Winter Weather Woes; Ideas for exercise for your child when everyone has cabin fever

Winter Weather Woes; Ideas for exercise for your child when everyone has cabin fever
By Natalia Darling, PA-C
Whether you are an adult or a child, it can be challenging to find a way to get motivated to exercise in the wintertime.  Once the motivation is found, the next hurdle is what to do for exercise when its freezing, snowing or sleeting. Below we’ve listed some  ideas to get you started and to keep you happy, healthy and moving with your child all winter long!
Help! I’ve got cabin fever and we all need to get out of the house

  1. Indoor trampoline parks
  2. Indoor swimming
  3. Sledding, snowball fights or building a snowman outside
  4. Skiing or snowboarding
  5. Bundle up for a winter weather hike as a family
  6. Roller skating or ice skating
  7. Bowling alley
  8. Enroll your child in an indoor kids yoga class or dance class, or bring them to Potomac Pediatrics for a POP fitness health coaching session with our health coach Allison Kunk

Help! The weather is awful and we want to stay inside, but the kids are going stir crazy and need to block off some steam.  

  1. Balloon volleyball- Blow up a balloon (or a glove) and never let it hit the ground
  2. Freeze dance- Put on a playlist of great songs to dance to and whenever the designated dj stops the music everyone has to freeze wherever they are
  3. Download an exercise video and do one together- check out gonoodle.com as a great resource for movement based videos geared towards kids!
  4. Make an obstacle course inside
  5. Wheelbarrow, crab walk and bear races
  6. Dance dance revolution or other exercise based video game
  7. Jumprope or hula hoop
  8. Twister
  9. Flashlight tag- Turn off all the lights in the house, everyone gets a flash light, and whenever the person who is “it” gets you in their beam of light youre out!
  10. Yoga jenga- write yoga poses on a set of jenga blocks, whenever one is removed all players must get into the pose and hold for ten seconds.  When the tower falls, hold a plank for 30 seconds!