Fitness Apps for Kids That’ll Get Your Family Moving

By Sher Warkentin in Healthy Feeling

Technology often gets a bad rap when it comes to keeping your kids healthy and fit, but it can actually be a great tool to help you get your little ones off the couch. Websites and fitness apps for kids designed to make exercise simple and fun can get your whole family excited about working out.

Your kids don’t need their own devices to get moving. Download any one of these free apps or platforms to your tablet or laptop, and you can get in on the action together.

Sworkit Kids

Sworkit Kids is a straightforward app that gives you a variety of workout options, including strength training, agility, and flexibility and balance. You can choose the length of your workout as well, from five minutes to an hour. Once you hit start, the app will play videos of kids demonstrating each move, like jumping jacks, bear crawls, and stretches for your child to follow along. You can also select a workout customized to more specific activities.

This is one of the best fitness apps for kids who are a little older and don’t require a lot of gimmicks to get them excited. The exercises are challenging enough that you can get in on the action and feel like you’re getting a good workout yourself.

Girl using Sworkit app.

7 Minute Workouts with Lazy Monster

This is a super fun fitness app for kids the entire family can benefit from. A cute, animated monster leads you through the moves of each type of exercise and there are several seven-minute workouts available—from the basic Lazy Workout, which offers simple moves like running in place and squats; to the Super Hero workout, which lets your young user exercise like a superhero. The app comes with the Lazy Workout for free, but the other workouts will require an in-app purchase. Keep in mind there are a few workouts available that are for adults specifically, like the Office Workout. You can also create a customized workout by compiling your favorite moves.

This app is great for all ages, but it’s especially enticing for younger kids that are reluctant to exert themselves. The silliness of the monster makes it fun, while the brevity and fast pace of the moves ensures even kids with a short attention span can complete the entire workout before they have a chance to feel bored. You can also change the degree of difficulty of exercises to make it a lighter or more challenging workout.

Exercising with an app.

Super Stretch Kids Yoga

My daughter loves doing yoga with me, but sometimes the poses can be too complex for her. This app makes yoga fun for all ages and gives simple, kid-friendly moves that are easy but still challenging to young users. Using both animation and videos of real kids, the app demonstrates twelve different yoga poses, like cat-cow and tree pose, while also teaching kids about breathing techniques and mindfulness.

This app is especially useful for younger kids, as the moves (and animations) are simple enough for them to follow and clearly targeted toward little yogis.

Doing yoga using an app.

GoNoodle

GoNoodle is a website made for exercising with kids in the classroom, but it’s fantastic to use at home as well. Featuring dozens of different videos all about getting kids moving—from workout routines to fitness challenges—it even has music videos to dance along to. The program has kids workout alongside an avatar called a Champ. With each video completed, your child earns energy points for his or her own Champ, who will grow and gain strength the more they exercise.

This program is also useful for getting the wiggles out before doing homework or just having a fun family dance party. In addition to fitness fun, the app offers creative relaxation videos that help your kids unwind before bedtime.

These are just a few of the fun apps and websites that are available to help get your family moving. Try them out, and see which ones your kids like the most. The best part of these apps is that they make it easy to add exercise into your daily routine. Eventually you might not even need them, as they get older and take a personal interest in an extracurricular after school.

What are your family’s favorite fitness apps? Hop on your Twitter app and let us know.

Images source: Sher Warkentin

This article was brought to you by Tom’s of Maine. The views and opinions expressed by the author do not reflect the position of Tom’s of Maine.

Why It’s Good

Getting kids to exercise isn't always easy, but using fitness apps for kids can be a great tool to get them moving. These apps make exercising fun, are motivational, and make it easy to fit a workout into a busy schedule without having to take a class.