Teen Exercise

The single BEST thing I can recommend (unless they're incarcerated/hosppitalized?) is to do what they love.

Scuba
Spelunking
Gardening
Dancing
Climbing
Gymnastics
Hand to Hand Combat Modules
Circus Arts
Tennis
Ball games of all varieties
Hiking
Rowing
Horseback Riding
Swimming
Dog Walking
Music (*trust* me, music is a super active activity from instruments to singing)
Drama
Skating
Snowboarding
Search & Rescue
Fire Training (intern)
Swimming & Diving
.....

All of these activities and a thousand more are physically active. The thing about *most* exercise routines is that they are dead dog BORING. 20 minutes being practically impossible... especially on a daily basis. Doing something a person loves though, the time flys. The drive to improve, or the sheer enjoyment of it keeps a person at it for hours upon hours, and they tweak their schedule in every way imaginable to get more.

For those who don't already have a love... what DO they do? Video games are easy... because you get the person off the durn couch and actually DOING what their game is allowing them to *pretend* they are doing. 1st Person Shooter games? Time for some martial arts and lessons on the pistol range. Car games? Precision Driving course. WoW? How about some real military tactics... period reenactments to modern times. Books are almost as easy... what kind of books are they reading and what's interests them. Music = learning to play or dance. Sports-potatoes, get on the field/court/ice/water and out of the living room. Talking with friends? You ignore that... because EVERYONE enjoys talking with their friends... and dig deeper. Etc.

I find it's useful to come up with the "Lottery Wish List"... aka what would you do with unlimited money? Laying on the beach = surfing/ swimming/ volleyball... etc. A lot of times people DON'T do what's *fun* because we've gotten conditioned to the whole *no pain no gain* & *if it doesn't suck it's not real work* type of mentality. People try and do what they think they SHOULD instead of what they want. When most of the time, what a person wants is even better health wise than some artificially constructed should.

Another problem is money... yet once you have 1-3 goals in mind, all you have to do is get creative. Everything from

- working in the field (wanna ride horses... become a "working student" where you trade barn time for riding time, wanna learn how white water raft? Guess what... rafting companies provide training for their employees. Get paid to learn or trade your time to learn)
- community centers & YMCA (sailing is a "rich man" thing... unless you happen to have $60 to learn through the local community center... and then at least where I live it's a grand $10 per 3 hours to take out a skiff). CC's offer a TON of group and individual things and they're all at rock bottom prices.
- Beg, borrow, craigslist, & freecycle. For most things, it's the gear that's expensive. So borrow someone's, buy it for cheap online, etc.

ETC.

For teens, you have to make it fun, I recommend any of the Zumba workouts. These are dance based and should keep their attention. They will get a great workout too. I have been an instructor for 18 years- so you should also contact a local health club/ YMCA and see if they could teach a class for your group specifically. You would probably have to pay for the class, but this is also publicity for the health club, so many of them would like to participate A live instructor is always better than a video. What a great program! Good luck with it.

I agree with Riley.......it needs to be what they love to do.

My 15 yr old is a cheerleader and she strives to be the best she can be at what she does. She works out daily (at school) with her squad and on weekends she works out Sat and Sun with a private coach improving her skills.

I am not into the DVD's etc but I love being outdoors and it is nothing for me to just take off walking and walk 5 miles.

Make it what they love to do.

Well the other one that I would suggest but would be the more expensive avenue would be to get the Wii Fit. I have heard lot's of great reviews. But the upside to this is I believe you can track your results.

C.,
Recently I came across exercisetv.com and love it! Its a website that has exercise videos of all kinds and lengths and trainers. What's great is that if you don't have a lot of time to work out you can just choose a 20 minute segment - or even do several 20 minute segments throughout the day. This works for me as a busy mom and it might work for a busy teen. Also - it eliminates that age-old complaint: "I have no time for exercise" !!