kicks” by kicking alternating heels with each step towards buttocks.
Jumping
Get your feet off the ground for easy workouts that children want to practice. Jumping builds strength, cardio fitness, and stamina in the muscles. Fun jumps for children to try:
- Jumping Jacks: Spread your arms and legs like a starfish as you jump, return your arms to the sides and your legs to the middle of your landing
- Tuck Jumps: The knees bend and the heels elevate high while jumping
- Hurdle Hops: Jump side by side or front to front by attempting to hurdle
- One-foot Hops: Raise one knee and jump on standing leg then alternate. This is also a great test for the balance!
- Criss-Cross Feet: Jump straight up, cross one foot before the other; switch feet on next jump and continue
Parents can do them, and children can also do them: bend those knees but not too far away for squats and lunges! These basic exercises improve strength in the legs to give children a good foundation for all sorts of sports and fitness activities. Try both forward, backward and side lunges and classic squats. You can also incorporate jumps into a squat sequence by having children hop in between squats after they stand up.
Sit-Ups and Push-Ups
Hit the floor for the fun exercise for kids: sit-ups, push-ups, and flanks. Children can do traditional abdominal crunches, crunches on the bicycle, sit-ups on the legs, and more. There are so many variations on the conventional sit-up.
Children should also learn to do basic push-ups and planks in the abs and back to strengthen their upper bodies and core muscles. Incorporate these into games and other fitness activities (see next step) as with other exercises like squats and lunges to keep children involved and having fun.
Fun Exercise Games
Turn it into fun games to play with kids to make exercise more fun. Here are some suggestions from professor Ewunike Akpan of BOKS:
Squat Relay: Have children line up across the room, facing each other. On “play,” both children are running towards the center of the room and meeting in the middle. They do three squats, giving each other a high-five with both hands between each rep. Then they go back to the starting point and repeat. The priority is on the high-fives and interaction with friends. If you have a large group, you might be able to have the lines shift sideways between reps so that each time children meet another friend in the middle of the room.
Corners: Divide kids up to have a home corner for each. Then run them in a circle around the house, return to their home corner on your cue and do some simple exercises (say, 5 jumping jacks or 30-second planking). Akpan suggests allowing children to decide what exercises they need to do in each corner to give them ownership over their play.
Go Back and Hit It: Kids run forward in designated lines on “play.” Then call out “Back” to get them running in reverse. Finally, cue “Hit it!” to add a particular skill, like a tuck jump or squat. Give the children input to choose the “hit it” skill again.
Traffic: There’s more going on in this BOKS variation of “Red Light, Green Light.” Kids stop and start at red and green lights, but even do a side shuffle for a yellow light, do bunny hops at speed bumps, join elbows and run with a “carpool” buddy, and even gallop when the cue is “deer crossing.” Make a few more motions with your kids!
More Fun Exercises
- Headstands: A fantastic exercise for the core muscles and for getting blood to the brain. Children are often naturals.
- Jump rope: If the neighbors who complain are downstairs, go into the hall or outside your building.
- Obstacle course: Create a course on furniture in your apartment or take chalk and do a course outdoors.
- Wheelbarrow, crab, and bear-walk races: You get a real workout by holding one of these tough positions.
- Animal races: Jump like a frog or a bunny; squat and waddle like a duck; and so forth.
- Balloon ball: Indoor balloons are an endless mode of play. Seek to hold it off the ground or simply playing catch. Switch it up with a tennis balloon!
- Follow the leader: Add vigorous motions like running, stomping, and squatting to the exercise.
- Dance party: Turn on the music and shake your groove thang.
- Freeze dance: Stay in your stance until the music begins again when the music ends.
- Scavenger hunt: Write down clues and conceal them around the house. Children will race to end up finding any clue for a small reward.
- Parachute: This standby kiddie gym may be recreated with sheets at home. Each kid takes the parachute or sheet to an end and fans it up while one of you runs below.
- Bubble wrap attack: If in the mail you get bubble wrap, hop on it before it all pops up.
- Clean-up race: Set a timer or song to see who can make the fastest room correct.
- Tickle tag: Chase out your kids. It’s tickle time when you catch them.
- Temper tantrum: Fit for the fun. Flail, yell, and stamp.
- Carnival: Set up games for a carnival like “Knock Down the Milk Bottles.”
- Hallway bowling: Fill bottles with water and use any ball you have.
- Hopscotch: Use chalk or tape on your floor or outside of your building to make a game.
- Pillow fight: No need for clarification.
- Sock skating: Bring on the socks and skate around if you have hardwood floors. Try hockey stops or spins, or see who can slide the farthest. Make sure the furniture is moved, and watch for splinters. My kids like up the speed factor with a few pieces of wax paper under each foot as well.
- Bubble bashing: Blow bubbles and smash them with your kids.
- Wrestling: Place a mat down, or battle on a bed or rug. See if your children can wrestle you down to the ground.
- Pushover parents: position your feet to see if the children can move you. If you move your feet, they are going to win. The balance on one foot to make it simpler.
- Popcorn pushups: Place on the floor a little bowl of popcorn. Lower yourself, and stick out your tongue with each thrust to get a piece of popcorn.
Finish with Stretching
Follow up with some easy stretches after exercise play with kids to keep the muscles healthy and balanced. A stretching and cool-down sequence can also help move children into a more comfortable post-workout condition, and help avoid injury.
Once your child has the ability to walk, you can encourage physical play with simple activities such as walking without the stroller, visiting playgrounds that are child friendly, dancing and playing music at home and using ride-on toys. If you and your kid enjoy parent-and-tot movement classes or water safety classes, great, but they are not essential to the development of your child, so don’t worry if they’re not your thing or your kid’s. Your goals now: provide your kid with plenty of chances to push his body and expose him to the fitness activities that they would enjoy.