It’s no secret that there are benefits of physical activity. However, it is true that some of the most beneficial things in life are the most difficult to face.
And when it comes to regular physical activity, especially if you have a family, a
full-time job, social life, and pets, this activity can slowly slip to the very bottom of your priority list.
Therefore, making a special effort to get yourself and your family outside and moving
around offers a range of benefits that may encourage you to switch up your routine.
The good news is, a lot of physical activities can be incorporated into your daily routine easily, or simply swapped with another activity or event you and your family do regularly.
We’re here to help guide you through this transition into becoming a healthier and
essentially happier family thanks to the many benefits of physical activity.
First, let’s get inspired by looking at these incredible benefits.
What are the Benefits of Physical Activity?
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Physical activity and exercise can boost your health while reducing the risks of developing various diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
Moving your body on a regular basis (and this doesn’t include squatting yourself down onto
a couch, guys) provide long-term and often immediate health benefits which boosts your overall quality of life.
All you need to do is set aside 30 minutes a day for physical activity and you’ll be able to
experience this list of incredible benefits:
On top of all of these benefits, daily physical activity will help create a healthier
state of mind.
There have been numerous studies revealing how exercise can help with depression. This is
done in a number of ways:
Now, let’s look at what regular exercise can do for your family.
Benefits of Physical Activity
for Families
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When a person is physically fit, they look and feel better and remain healthier for a longer amount of time.
The earlier children begin getting in shape, the more they’ll reduce their risk of illnesses and become more prone to continue a healthy, physically active lifestyle throughout their lives.
Here are some benefits physical activity can bring to your children and family as a whole:
1. A Strengthened Heart
Like other muscles in our body, the heart’s performance is boosted when it’s challenged regularly with exercise.
The heart will respond to exercise by strengthening itself and becoming more efficient.
This heart strength can prevent heart disease, which is one of the leading causes of death in the US. This is even possible to develop in childhood.
2. It Clears Arteries and Veins From
Fat and Cholesterol
Exercise clears fat and cholesterol from an individual’s blood. This increases wall flexibility in the blood vessels while lowering blood pressure.
While your children won’t have to worry about these issues for awhile, it helps them learn how to adapt to a certain lifestyle for life-long health.
3. It Strengthens the Lungs
Working increases lung capacity and the efficiency in moving air throughout the body. As a result, more oxygen is brought into the body and more carbon dioxide and other harmful or waste gases are released out of the body.
Regular physical activity prevents oxygen decline that happens naturally with age or through inactivity.
4. It Reduces Blood Sugar Levels
Regular physical activity also prevents sugar from gathering in the blood. It does this by activating muscles to create more glucose from the bloodstream and transform it into energy.
This can, therefore, reduce a person’s risk of developing diabetes.
With all the sugar found in today's… everything, regular exercise of your child has incredibly healthy benefits for their blood sugar levels.
5. It Controls Weight
This is one of the most well-known benefits of physical activity, as it is desired.
People take in more calories than needed when sedentary. These calories accumulate quickly and turn into fat.
However, if you and your children exercise frequently, you’ll have a deficit of calories which lowers your weight. Less weight means a healthier heart.
6. It Strengthens Bones
When muscles are physically stressed they grow stronger.
This is also true for bones.
Exercise boosts bone density which prevents osteoporosis, a condition where bones weaken, lose their density and become fragile.
7. It Helps Prevent Cancer
If you exercise regularly, you have a lower chance of developing cancer.
This is huge!
The cancers that are most affected with physical activity are prostate, colon, breast, and uterine cancers.
8. It Regulates Blood Pressure
Exercise also regulates an individual’s blood pressure by reducing stress levels.
Once stress levels are lowered, their blood pressure and risk for various heat diseases decline as well.
While your child may not need to worry about this now, getting them in the habit of exercising will properly prepare them for the future.
9. It Improves Energy Levels
Exercise also improves energy levels, making them feel more energetic and wanting to be active in various parts of their lives.
It also reduces the chance that they’ll become tired mid-day.
10. It Enhances Emotional Well-being
Emotions are critical to being fully healthy.
After exercise, many people become calmer and experience a better sense of well-being. This is because exercise releases a natural substance in the human body called beta-endorphin, which is hundreds of times more beneficial and potent than morphine.
Some experts say that exercise boost serotonin which is based in the central nervous system and is linked to feelings of overall well-being, lessened depression, and boosted appetite.
Weight loss from exercise can also make people feel a lot happier and better about themselves in general.
This makes exercise a wonderful addition for families with children heading into the terrifying and hormone-a-rific pre-teen or teen years.
Ways to Increase Physical
Activity
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Now that we’ve convinced you that physical activity is essential for families and part of your daily routine, let’s look at some of the ways you can incorporate it into your life, smoothly.
Daily activity increases can develop from small changes at first such as choosing to walk to school or to the store together as a family or cycling as opposed to using the car, bus or train.
You could also park the car further away from the school, store, church or mall, forcing the family to walk the rest of the way.
However, if you’re looking for more physical activity, here are some suggestions we came up with.
Ideas to Get Started
There are tons of way to get your family off the couch and into a fun and more active lifestyle.
We’ve listed just a handful, however, we suggest you get a bit creative. Put your own personal spin on these ideas to make it truly unique to your family and situation.
Final Thoughts: Benefits of
Physical Activity
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Physical activity isn’t just good for your family.
These days, it’s essential.
With the increase in technology use, sitting at desks or couches for hours, the amount of sugar found in almost every food product you can find at the grocery store, physical exercise can seriously prevent your family from developing some awful conditions or diseases.
Physical activity is one of the cornerstones of a healthy and vital family unit.
Now, it’s just a matter of how you want to use your creativity to incorporate daily exercise into your family’s daily routine.
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