With Father’s Day coming up families are always looking for great ideas for Dad. Whether it’s gift ideas or ideas for something special to do to celebrate Father’s Day is an exciting time of year for families and for Dad’s everywhere. There’s few things that Father’s value as highly as their families – wives, children, grandchildren. And fitness is something that men tend to struggle with as they get older and as the stress, pressure and constant activity of family life takes a place of grand priority in their lives. Unfortunately, with a decline in fitness comes a reduced ability to be able to keep up with the highs and lows of parenting. Age is one factor, but being constantly busy means many Dad’s simply aren’t getting the kind of nutrition and exercise they need to be fully functional in all aspects of their lives.
FATHER’S DAY FITNESS IDEAS
There are heaps of things you can do for Father’s Day to give the special man in your life something lasting in the way of his fitness. It doesn’t have to be a gift. It could be encouragement or maybe a personal commitment on your part to help him achieve some kind of fitness goal in the coming year. Maybe you could aim to improve your own fitness and show him an example and invite him to participate. Maybe you could spend a few dollars on a home gym the whole family could enjoy. Maybe you could plan a hike or bike ride. Maybe you could get him a magazine subscription or a good fitness book. The sky’s the limit on the kind of ideas you could consider and it doesn’t have to be something that is going to necessarily mean he’ll have to make a huge commitment to going to the gym or playing a sport (though these are also great things Dad’s love to do).
Here are a few more ideas we’ve come up with to help our Father’s out with improving their fitness over the coming year:
- sign up for a team sport for you and your Dad – it doesn’t have to be all that physical: soccer, tennis, swimming, hiking, hunting, bowling… do something you’ll both enjoy.
- get Dad out into the garden by planning out a plot and digging, planting and nurturing it together.
- plan a scenic bike tour.
- get a couple of canoes for the family to take on holidays.
- get a couple of golf club memberships.
- invest in a treadmill, exercise bike or some free-weights for your home gym.
- update Dad’s fishing gear.
- buy your Father some new sneakers, skis, a football, a badminton set, a new bowling ball.
We could really keep adding to this list for a long time because the more you think about it the more things there really are that you could substitute for the bottle of whisky and chocolates that many Dad’s are given on Father’s Day… and don’t even get us started on socks, jocks and ties. Use your imagination and get creative with your gift giving. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but if you start thinking outside the box you can come up with some ideas that will help Dad get his blood pumping more often and get him off the couch and out from behind that newspaper and onto his feet.
Getting fit is a mindset and if you want to help your Father to enjoy better physical health, more energy and a greater sense of well being start thinking about how you can encourage him to spend more time in physical activities. And these aren’t just great things to help Dad get fit – they will also lead to more family bonding and help create a lot of awesome memories for you and him.
Happy Father’s Day!