ARTICLE

4 Family-friendly exercises to improve your health and relationships

21 August 2024

10 mins read

Both young and old benefit from maintaining an active lifestyle. By including younger children and grandparents in a family fitness regime, you are able to concurrently improve your family's health and spend quality time with them.

To effectively do this, consider exercises that are suitable to all fitness levels so no one gets left behind and the youngest and oldest family members don't have to struggle to keep up. In addition, there might be family members with poor fitness, who suffer from injuries or have health conditions.

Including fun elements into your workouts also ensure family members will make the required effort to stick to the regime and encourage one another to progress. To start you on your way to better health, here are four simple family-friendly exercises to encourage you and your family members.

Hiking

While Singapore does not boast a vast natural terrain nor lush wilderness, it is home to several interesting natural features and man-made designs and architecture. As you burn calories while hiking up and down these landscapes, you will be exploring parts of Singapore you and your family may not have encountered before.

The Southern Ridges trail, incorporating Henderson Waves, one of Forbes' most amazing bridges in the world,¹ is a 10 kilometre trail that takes you through five parks in Singapore. Older family members can share historical facts while passing notable locations on the trail and younger family members can enjoy seeing nature up-close.

Other natural locations in Singapore include Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, where families can work their calves climbing to the peak of Singapore; Pulau Ubin, where you take a ferry out to discover new ecosystems; and Labrador Nature Reserve, where you can explore the remains of a British military base.

This can be a fun and exciting experience for the whole family as there's something new for everyone to experience.

Badminton

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults aged 18 and above should have about 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week.²

Badminton is a good way to bring different generations in the family together to enjoy playing a sport that requires a moderate intensity workout. Playing the sport will help your family members stay fit, upkeep a healthy heart as well as develop better hand-eye coordination and concentration.

Best of all, you can play the sport at any pace depending on how fast or slow you want to go and you under any weather condition given that it's typically played indoors.

After dinner walks

Going for short walks after dinner creates an opportunity for the family to spend more time together. These strolls encourage a healthier digestive system and intestinal movement³ as well as aid with keeping a healthy weight and regulating blood sugar.

Families also get to communicate with one another and perhaps even run some errands while on these walks. For those who have trouble sleeping, research has shown that mild exercise boosts the effect of natural sleep hormones such as melatonin.⁴

If you are on the AIA Vitality wellness programme, after dinner strolls will help you clock steps as a family to earn more rewards.

Dance

Dancing isn't just for fun, it can be good for the mind and the body.

While listening to music and moving to a rhythm can have uplifting effects on your family members' spirits, energy levels and social skills, dancing is a form of cardiovascular activity that will help maintain a healthy weight, improve stamina and reduce blood sugar levels.

By participating in dance with your family, it can deepen bonds as members learn a new skill together. Even for better dancers, coordinating a new move together can be rewarding.

There are many varieties of dance so you are unlikely to get bored of it. Younger family members can take the lead when introducing older family members to the latest K-Pop moves and the older members can teach the younger ones a thing or two about the Waltz. No one gets left out as gym bunnies strut their latest Zumba moves and even the video-gamer in the family can chip in with a routine from popular arcade game, Dance-Dance Revolution.

Keeping healthy together

As families get together to keep healthy, closer bonds will be forged and fitter bodies will be created. This is important in hectic Singapore where finding time for exercise and maintaining healthy relationships can be challenging. As you and your family maintain a healthy lifestyle together, you are also fighting off chronic diseases such as diabetes that is prevalent in the developed world due to sedentary lifestyles and rising obesity rates. AIA Vitality is designed for you and your family members to take these small steps towards a healthier lifestyle. The wellness programme motivates you to become more active and eat more healthily with a range of rewards including cash vouchers and flight discounts which your family can enjoy together.

References

[1] The World's Most Amazing Bridges – Forbes
[2] Physical Activity; Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health – World Health Organization
[3] Feeling bloated after every meal? – Straits Times, 10 November 2015
[4] 8 secrets to a good night's sleep – Havard Health Publications, 2012

^{This article was originally published on 19 September 2020 and updated with new information.}

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4 Family-friendly exercises to improve your health and relationships

Hiking

Badminton

After dinner walks

Dance

Keeping healthy together

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