Outdoor Exercise helps you heal and develops good exercise habits in kids

By exercising in the outdoors you may help your body heal, according to a new studies in Japan and the U.K.  Dr. Esther Sternberg, a rheumatologist and researcher and author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-being (2009, Harvard University Press), writes in Arthritis Today, March-April 2012, that outdoor exercise in nature may help your body heal.

Outside exercise not only may benefit your health, help you heal (as the study suggests), and keep your muscles strong and joints limber, but it may help your children develop a love of the outdoors and closer a relationship with them.

Take your kids for a walk in the woods, a park, or on the beach. By exercising with kids, you not only teach them good health habits but the time you spend together gives you a chance to have fun together. Take time to joke and laugh about things you both find aggravating, scary, or just bizarre. One-on-one time may be difficult to find in a house full of interruptions, especially with a myriad electronic devices present in our lives today. Take your phone on walks, but for emergencies only, while you are enjoying some time outdoors with your kids.

If they (or you) experience a little stiffness from exercising, use a microwave heating pad Cozy Bunny, Polar Bear, and Penguin are lovable creatures that provide a fun way to feel better. Kids will also enjoy the warmth in their beds on a cold winter night.
to help relax tight muscles. Maine Warmers has several animal-shaped heating pads that kids (and you) will love. Their