by Katarzyna Radzka

Created on: December 02, 2010

You know that exercise is good for you. You feel ten times better after a gym workout than sitting in front of another sitcom. You understand that in order to be healthy and have energy you need to include exercise in your day. But what about your family – are they working out with you or is just you on the exercise bandwagon?

It often happens that not everyone in the family likes to exercise and that means you are responsible for getting your family involved with exercise. Introducing them to regular exercise is one of the best gifts you can give them and if they take advantage of it they can change their life for the better very quickly. The hard part may come with motivating them to get started, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

*Treat your family to a free afternoon at your local gym. Show them what they can do and explain to them all the benefits you get from working out and that they too can get the same benefits. You can also get them a set of five personal training sessions that they will have to use.

*Organize an active family day. Put together a picnic BBQ in your local park. Take a football, Frisbee and a couple Badminton rackets. Before you sit down to eat challenge each family member to some physical activity – all in good fun of course.

*Buy a dog that needs walking. Dogs are excellent motivators. You can’t say no to those puppy dog eyes staring at you begging to go for a walk. Organize a day for each family member to walk the dog so that the responsibility isn’t left to just one person which will probably be you.

*Kids can be motivated to exercise by organizing a mini Olympics in the backyard. Get your hands on a hula hoop, skipping rope, potato sack and anything else you can think of. Children could do a circuit Olympic race where they try to do each activity as quickly as possible in one minute before moving on. The prize could be a day at the local pool or something else they might enjoy.

Motivating your family to exercise more may seem difficult at first but with persistence your efforts will pay off. Everyone needs to do a bit of exercise on a daily basis so keep on motivating your family until exercise becomes a regular part of their life.

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