Whether your child is overweight or not, exercise is one of the best activities your child can engage in to grow up healthily. Encourage your child to practice sports and better yet, have fun together practicing any sport as a family.

Exercise for everyone

Exercise is an effective way for your child to stay at a healthy weight during his development. Nevertheless, the enjoyment of any physical activity as with eating habits is something learned. If your family activities generally involve watching TV perhaps your child won't take to exercising as much as you'd like him to.

Exercising doesn't mean that your child has to go to the gym regularly or take swimming lessons (although if he likes it, that’s great!). Playing actively can help him burn calories too. If he joins a local team to practice a sport, the benefits will be even greater.

But where your child is mainly going to learn about physical activity is at home. Doing outdoor activities regularly with your children on weekends or just walking around the park or your neighborhood everyday with the whole family will show him that exercise is something fun. It's also a relaxing time with the family in which you can bond with your children.

Exercise and Video games

In the last decade, when video games were nonexistent, and women hadn't joined the workforce, children played outdoors more. Exercise was a natural part of a child's activities.

But nowadays children spend long hours at home, not only because they are attracted to video games but for safety reasons, since parents work long hours at the office and it isn't safe for the children to be outdoors on their own. For this reason, exercise is something you have to program.

Children must exercise at least an hour a day, besides playing outdoors as much as possible. A way to do this is to avoid having a TV in their room and limiting the time they spend playing video games or using any electronic devices.

When they play video games, choose those that require them to move when playing. These games make you move in order to control what is happening on the screen. But you don't have to spend a fortune on the latest video games. Dancing to upbeat music is just as good.

The key to success

Besides video games and family activities, the key to success is to find a physical activity he loves and have him practice it as much as possible.

Maybe what your child likes is to take family walks in the afternoons, but he may also love to become part of a soccer team, or better yet, a team where parents and children play together. Or your daughter might like modern dancing, salsa or even ballet.

Try all the activities your child may be interested in and participate as much as you can in them. Go together to buy the necessary equipment and attend all the games and practices you can. There's nothing like having his mom or dad watching.

If your child is overweight, avoid those sports that might be difficult for him to do. Running may be more difficult, but swimming or riding a bicycle may be easier for him because of the extra weight he is carrying.

Above all, don't force your child to practice any sport, because this tactic will only make him hate it more. Try to find natural ways to exercise with them (walking, swimming) so that little by little they come to accept physical activity.

But remember that these strategies require that you actively participate in them too for them to be effective. If you can't take part in them during the week, at least try to have weekends be a time to exercise together.