Invite Your Friends To Get Active
When you use exercise as a great excuse to get together with your friends, there are plenty of benefits. It helps you stay in touch and get to know another side of your colleagues, and it helps you and your pals make heart healthy activity part of your everyday lifestyle. Here are a few ideas to get you started, but remember: the possibilities for active socializing are endless.
- Get walking. Start a walking group with other moms after you’ve dropped the kids off at school.
- Take it step by step. Start a stair climbing group at work and fit in a few flights of stairs every lunch hour – a great indoor activity you can do in any weather.
- Lend a hand. Volunteer with an old chum to help out at a local charity. You’ll get exercise lifting boxes at the food bank, walking dogs at the animal shelter or lending a hand at a building site.
- Kid around. Get together with friends who have similar aged children and plan a weekend play date you can all get involved in — tobogganing, skating or playing tag in the park.
- Invite Rover. Join dog owners in your neighbourhood for a long walk or a run in the park, and make dog walking a social event for both people and pooches.
- Train for it. Register with your best friend to participate in an athletic event in the spring or summer, and start training now.
- Move and groove. Sign up for a dance class with a group of girlfriends, and have a laugh learning something new together.
- Get personal. A personal trainer can provide focus, motivation and improved technique. Consider splitting the cost by arranging for semi-private sessions with one or two other women who are at a similar fitness level as you.
- Bike to work. If you have a colleague who lives close to you, and you live close enough to work, commute together by bicycle a couple of days each week.