Fitness health centre

Family fitness: Get kids moving for better health

A key part of child health is instilling good lifestyle habits, such as healthy eating and exercise, into your children's routine at an early age.

But family fitness and exercise sessions can be difficult to organise - particularly when other activities, such as work and school, prove so time-consuming.

"Families may believe that becoming healthy means having a lot of time for exercise, activity and preparing healthy food," says Dax Moy, a personal trainer. "They think a healthy lifestyle requires a lot of effort and healthy living is expensive."

In addition, he says, many families may worry that healthy living and regular exercises equate to boring living.

So how can you ensure you and your children enjoy a healthy family exercise routine?

Childhood obesity

A lack of exercise and a poor diet has led to what experts describe as an "obesity epidemic".

Figures from the NHS reveal that in England in 2009 around three in ten children aged two to 15 were classed as either overweight or obese.

The past six years have seen a sharp rise in obesity levels, with experts blaming poor diets and fitness levels.

"Part of our responsibility as parents is to teach our children how to lead healthy lives," says Vanessa May, a nutritionist who runs an online fitness video site called ThinQFitness. "The best time to start teaching these lessons is when they're very young and before unhealthy choices can become lifelong bad habits."

Family fitness: Where do you start?

So how do you switch your current habits for a routine involving more exercise?

What if your lifestyle currently involves struggling home from school or work, bowed by the weight of the homework and reports you still have to write, and collapsing on the sofa with the remote?

"Instead of simply adding activity to your already busy lifestyle, look for ways to STOP doing things that are unproductive," says Moy. "Less time in front of the TV or playing computer games would be a good start, but ANY activity that is stealing time from your family is an obvious target."

Moy says you can simply remove the offending time-wasters one by one and replace them with short, fun, active bouts of family time.

Your exercise doesn't necessarily have to form part of a traditional fitness regime. Why not consider:

• Nature walks
• Trips to the local park
• Washing the family car
• Fun back-garden games such as rounders, cricket and football?

Make fitness fun

Don't worry if your new fitness regime doesn't involve a three mile family jog or an hour-long tennis session.

The most important thing about exercise for children is that it's fun and you're all enjoying it together.

"It doesn't matter what the activity is, as long as there is some and it's enjoyable enough to want to do it again," says Moy.