Fun Ways to Stay Physically Active at Home

Adults need at least 30 minutes of physical activity each day. Children need 60 minutes of physical activity every single day. Staying active provides several health benefits; it can help you maintain a healthy weight, improve your mood, and reduce your risk for chronic health problems. Here are a few fun ways to stay physically active while you’re at home with your family.

Adults need 30 minutes of activity each day; children need 60 minutes. Here are a few ideas to help your family stay physically active while you're at home. Click To Tweet

Home Olympics

Everyone chooses a country. It can be a country that exists, or you can make one up. Come up with a few different events — The Door to Mailbox Dash, The Longest One-Leg Stand, The Limbo Relay, etc. Everyone takes turns competing in each of the events. Complete the event with a podium and award ceremony.

Dance

Dancing is a great way to stay physically active at home with the whole family.

• Put a 30 minute playlist together as a family and have a dance party.
• Competitive families may prefer a dance off.
• Create a dance routine for your favorite song and record your family’s performance.

Obstacle course

Race up stairs, over pillows, under tables, through cars, and around trees. Get creative. Keep adding obstacles as the family completes the course. Time each family member and see who can beat their own record.

Yard games

• Grab some chalk and draw a hopscotch court on the driveway or sidewalk.
• Play a game of Tag or Freeze Tag with your family freeze tag.
• Hide and Seek and Sardines are classic yard games.

Sports

• Put the basketball goal in your driveway to good use.
• Run routes and throw a football.
• Toss a disc across the yard.
• Grab a couple of baseball gloves and play catch.
• Practice your finesse shots with your tennis racket.
• Play indoor hockey with a broom and a tennis ball.

Treasure hunt

Treasure hunts are a fun and creative way to pass the time and stay active with your family while at home. It all starts with finding a great place to hide a treasure. The treasure can be a trinket, money, a treat, or some other prize. Create a series of clues or riddles; each clue will lead the treasure hunter to the next clue location. Hide the clues in their secret spots and enjoy as the family solves riddles and hunts for treasure.

Race

Which member of your family is the fastest? Who can run the farthest? It’s time to find out. Try a few short distance and long distance races. Jog around the block or sprint across the yard.

Compete head-to-head or race individually and compare times. Or race against your own time — see if you can beat your personal best.

Learn a party trick

Pick up a new skill or trick that you can show off.

• Learn how to juggle.
• Learn how to do a somersault, cartwheel, hand stand, or a one arm pushup.
• Practice a new dance move.

Home workouts

There are countless home workout videos on YouTube, social, media and across the internet. Find one that the family can do together. You can come up with modifications if an exercise is too difficult for the whole family. For example, hold a plank instead of doing push-ups.

Challenges

Post a physical fitness challenge on social media. Share a video of your family completing the challenge and challenge friends and other family members to do the same.

• How long can you hold a wall sit?
• Who can do the most squats in a minute?
• Who can do the most push ups without stopping?
• How long does it take to do 100 burpees?
• Can you do five frenchies?

Yoga

Yoga is a relaxing physical activity that the whole family can do together. Cosmic Kids Yoga makes yoga fun for children by combining fun stories with exercise.

Create a new game

All of the sports and games that we play today were invented by someone at some point in history. See what you have in the garage or attic, use your imagination, make up some rules, and you might create the world’s next favorite pastime.