If you’re one of the millions of Americans quarantined at home with young children right now, you might be on the verge of a mental breakdown.
One of the many harsh disruptions to daily life to come out of the coronavirus is online schooling. Hundreds of thousands of kids and teenagers across America are taking classes online, Skyping into meetings with teachers and attending lectures over Zoom from the privacy of their own bedroom. Understandably, there’s a lot of pent-up energy there — younger kids miss playtime at school with their friends, while older teenagers are probably spiraling into angst over their own social losses. If you’re at home with some stir crazy kids, here are a few easy exercises they can be doing to improve their mood and keep up with their fitness.
30-60 Minutes of Aerobic Activity for Teens
Experts recommend aerobic activities for teens since those are the years when most of your bone mass develops. Even if that means nothing to you, the boost in mood that you get from completing a difficult workout can do wonders for someone who’s feeling depressed or anxious being at home all day. Aerobic exercises get the heart pumping — think dancing, jumping jacks, jumping rope, etc.
An easy aerobic exercise teens can do from home is the “strength circuit.” Do 2 minutes of squats, 2 minutes of lunges, 2 minutes of pushups, 2 minutes of dips, and 2 minutes of torso twisting. Don’t forget to stretch before and after and repeat as many times as you feel comfortable. It might not be as stimulating as going for a run in the park, but it’ll definitely help ease that cooped up feeling that comes with being stuck at home.
For Younger Kids, Keep It Simple
Younger kids definitely have a lot of energy that isn’t being burned up at the playground or at school right now. Start off with exercises they probably know from P.E. — jumping jacks, “star jumps,” push-ups. You can make it fun by doing it with them, or challenging them to a competition. If you have a younger kid who isn’t excited about working out with you, try thinking of ways you can turn the workout into a game. Maybe a game of hide-and-seek where the loser does 20 jumping jacks every round. There are also lots of videos available on YouTube to help younger kids get excited about fitness.
Use online resources available.
There are a lot of online workout plans and classes being made available free right now. If you can’t come up with something on your own, plenty of websites are offering basically anything you can think of online. If you have a home gym, or even just a treadmill or exercise bike, even better. There are even workouts the entire family can do together, which could be a great way to get everyone in the house working out and can also be a fun family activity.
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