Living Magazine Winter Living Magazine 2015/2016 | Page 10

Staying Physically
Active This Winter
When it comes to physical fitness, winter is the season of excuses. It’s too cold to
exercise outside. Who’s going to watch my kids so I can go to the gym? I don’t have the
room, equipment, or time to work out at home. Fitness isn’t seasonal, it’s a lifestyle and
your waistline doesn’t go into hibernation because the weather outside is frightful. This
year, don’t let that winter coat expand with empty promises that you’ll resume exercising
on January 1; use the cold weather as inspiration to change up your routine and get your
entire family involved.

Become a Lifestyle Role model

Involving Your Children

As a parent, one of your most important responsibilities
is as a lifestyle role model to your children. Studies show
that physical activity habits are developed very early in life,
with the primary factor being the habits modeled by their
parents (Hinkley et al.). Parents who exercise on a regular
basis raise children who are more likely to have an active
lifestyle, have a healthy weight status, are sick less, and
even perform better in school (Jago et al.). Exercising with
your children instills in them the idea that physical activity
is an integral part of daily life and that a sedentary lifestyle
is not normal. The doldrums of winter are the perfect opportunity to be creative, have fun, bond, and model to your
children how important daily exercise is.

An easy way to get the heart pumping, your muscles
burning, and your children involved in a fun exercise routine
is through a simple peripheral heart action circuit. Peripheral
heart action uses several basic compound movements
(exercises that engage two or more joints to stimulate
multiple muscles) in an alternating circuit for a fast, effective,
and functional full