An Active Family is a Healthy Family
It’s important to be healthy and take care of yourself but it’s also very important to get your family active. Getting your family activities can help in a number of ways from emotional to physical. Below are 16 reasons to get your family active!
Get your family active. Here’s why!
1. For Your Kids
Their “weight fate” might be decided at a very young age. Instill in them an active mindset and you could set them up for a healthy adulthood.
2. For Your Parents
Because your parents have always been there for you from scraped knees, helping you through your first heartbreak, or even bailing you out of jail, now it’s your turn to repay the favor as they get older and less active. I know they might really like reruns of The Andy Griffith Show or Murder She Wrote, but they need to get up and active daily!
3. For Your Elders
Basic weight training can increase their functional strength, therefore improving their overall quality of life! [1]
4. Family Time
Exercising together may be the only time you get to interact with your kids without their faces being buried in their smartphones. You got to teach life lessons when you can, right?
5. For Motivation
Exercising together can be one of the biggest motivational tools there is. It helps you get motivated but also allows you to motivate others!
6. Cut Your Future Bills
Who the heck wants to pay the enormous doctor bills that can accompany obesity and a sedentary lifestyle! Get the aging folks in your life up and healthy, helping save your wallet! Get this; in 2008 the average medical cost for an obese individual was $1,400 more than a normal weight individual!
7. Get More Sleep
If your kids are having trouble sleeping at night, having them exercise or play for an extended period of time during the day can help them sleep better. Even if that means shoveling snow or playing football in the yard! It can go a long way for you as well.[2]
8. Less Stress
Exercising can make everyone a little less irritable and feeling better.
Exercise is associated with the release of endorphins which help make you feel better! This can even help fight depression! [3]
9. Prevent Obesity
Whoever it is, you are saving them from obesity which is the number one preventable disease in the world! You could be saving them from cancer, diabetes, hypertension, joint problems, asthma, future heart disease…etc. Wow, you are a friggin hero!
10. Build Family Bonds
Exercising like canoeing, hiking, or anything that can be done together can help build your family’s bonds! The family that exercises together stays together. Well, that may not be true but at least you won’t be obese together!
11. Feel Better
Exercising can help the ladies in your life reduce the symptoms of their menstrual cycle. Win-win!
12. Increased Libido
If you’re a lady and your man is experiencing decreased libido get him up and doing an intense workout or weight lifting session. Science has shown that this can naturally increase his testosterone (even submaximal exercise can increase your testosterone)! Increased testosterone can lead to increased libido meaning if the house is rocking, don’t come knocking… [4]
13. Improved Immune System
Do you enjoy dealing with snot, puke, and other nasty bodily fluids? Yeah, screw that. Get your loved ones active to help increase their immune system! In fact, it was found that obese individuals were more susceptible to this year’s flu due to a lowered immunity.
14. Peace and Quite
Get the kids out of the house and playing and just being active. Can you say, “Hello peace and quiet!”
15. Mental Fitness
Does the man in your life seem a little slower as he has gotten older? Take away the Duff beer and get him active. Science has shown that even mild exercise can stave off memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease, keep the brain fit and active, and establish new brain connections that can facilitate learning! [5,6]
16. Overall Health Improvement
Get everyone up and exercising just to increase their overall health and hopefully having you all enjoying many healthy, happy years together! You owe everyone that.
Get your family active, you will be happy you did!
References
1. Yoke M (2010) Personal fitness training: theory and practice Second edition. Ed. Galdwin LA. Sherman Oaks, CA.
2. Brand S, Gerber M, Beck J, Hatzinger M, Puhse U, Holsboer-Trachsler E (2010) High exercise levels are related to favorable sleep patterns and psychological functioning in adolescents: a comparison of athletes and controls. Journal of Adolescent Health 46: 133-141.
3. Harber VJ, Sutton J (1984) Endorphins and Exercise. Sports Medicine 1: 154-171.
4. Vogel RB, Books CA, Ketchum C, Zauner CW, Murray FT (1985) Increase of free and total testosterone during submaximal exercise in normal males. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 17: 119-123.
5. Cotman CW, Berchtold NC (2002) Exercise: a behavioral intervention to enhance brain health and plasticity. Trends in Neurosciences 25: 295-301.
6. Hilman CH, Erickson KI, Kramer AF (2008) Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9: 58-65.
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