Family fitness: fact or myth? - Special Section: Family Fitness

American Fitness, Nov-Dec, 1990 by Peg Jordan

Family Fitness: Fact or Myth?

How realistic is a goal of family fitness for most families? Less than a third of families are traditional two-parent entities with enough leisure time together to even attempt an occassional exercise session. More often today's families are nontraditional groupings of blended families, step-siblings and latchkey kids with single parents. A growing segment of society includes families with a single head-of-household, usually a woman with an income far below national average. If there are two parents in the household, they're usually both working, while the kids are busy with friends, school and work. Families complain that they don't even eat together, much less workout together.

Fitness is not very high on the priority list of most families; survival is. Young families unprepared for the financial strain, emotional upset and high stress of raising kids do not place a high value on exercising together. Add to that picture about one million teenage mothers a year who never managed to have daily PE in school, let alone consider exercising with their families, and it appears that family fitness is not the norm.

In fact, the notion of family fitness appears to be the offspring of affluent demographics. Impoverished families and uneducated families (with less than a high school diploma) are not part of the great fitness movement. In fact, just having kids seems to reduce your participation in exercise programs. It's been shown that families with children exercise less than families without children. More than 70% of adults in households without children partake in some aerobic activity such as exercise walking, jogging, or swimming, as compared to only 50% of adults in households with children.

Nonetheless, family life may be the single most influential factor in a child's health habits, according to a University of Michigan Fitness Research Center study. Establishing a positive role model means that kids have a chance to adopt lifelong health habits at an early age. When an unhealthy example is set, kids carry those values with them throughout their lives.

Researchers found that in most two-parent families, spouses acted alike and matched each other in exercise habits. The number of excess pounds carried by each parent was alike: on the average, husbands are 15.3 percent overweight and wives 11.6%. If the couple wants to make a healthy change, they should consider a joint approach.

Inactivity is generally blamed for the increasing obesity problem among children, and one in four children is obese. In addition, the total number of obese children ages 6 to 11 has grown 54% in the last 15 to 20 years; 39% for youths ages 12 to 17. Between a record amount of television viewing (over 60 hours a week is average) and a dismal lack of daily physical education, youth fitness is in a deplorable state.

This section of American Fitness encourages families to overcome the obstacles to spending quality fitness time together--no matter what the family make-up, no matter how crazy their schedules. There is always a way for an adult and child to play together, even if it's only a few minutes at a time. Teaching kids how to take charge of their physical fate is a visible, first step in achieving control and direction over their lives. An enjoyable fitness program can add immeasurable value and richness to a family's experience of each of its members.

Starting a Family Fitness Program Guidelines for Caring Parents

1. Keep a healty balance. Don't try to run a "do or die" exercise approach with kids. Make sure you balance play with fitness activities and keep the activity enjoyable and lighthearted. The minute it feels like drudgery or worse yet--home-work--you've lost your young recruits.

2. Extend your healthy habits. Don't reserve your exercise attitude just for your 20-minute session. Let your kids see you carry out your calorie-burning philosophy in all aspects of your life. Take stairs instead of elevators or escalators. Walk to the store or do your errands on a bike. Take movement breaks from your work at home, and act as if they're a physical reward you're treating yourself to.

3. Introduce positive relaxation techniques. Don't just collapse in front of the TV. It's been proven to be more of a depressant than a relaxant. When you're ready to relax after school or after work, consider an energizer instead of a deflater. Show your kids how a five-minute dance break can blow off fatigue. Talk them through their first progressive relaxation session while they're stretched out on the floor, their feet elevated on pillows.

4. Get started today. If you've been planning to do something, forget the planning and do something right now. Buy a funky aerobics exercise tape and laugh with your children as you all try to follow along. Go for a walk. Jump on a skateboard. Do anything--just do it today. Procrastination kills dreams, and before you know it, you're ony left with worn out intentions instead of great memories.

5. Divide and conquer. It's unlikely that you'll ever have the perfect setting for an entire family fitness excursion four times a week. Most families that exercise find that they need to pair off, mom with daughter or dad with son, in order to satisfy busy work schedules or childcare responsibilities for infants and toddlers.