Perhaps the most significant difference between designing workouts for adults and designing workouts for kids is that kids need more variety in order to stay motivated. Teenagers and adults know what they are exercising for: they have a goal. So you can design workouts around this goal. We can focus on this goal when we are doing an exercise or activity that is boring or monotonous. For an example you only have to look at the many people jogging up and down the street. It is boring and yes there are better ways to exercise, but for many jogging is viewed as the best way to lose weight (whether this is true is a topic for another article).

Well guess what, kids have goals for their exercise too: to have fun! While parents are usually the ones with the health oriented goal for their child, kids just want to enjoy what they are doing! This is something I emphasise when training younger clients and the following tips will help you to do the same at home.

1. Find an activity your child enjoys – If they enjoy the activity they will keep doing it. What we want to avoid is kids associating exercise with being boring (which adults often do!). We want kids to think of exercise as fun, relaxed and an important part of life.
2. Be creative – Some kids don’t enjoy the usual team sports or forms of exercise – and that is fine. This means it is up to you as the parent to be creative. When working with young clients who aren’t huge sports fans we include lots of games, races and circuits to make things exciting. Be creative to get your kids active.
3. Don’t pressure your kids – This comes back to the idea that we must ensure our kids associate exercise with positive emotions from a young age. If your child does not enjoy a certain sport, don’t pressure them, just follow points 1 and 2 outlined above!
4. Your kids will do as you do. I’m not saying you should be as into fitness as Tony Abbott, nor am I telling you to be ‘one of those parents’ on a Saturday morning yelling at their kids as they play sport. But what is important is that you stay active, eat well and associate exercise with positive emotions so that your kids will do the same.