Step It Up! 13 Ideas For Your Family To Increase Their Daily Step Count

Is lockdown playing havoc with your daily step count? It’s been drilled into us the importance of hitting our 10,000 steps a day (12,000-16,000 for kids!) to help improve our health and overall wellbeing.

But you may be left wondering how you can hit those elusive figures whilst we’re in isolation and only able to leave the house for one hour's worth of exercise each day. We’re sharing with you 13 fun ideas to help you increase your step count, stay active and get those endorphins going!

Start the day as you mean to go on! If you’ve not already tuned in to PE with Joe then this a super-fun family workout every weekday at 9 AM. Live streaming from his YouTube channel he's taking the role as the nations PE teacher, where he shares a 30-minute energetic exercise class with fun quizzes and a fancy dress themed Friday class- it’s something not to be missed.

Put your fitness to the test with a bleep test! The idea is that you complete as many 20m shuttle runs back and forth in time to audio ‘beeps’ which get progressively faster as the test goes on. You can download a free app for the audio or play it on YouTube. This is a great physical activity to get the heart racing that the whole family can do together, note which level you each get to and repeat it each week to see if you can improve your score. All you need for this activity is a flat, non-slippery surface- in the garden if you have one or clear some space inside, a tape measure to measure 20m and some masking tape to mark the lines.  Ready, Set, GO!

Did you know that activities like hoovering and scrubbing can burn up to 190 calories an hour?! Try designating an hour each day to cleaning, tidying and de-cluttering and you'll be whizzing around the house building up that step count in no time! Need some inspo? Head over to Mrs Hinch's Instagram page for some serious cleaning motivation. Don't worry, the kids won't be getting out of it that easily- check out our blog for some great age-appropriate chores so everyone can get involved.

If you have a car then this a great physical activity to do on a sunny day. Kids love a bit of splashy fun and it's a great way for the whole family to work up those steps. Grab a bucket of soapy water, some sponges, cloths and a hosepipe and get scrubbing!

Skipping is a great physical activity for cardiovascular health. Challenge each other to see who can skip for the longest!

The kids will be monkeying around the room with this fun game of Animal Charades. Simply write the names of some animals onto pieces of paper and pop them into a bowl. Take it in turns to pick an animal from the bowl and act it out until someone guesses correctly.

Hop your way to 10,000 steps with a classic game of Hopscotch.

You'll need: chalk (or masking tape if you're playing indoors)and a small plastic toy or bean bag to use as your marker

How to play hopscotch: start by making your grid squares 1-10 either on patio stones with chalk or using masking tape if you’re playing inside. Take it in turns to throw your bean bag/toy to see which number it lands on in the grid. Hop through the squares with one foot in each square and missing the square the marker landed in, hop to 10 and back again, pick up the marker and hand it to the next player.  If you hop outside the lines then you're out.

Turn on some feel-good music and dance like no-one’s watching! As well as being a really fun form of exercise, dancing will release endorphins boosting your mood and will help to improve cardiovascular health. Put on your dancing shoes and dance your way to 10,000 steps.

Host a family sports day! The kids may be missing out on their school sports day so why not host your own at home?! Here are some ideas to get you started:

Relay Races- use a stick or baton and some tape to mark the start and finish lines.

Sack Races- use pillowcases for your own version of the traditional sack race.

Egg and Spoon- no sports day is complete without an egg and spoon race!

Wheelbarrow Race- the parents can’t escape this one!

Ball Toss- throw balls into a bucket, set your distance depending on your child's ability

If you have a chalkboard and chalk then this is a great way to keep track of scores and for the kids to get a little maths practice at the same time! Remember to have your water bottles handy to keep hydrated and some snacks to keep energy levels up. Present medals at the end to all of the competitors.

If you have a garden or some outdoor space then gardening is a great physical activity that the whole family can enjoy. Children love getting their hands dirty so let them get involved with planting seeds, weeding and watering any flowers. Whilst your busy working up your steps mowing the lawn here are some activities to keep the kids busy:

Make a bug hotel- check out our blog on how to create the best bug hotel in town!

Create some garden art- set the kids on a mission to find twigs, leaves and flowers and stick them onto a piece of card using some PVA glue.

Make a mud kitchen- a mud kitchen can be as simple or fancy as you like. You can create a cooking station with some bowls, pots and pans, wooden spoons and tableware.

Chase the kids around the house and when you catch them it's tickle time!

Indoor scavenger hunts are a great way to get the kids running around the house searching for items to tick off their lists.  They are completely adaptable to your child's age and abilities and there are so many variations to keep it interesting, have a go at these:

Colour Scavenger Hunt- can you find something of every colour of the rainbow?

Letter Scavenger Hunt- can you find items starting with each letter of the alphabet?

Jump on the bed and have a good old-fashioned pillow fight!

‍