We all know that the festive season can be a somewhat hectic time of the year; socialising; buying gifts; family meals; travelling and looking after loved ones. Who has time for exercise?

So, to help you look after your body we’ve put together three simple exercises you can do as part of your everyday routine:

• Tiptoeing

• Squats preps – as you prepare to sit

• Touching your toes, either from seated or standing

Tiptoeing

Going on your tiptoes will improve your balance and the mobility of your feet, to prevent falls and twisted ankles.

Benefits:

-    Strengthens your core, calves, thighs and glutes.

-    Improves your posture

How to do it:

• Go on your tiptoes when washing your teeth, washing up dishes, using a printer, travelling on the tube, while you are walking or at any given opportunity!

• You could even start a “tiptoe challenge” with your kids. For example, whoever is able to tiptoe longest when washing their teeth could get a prize. Or set them individual goals to achieve.

  ...

Children and adolescents need physical activity for their growth process since this strengthens their muscles and bones, develops their motor skills and gives them general health. Childhood is also the initial stage of learning; according to Magill (2007), this is when they will “acquire movement coordination patterns that will allow some degree of success at achieving the action goal of the skill”.

The benefits that exercise brings to children are countless, but from my perspective the top three are:

1. Builds stronger bones

In the prepubertal and pubertal stage children’s bones are in development and their skeleton is very sensitive to the stimulus received from physical activity since this produces a mechanical strain that stimulates bone formation. Practising sports in a moderate way helps to increase their bone mass to prevent paediatric osteoporosis.  Hence, the importance of practising games and sports that implicate weight-bearing such as football, gymnastics or contact sports...

I am sure you already know the answer; the main reason is because you love them. However, I want to bring your attention to why this matter is important and what you

can do.

A poor posture causes body imbalances that quickly develop as back or joint pain. The majority of people in adulthood live their everyday life without paying attention to their body posture. They carry things, remain seated for long periods or perform heavy

physical tasks neglecting what is happening to their bodies.

It is only when their body reacts to these imbalances with pain when they look for professional help. It is a common belief that those professionals should ‘fix’ the problem and find a permanent solution that will prevent the pain from coming back. In many of these cases, people do not think that they are responsible for their posture and the efficacy of their body movements.

To some extent, I believe that we have some excuse for this behaviour since we are not taught in our early years how to work towa...