Here are 5 ways you can stay active with the family at your local park
1 – Get a group together for a friendly sports game. Cricket and soccer are perfect for playing with a group of mates at your local park, suitable for all ages and abilities, it gets everyone involved, running around and staying active, and you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment.
2 – Play with the kids. Instead of taking the kids to the park, sitting down and watching them play, get up and get involved. Studies have shown that just standing up increases calorie burn compared to sitting. So just getting up and pushing your child on the swing will have a positive benefit. However, even better than that would be to get involved in playing chase or hide and seek, anything that gets you all up and moving around.
3 – Start a scavenger hunt. If you’re looking to increase the number of steps you take a day, this could be your answer. Take a walk around the park looking for certain nature items. You can easily find a list online. It might not feel like your exercising, but again, anything that gets you up and moving about instead of sitting is going to be beneficial to your health.
4 – Put together a fun workout themed around the kid’s park. You can use the climbing frames for pull-ups, push-ups, just hanging off it will improve your upper body strength. Use swings to improve your stability, but using them for lunges, push-ups or abdominal work (think of using it like a suspension trainer) and lastly use a slide as a step for leg or upper body work.
5 – Frisbee or catch. Sound simple enough, but you’ll actually get a lot of exercise in as you run or walk to catch the ball and to collect ones that you didn’t catch! The whole family can get involved, and you can always change the rules as you go along. If you don’t catch it you have to do 10 squats or a lap of the park. Make it fun and you won’t feel like you’re exercising at all.