Purchases That Will Help Your Children Stay In Shape

If you want your children to be happy and to excel in all they do, then you should make sure that they are fit and healthy and you should invest time and money into ensuring they get lots of exercise.

You can do this by take them outside to 'go and play'. When they're indoors watching Ben 10, you can do it by making them join a karate class, or you can do it by making it fun. The latter strategy works best, as when children are enthusiastic about something, they will tend to throw themselves into it with real vigour.

Making it fun is one goal. Another is making it easy and practical for them to get into shape without you having to drive them to a gymnasium every time. By making a few investments in things you can keep around the home you can provide your kids with the perfect exercises that they will actually be incredibly eager to get stuck into. For example…

Trampoline

Who doesn't love a trampoline? The experience of bouncing up and down is excellently similar to being weightless on the moon (especially if you have a child's imagination) and is a fantastic workout for your core and legs. Children can practice flips and jumps, can play with their friends, and will get into brilliant shape in no time.

Wii

The Nintendo Wii is still one of the best devices out there for tricking children and adults alike into getting exercise. When your kids play Wii Sports they'll feel like they're indulging in a video game, but at the same time they'll be jumping and swinging and diving and kicking and in no-time at all they'll be completely out of breath.

Swingball

A slightly cheaper investment is the excellent swingball. This is essentially a tennis ball attached to a spiral on a pole by a piece of string. To play, you strike the ball with your racket in order to get it to swing around and come at you from the other side… at which point you swing again. You lose if you miss enough hits that it gets to the bottom, and it can be played 1 player or 2 player. It's brilliant fun and a great workout that you can enjoy for hours without getting bored.

Swimming Pool

The ultimate in 'fun fitness' has got to be swimming which will help you to tone muscle and burn calories. Kids love swimming more than anyone, so you'll have absolutely no difficulty convincing yours to jump in the pool. Call up a swimming pool service in your area and you'll find you can get a pool in your home surprisingly cheaply.

Playground

Another easy one for winning children over and getting them to be active is to build them a playground with a climbing frame. Children love throwing themselves around like monkeys – it's pretty much what they're programmed to do – and monkey bars also happen to be a fantastic workout for the core and biceps…

Today’s contributor, Annie Jackson, is an employee at B-Rod Pools, LLC, a trusted swimming pool service company in Darien, CT. Annie loves to play the guitar in her spare time and is a huge Mackle Moore fan.

Image: Sam Howzit on Flickr