Staying Active As a Family

Over the last few months I have been training regularly with my 9 year old son, Jack, the main focus being strength and conditioning. My son is a sporty lad who enjoys taking part in team sports and competitions at school and trains hard in martial arts out of school, which he does with my husband.

Myself being a regular gym user, Jack, has been keen to get to the gym with me for some time now and so I asked my PT if it would be possible for Aaron to join us on our regular sessions. He loves the strength and core work that we do and often we are required to work in teams- for example to accumulate 80 push-ups between us or a 600m sprint on the rowing machine.

My husband and son have plenty of bonding time together, due to their shared love for martial arts, however I have felt that quality time with myself and him has been lacking. We have a younger child also so it's often not easy to find the time to spend with my older son by himself, doing something that we both enjoy – being a young 'tween' he can be difficult to please! These training sessions have given us the time together that we much needed and it's been great fun in the process! I love having my little gym buddy with me.

Jack has a fine collection of medals already but is always keen to grow his collection of bling – handy that I work for MedalMad! Having previously completed his MedalKids bumper pack by joining me on outdoor runs in the warmer months, Jack is now currently working towards his Run Royale 5k challenge – he is hoping to do this on the indoor rowing machine by accumulating shorter distances to make up the total distance – I have agreed to do this with him and also earn my Floss like A Boss dog tags!

This is a great incentive for him and I know he already has his eye on some of our other MedalKids and MedalMad challenges.

My younger child, age 5, not wanting to be left out, is also keen to earn her bling so last weekend we tracked our distance whilst out walking the dogs along the canal, totalling 3k – just another 2k to go and she will have completed her 'You've Got A Friend 5k' challenge! She has already completed her SuperSmash 5k through regular walks which she proudly presented to her class mates during Show and Tell.

Family time and physical activity are so important, so by combining the two I hope that I am leading by example and setting my children up for a healthy future. Turn off the games consoles and TV, get the family working towards their next virtual challenge.