Looking to increase your family fitness levels? Exercising on a regular basis is a great way to lose weight and boost our overall health and wellbeing. However, this isn’t always enough to convince everyone in your family to hit the gym or slip on their running shoes.

To help up your family fitness game, let’s take a look at some of the lesser known benefits of exercise:

Cognitive Function

This is important for family members young and old. It very common to see individuals entering into their later years of life only to find their cognitive function deteriorating, especially due to thing like Alzheimer’s disease.

Research has quite clearly shown that regular exercise can help to offset some of the damage inflicted on brain cells by protecting against the atrophy of grey matter.

Stress Relief

Exercise can serve a dual benefit in the area of stress relief in that many people enjoy a meditative state during physical activities ranging from running and cycling to weightlifting and even rock climbing.

Self-Confidence

Losing weight and becoming more comfortable with your body is obviously one aspect of this, but the reduction in stress and the overall increase in energy production throughout the body lend itself wonderfully to this too.

For many, exercising means overcoming great challenges. Whether that means taking on a full marathon or simply getting off of the couch for the first time, these personal achievements can fill us with a sense of accomplishment that will invariably help us to feel more confident and, quite frankly, proud of ourselves – and quite rightly so!

Productivity & Creativity

One aspect of fitness that is often overlooked is how it can impact our day-to-day productivity and creativity.Research has shown that there is an immediate boost of creativity after a bout of exercise, and this can quite easily spill over into your everyday life.

In fact, another study demonstrated that people who exercised during work hours were able to get just as much work done as their colleagues in less time!

Fun Family Fitness Activities

Once you have convinced your family members that staying fit is more than just about appearances, or that you are just trying to torture them, the next step is to make fitness a fun and enjoyable experience. Playing a game outdoors, walking the dog, or even yoga can all be things that your family can do together, and may even bring you all closer as a result.