How Dads Can Prioritize Exercise Without Sacrificing Time With Their Kids
When you first become a dad the love that you feel for your newly born child washes over you like a tidal wave. It’s like nothing you’ve ever felt or experienced before. Instantly, you know from a place deep down inside yourself that you’ll do anything to protect this child, even it requires extreme personal sacrifice.
For most of us, this is exactly what happens. We are compelled, as dads, to give our kids everything, even if that means shelving our own self-care. Typically, one of the first things to go is our health. Often the exercise and workout routine gets entirely shut down so we can fully focus on our new role of being a dad.
Our wives need our help. So we nobly choose to defer everything else for the sake of our family. Ironically enough, by sacrificing our health we are actually further away from achieving what we truly desire as dads.
We want to give our families the best version of ourselves. Contrary to popular belief the best way to do this is NOT by eliminating our self-care. When your cup is empty you are left with nothing to “pour out” for the rest of your family. Fortunately, there are ways to prioritize exercise without sacrificing time with your kids.
Why Exercise is important for dads
Before I share some practical ways of involving your kids in your exercise routine it’s important to talk about why you shouldn’t defer exercise or ignore your body in this, or any season of life.
The importance of exercise for your faith
For me, it starts with treating my body right. As a man of faith, I believe God shines a very bright light on the importance of this. It is clearly emphasized in the bible. God calls those who choose to follow Him to offer up their bodies as a living sacrifice. This surely doesn’t include “letting ourselves go” and sacrificing a healthy diet and eliminating exercise in our lives. That doesn’t sound like much of a sacrifice to me. There is a popular verse of scripture in 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 (NLT) that states,
“Your body is the temple of the holy spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God. You don’t belong to yourself. God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
The bible isn’t shy about laying out the reasons why it’s important to take care of our bodies. It’s not easy and I’ll be the first one to admit that consistency is a real challenge for me. Still, it’s unambiguous. In order to fully serve God and invest in a healthy relationship with Him, our bodies need attention. They cannot be ignored. Diet and exercise are paramount.
The importance of exercise for your family
Our families are the reason why we, as dads, are so willing to make the extreme sacrifices that we feel we are supposed to take. Yet, we can’t give our kids and our wives the best version of us if we sacrifice our personal health to do it.
We work so hard to be the hero that we feel our kids deserve. We want to be there to protect our family, both in the short term and the long term. We want our kids to know that taking care of their bodies is important. The best way for us to do this, as dads, is to show them.
We want to be around for years to come. We want to travel with our wives and live out our dreams together. We want to celebrate every milestone in the lives of our children. Birthdays, holidays, sporting events, graduations, weddings, and grandkids. This is what being a dad is all about.
It’s not a guarantee that we’ll be around for any of these things. We do, however, have a much better chance if we invest in our bodies through exercise and healthy eating habits rather than ignoring those things in the name of being a good dad.
The Importance of exercise as dads
One of my top core values is family. In fact, it is second only to my faith. I already stressed the importance of exercise as a man of faith but its equally important for the success of my family as well.
In order to fully live up to my core value of family, I must be on top of my health. I don’t want to be winded chasing my kids around the yard. I want to be able to carry them for extended periods of time. I want to feel confident in my ability to protect them from harm. I want to have the energy I need to be creative and play with them. I want to have the patience I’ll desperately need as they run around and act like wild and crazy little humans. Its something that’s a battle for me, but it’s one I intend to keep fighting. One of the most basic, but crucial ways I know of achieving this is through a healthy diet and exercise habits.
Not only is exercise important to my heart (my family), but it’s important to my head as well. For me, exercising is a major stress reliever. I enjoy being outside. There is something about the fresh air and sunshine that allows the tension and anxiety to just melt away. Much of my personal reflection and meditation is done while I exercise. It’s something that restores, reenergizes, and refocuses me as a man, husband and father.
Practical ways to Exercise With Younger Kids
Now that you know why exercise is important for you as a dad I can share some ways to do this and how you can incorporate your kids at the same time.
Invest In A Running Stroller
Me taking the kids for a quick run while they eat dinner
I love to run. It’s one of my favorite self self care activities for all the reasons I mentioned previously. So the decision to get a running stroller was an easy one for me. You can buy one brand new, scour the web (facebook marketplace is one of my favorites), or do what I did and borrow one from a friend or a family member.
