The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Rise of the super-fit families
Exercise is the new parent-child pastime.
Not many teenage girls want to spend evenings and weekends hanging out with their dad,’ observes 46-year-old father of two Darius Kumana. Kumana spends his spare time practising mixed martial arts with his daughters Eleana (aka Lilly), 17, and Maya (aka Mimi), 14. ‘I was concerned I was forcing my interest on the kids,’ he admits, ‘but their brilliantly cutting response was, “Dad, if we were just doing this for you we would’ve stopped a long time ago!”’
The trio have been sparring together since the girls were toddlers. ‘They would be in nappies trying things out and getting used to the movements, and they just kept going from there really,’ he says.
For the uninitiated, mixed martial arts is a combination of combat sports such as karate, boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Kumana and his daughters train together at least twice a week at The Fighting Arts Academy in Highams Park, north-east London, which Kumana, a co-founder of insurance start-up Wrisk, also founded.
‘I started the Academy because I wanted to share my passion with my kids,’ he says, ‘and there was nowhere I could do that in what I would call a family-friendly atmosphere. There were clubs that were teaching really good skills, but it was a little bit macho, a little bit locker-room.’
Of course, direct combat isn’t for everyone: ‘My mum doesn’t like it when we fight,’ jokes Lilly. Nevertheless, Kumana says The Fighting Arts Academy has seen increasing interest from parents who want to learn alongside their children. ‘I can see the parents itching to join in from the sidelines, and I’ve noticed families starting to do these things together.’
Kumana’s experience is not unique. Reports suggest growing numbers of parents now exercise with their offspring, the trend having originated in the US (where else?). New York-based actor Katie Holmes recently told an interviewer that she and daughter Suri Cruise, 13, train together when their schedules permit; the Beckhams have been known to hit the Soulcycle studio as a family when in California; and in 2018 actor Jada Pinkett Smith shared a snap of herself at the gym with her mother, Adrienne Banfield-jones, as well as her daughter Willow, now 19.
The UK appears to be catching on, too. A survey commissioned by David Lloyd Clubs in 2018 found that 39 per cent of families exercise together regularly. According to its figures, fitness has become more popular than traditional family activities such as playing board games and going to sporting events.
The trend seems to be flying in the face of one of the country’s biggest issues: childhood obesity. While a report by the World Obesity Federation released last October stated that in 2016 (the last year for which information is available), 11.5 per cent of children aged five to nine in the UK were obese, another report shows that in terms of exercise things could be starting to improve.
In December, public body Sport England found an increase in the number of children getting active outside of school, with 57 per cent of those aged five to 16 now doing at least 30 minutes a day. Meanwhile, compared with the previous year, 279,600 more children were found to be taking part in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day (in and out of school), though there were notable inequalities between demographics. Launched in 2017, Sport England’s Families Fund supports projects that help parents and kids get active together, with 40 funded so far and 2,380 families already engaged.
Hot on the heels are gym chains looking to appeal to parent-and-child gym-goers. David Lloyd Clubs, for instance, offers supervised gym sessions for children aged 10 to 13 and their parents, plus specially designed family classes in its new Prama studios – which have pressure-sensitive flooring and walls, and interactive lighting to guide family members through workouts.
Meanwhile, Parkrun has become the activity of choice for many fitness-focused families. Chrissie Wellington, Parkrun’s global head of health and well-being, has noticed an increase. ‘We now have fouryear-olds taking part with their grandparents, children volunteering alongside their parents. And at the 2k Junior Parkrun events, we see adults walking or running with fourto 14-year-old family members.’ Currently 316 junior events take place on Sunday mornings across the UK and Ireland, and to date 319,000 children have taken part.
Of course, where there is a trend there are
savvy people quick to spot an opportunity. Online marketplace Etsy has a roaring trade in matching workout gear for parents and their offspring, including T-shirts, leggings and sweatbands. Keen to get in on the action, family-fitness Instagrammers such as @kerispilatesroom (172,000 followers), @jb_figure (272,000) and @msboston (81,000) are pumping out content, showing off impressive routines in matchy-matchy outfits as they get their kids started young.
According to London-based personal trainer Rob Stubbs, ‘Anything that involves the whole body and gets the heart rate up in a fun way is good for parents who want to exercise with their kids.’ Stubbs recommends games like I Go, You Go, in which parents and children take turns to do squats, burpees or push-ups. ‘Shuttle runs [sprints between two points] can also be effective, and for younger kids, classic active children’s games like Tag or Hide and Seek.’
‘By exercising together, facing challenges together, finding a way through and achieving together, this is a shared good experience, reinforcing the bond between parent and child,’ says clinical sports psychologist Dr Victor Thompson. ‘It’s a time away from home… where there isn’t tension for not doing homework or tidying up their room.’
‘Being active for 60 minutes a day has a number of benefits for children,’ explains Sport England’s insight director, Lisa O’keefe. ‘Our research shows that active children are happier, more resilient, and trusting of others. It doesn’t matter what people do or how good they are – having fun together is what is most important. It also helps ensure children continue to be active into their adult years.’
Thirty-four-year-old teaching assistant Nicola Child, from Warwickshire, exercises regularly with her two daughters, Holly, 10, and Amelia, eight. ‘It’s lovely to run, just the three of us, seeing how the girls interact together and the encouragement that they give each other,’ she says. Their workout of choice is obstacle-course racing (OCR), which involves overcoming various physical challenges – such as wading through mud, scaling walls or crawling through tunnels – ‘so all of our training revolves around functional fitness [preparing the body for reallife activities]’, Child explains. ‘It’s definitely a growing trend – within the OCR community we know lots of parents and children who exercise together.’
The trio train once or twice a week in winter, and up to four or five times a week in summer. They go to the gym if the weather becomes unbearable, ‘but we prefer being outdoors, and we do Parkrun too,’ says Child. ‘Holly has now overtaken me with her PB – 24 minutes for a 5k – so she runs on ahead.’
Child credits her family’s exercise regime with all manner of health benefits. ‘I’ve got a cold at the moment, but it’s my first in three years because, being outdoors all the time, we’re constantly full of fresh air. We’ve got a lake where we do cold-water entry, which brings your body temperature down, and I think that does us a huge amount of good too.’
Exercise benefits their mental health as well, she believes. ‘I think it’s so positive to be able to take yourself off for a run, especially as Holly gets older and hormones start to kick in. For myself, a few years ago things weren’t that great and running really helped.’
With both girls still in primary school, the
Childs still have plenty of runway ahead of them, but Darius Kumana is already worrying about what he’ll do when his teenage daughters fly the nest – Lilly plans on leaving to study medicine at university next year. ‘I genuinely don’t know how I’ll feel,’ he confesses.
Working out and learning skills together has provided a powerful bonding experience. ‘We always have something to talk about,’ Lilly says. ‘The time that I speak to my dad the most is in the car on the way to training.’
‘Active children are happier, resilient… and continue to be active into their adult years’