Make It Fun – Tips For Getting Your Kids Into The Gym
The last few articles of the Kid’s Fitness Series focused on why you should be getting your children in the gym and how to properly structure a workout once you get them in there. But none of that matters if you can’t get your kids into the gym in the first place. Having all the knowledge in the world about benefits of lifting does nothing if they never start. So today we are going to focus on how you can get your kids into the gym and keep them coming back again and again. The key is to Make It Fun!
Short Attention Spans
Children have very short attention spans, which is why coaching them can be challenging when compared to adolescents and adults. Experts say that children, on average, have an attention span of 2-3 minutes per year of their age. So a 5 year old child would have roughly a 10-15 minute attention span. Think about your last workout and how long it took. Your warm-up was probably 10 minutes! So, somehow you have to figure out how to take your kid who can focus for the length of some stretching exercises, and get them to have an effective workout.
Kids don’t often have the goal minded outlook that a hardened lifter might have. You and I can sit down and understand that if we show up 3 to 5 times a week for the next 10 years, we’ll be better off than we are today. Stronger, more muscle, leaner, healthier. But kids don’t see that far into the future. They don’t often see that light at the end of the tunnel. So something else has to be there to maximize their attention spans. Fun!
It All Starts Here
At the start of their journey, they won’t care about the numbers in their workout program (percentages and weights). These numbers are how we as adults set our goals, and these goals are what keep us continually coming back. Since children don’t care about these numbers, we have to come up with a plan to keep things fun and interesting so they want to keep coming back for more.
Like we have been talking about quite often in our last two articles, children love to follow in their parents footsteps. If they see you enjoying your time in the gym, they will want to try it out themselves. Their curiosity will be piqued as they won’t want to miss out on this fun activity.
So, first and foremost is make sure you are doing a workout program that you enjoy. This means you’ll keep coming back everyday and setting a good example. If you don’t show up, why would they? Additionally, we want to be cognizant of our language selection. Complaints about workouts and overall dreading physical activity can quickly lead to your kids having the same feelings. Children associate things quicker than you may think. So, if you have a negative outlook on lifting weights or anything fitness related, they’ll start taking after you.
But What If I Don’t Wanna?
If you don’t have the most fun in the gym, this is the perfect time for an old trick. Fake it until you make it. If you don’t enjoy lifting yourself, there’s a good chance your mind can be changed once you get to spend that time with your kids. You’ll start to form the same positive relations with exercise that your kid is doing. Family time is fun time, and lifting is fun. As things progress and you start to see changes in your strength, abilities, health, and more… you’ll have even more positive connections to exercise and lifting. And guess what? The more you enjoy it, the more your kids will too!
The more people you add into the equation, the more fun you can have. Not only can adding your kid into the gym be that extra boost that you need, but bringing your spouse into the mix (if they aren’t already) can be a great way to include the entire family. And when BOTH parents set that example, the kids are even more likely to see it as a thing our family does and enjoys. Add in the health benefits of exercise, the extra time together, and the OTHER benefits of working out together, and this is a recipe for a strong family that stays together.
Ideas To Make It Fun
Music
You can create a family music playlist. If each person has their own dedicated songs to play during their workout, that can add into the fun. Spotify is free and has plenty of family friendly playlists in tons of genres. Grab your phone and a bluetooth speaker and you can fill up a room or go anywhere.
Take It Outside
Adding multiple people into the equation can lead to limited space. The solution is to drag that equipment out into the driveway to enjoy the weather. This makes the size of your gym endless. Plus it makes it easier to incorporate new movements and new equipment into their program.
Try New Things
Just like with how your own program needs to include movements that you like to do to keep you motivated, you have to do the same with your children. Moving the gym outside can add in things like sled pushes, tire flips, yoke carries, etc. Trying out these new movements will keep your kids interested for longer. Then you can find the ones that they like to do the best, which will keep them continually coming back.
You may have noticed that the MiniGGC events are often odd, whacky, and different. This is on purpose. Our goal is to get you (and your kids) to try something you haven’t tried before. Doing new things is not only an awesome off-season practice to keep you fresh and test your limitations. It is an amazing way for your kids to try all kinds of things. The more stuff you do, the more resilient you can become.
New Equipment
This is also a time to expand the equipment in your gym to offer them a bigger variety. You can buy them their own barbell (like the personalized GGC kids bar). Think about the feeling you get when you receive a new item for your gym. That new toy arrives, and whether you are at the office or waiting patiently for the UPS guy to drop it at your door, you are like a kid on Christmas morning. You rip open that package and immediately run out to the gym to test it out. Your kids will get that same feeling getting equipment of their own.
You can even build equipment for them, while letting them help you design and construct it. Everyone has a sense of pride in the things they put their hard work and effort into. The more you can have them be a part of the building process, the more sense of pride they will carry into the final product. You can build boxes for box squats and box jumps, you can build a squat rack to fit their size/height, or you could even design one off equipment like a rickshaw!
Having a piece of equipment in the gym shows that you are SHARING that space with them, that it is not YOUR gym, but your entire families gym. This simple act can change their outlook from a spectator to a participant.
Mark It Down
As your children start getting more familiar with the gym and working through different variations of exercises, this is when you can start introducing a family goal board and hang it up somewhere in your gym. Your kids will love celebrating with you when you set new PRs, and they will absolutely love being able to add their name and best lifts to the board.
You can make these goals for numbers in the gym, or even for sports specific goals. As children start getting into the age where sports are being offered (roughly 5-8 years old), you can tailor their program to perform better on the field, court, mat, or whatever other area they’ll be competing in. Keeping them training for sports will help them be better athletes, which can help increase motivation when seeing results in their respective sport.
Reward Success
Everyone loves a good challenge, but make sure you reward success as well. A high five and some positive vibes goes a long way to encourage repeat behaviors. You don’t need a new toy for every success, but you could create a family PR celebration dance, secret handshake, or something else fun, exciting, and unique.
Remember to also make sure your kids know that PRs come from the effort they put in every week opposed to PRs being something that happens every time you enter the gym. It is about the effort and consistency over time that turns into results. Don’t miss the opportunity to teach them life skills while building their physical capacities.
Wrap Up
While getting children into the gym in the first place can be one of the biggest challenges you can face, there are plenty of different ways you can create a positive influence in their life. We all know how important it is to get them physically active at an early stage, and we know how beneficial lifting weights can be for kids. So try using these tips to make your lives a little easier to get them lifting.
Now that we’ve had articles covering the importance of children lifting, how to structure it, and how to get them to enjoy it, we can dive deeper into even more specialized topics. Next month we are going to cover specialized equipment for children. We touched on a few options in this article, but there is a plethora of equipment out there that you may not know of, and may be able to add into your arsenal. Keep your eyes out for that!
About The Article Series
Jeff Kimpel is the owner and host of the Primal Armor podcast where he takes his education and experience and dives deep, but succinctly, into a topic to help you be a better version of yourself. With the birth of his daughter, Jeff has reinvigorated his passion for getting kids active and involved in exercise. His Masters Thesis involved kid’s fitness and sports!
Our aim is to help you get your kids into the gym. Because strong families lift TOGETHER!
You can find more on the podcast here.
Looking for a family friendly way to lift TOGETHER? Check out the Garage Gym Competition!