Not only does this allow me to exercise with my kids, but they actually enjoy it. They love listing to music and “going for a ride.”
Try serving dinner with your run
Here’s a pro tip for getting a little bit more out of those running “dadventures” with your kids. Add some food. Food always helps. I like to make an easy dinner for my kids. Something like grilled cheese or chicken nuggets. Then I pack up the three musketeers in the running stroller and hit the road. Bonus pro tip — if they decide to eat all of their dinner then reward them with a snack or small piece of dessert. This can extend the ride even a bit more.
Up The Intensity With a RuckSack
I have to be extremely efficient with my exercise time. Especially when my kids are involved. A two or three-mile run is about my limit. I was looking for something to increase the intensity of my workouts. Rucksack to the rescue.
These do-it-all backpacks are made to carry varying amounts of weight while you exercise. They are rugged and incredibly well-made. The investment is a bit more significant than other similar products. In my opinion (as an amateur Rucker at best) it’s the best of its kind. I did start with a generic backpack with only off-brand sandbags, but after a short amount of time made the leap to invest in the Rucksack. If you can swing it the investment is well worth it, but if not a backpack full of sand bags or bricks, or whatever else you can get your hands on will do just fine.
Ruck Walk
My family loves to go for walks. When I want to up the intensity and make it more of a workout I just throw on my Rucksack. A mile walk becomes a pretty nice little workout (especially when I end up carrying bicycles or a few small children too).
Playtime ruck
My kids love it when I play monster with them in the backyard, or basically anything that involves me chasing them. Sometimes I feel like adding something a little extra. You know what instantly turns playtime cardio into an even more strenuous activity? Adding a Rucksack with a 40 lb weight.
Jump Around On A Trampoline
We were fortunate enough to receive a trampoline as a gift from a family member who no longer needed it. If you happen to have one it can be a great way to get in some activity and also enjoy some quality time with the kids. Our kids really enjoy playing all sorts of creative games while bouncing around. When I get involved I try to do as much jumping as possible in a very short amount of time (toddlers attention spans are incredibly short lived). Admittedly, this isn’t my favorite way to exercise, but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get.
Get Creative. Have fun with it
The season of life I’m in requires creativity and multi-tasking ability to blend my desire to exercise with my need for time with my kiddos. This necessitates that I give myself ample amounts of grace, daily. I’m in no way saying that engaging in more exercise than what I’m currently doing is wrong. It’s totally acceptable to do things like train for and run in marathons, triathlons, or tough mudders while raising little kids. Only you can decide whether that’s what you want to do. It has to align with your core values and be satisfying for you. Make sure your cup is full.
Personally, I find it difficult to do this while also continuing to invest significant time into my family during this season of life. Instead, I personally choose to do my exercise at, or close to home where I can easily involve my children. I’ll encourage them to do push-ups with me, or maybe jump on my back while I do them. I’ll hold them while I do some bodyweight squats or lunges across the backyard. Sometimes I’ll even try something sort of innovative, like burpees in between pushing them on the swingset.
Me attempting to teach my son how to do push ups while my daughter does superman (really just laying on the ground)
It’s all about creativity and being okay with even little bits of exercise when and where it makes sense to do it for me and my family.
If you are a man of faith exercise is important to wholly serve God as He desires. Its essential in order for you to give the best version of yourself to your family. It's also a great way to relieve stress and restore your mind as a dad, husband and man. Get creative with it. See how you might be able to get your kids involved. They might even enjoy it and look forward to daddy’s workouts.
Let me know which of these exercises you enjoy the most. If you have any of your own to share I’d love to hear them. Share in the comments below, or you can reach out to me on Facebook, or Instagram. You can also get in touch with me by sending an email.
Shane Achey | Hero Dad Mission
Shane Achey, founder of the Hero Dad Mission blog, is a devoted husband of nearly 10 years. He is also a father to 4 kids, twin 4 year old boys, a 3 year old little girl and his newborn daughter. Shane’s vision is to walk alongside other men, helping them become the heroes they’re meant to be.
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