Maintaining healthy and sustainable levels of physical activity is vital to our wellbeing, both physically and mentally. Remember that you have an obligation to be fit and healthy for your kids. Let your kids keep you young, aim for 30 minutes of exercise per day at least.
Both structured exercise and incidental activity reduce risk of heart disease, developing diabetes, and increase an understanding of the human body, and its adaptations to stress.
Men should strive to complete at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day. This doesn’t have to be structured exercise such as running, swimming, cycling, or going to the gym, but it could be as simple as walking the dog, washing the car, or gardening. Try to find something that you enjoy doing, or an exercise buddy to keep you accountable.
A great way to get some exercise in is doing it with your kids. Go for a bike ride with them, kick the footy, or set up an obstacle course in the backyard and see who can go around it the fastest. Not only will this give you a fun way to keep your exercise up, whilst spending time with your kids, but it is fun and easy to do.
Top tips for Dads
- Find physical activity that excites you – sometimes exercising can be hard. You might not feel like going for a morning run or swim sometimes. Find an activity that you love or have an exercise buddy to hold you accountable.
- Engage in incidental activity – get out and do the gardening or wash the car on the weekend. Take the stairs instead of the lift.
- Set exercise goals – aim for a goal for a baseline volume of exercise per week/month. This could be something like 30 minutes a day, or 3 runs per week.
- Multitask – if you’re not too excited about getting a workout done, multi-tasking may help.
- Be aware of your own body – listen to your body. Notice how much rest and recovery you are getting. Pay attention to your body and its signs – neglect can lead to injury.
