Fun Fitness Ideas for the Super Bowl

Often we approach the Super Bowl with ideas on how to make our food healthier – like switching from chips to veggies when we’re looking for something to dip.  While this is a great idea, it’s also super important to think of ways to keep active on game day, especially since recent studies have shown that sitting for prolonged periods of time has been linked to conditions such as high blood pressure, higher cholesterol, and excess body fat.  So,  if you’re wondering how you’re going to get in your 30 minutes of exercise on game day, look no further.  Here are a few fun fitness ideas for the Super Bowl that will get you moving and allow you to still enjoy the time you have with your friends, family, and favorite sports teams.

Touch Football Half-time game

During half-time, enjoy a mini touch football game with your family or friends to increase your heart rate while also keeping you in the game day spirit.  On average, playing touch football for an hour burns around 403 calories!  While the halftime show isn’t quite that long, you’ll still be getting in a decent amount of running around.  If you’re really into Beyonce and don’t want to miss her performance this year, throw a dance party during the halftime show instead!  Tighten up that core and enjoy the music while you burn a few calories!

Commercial fitness challenge

Super Bowl commercials are legendary (and frequent), so why not use them to your advantage?  Gather up your friends or family and have mini-fitness competitions based on the commercials playing.  For example, if a car commercial comes on, challenge each other to a sit-up contest.  If a beer commercial comes on, do a bicep curl competition with your full (and unopened!) beer cans.  You can make these challenges as hard or as easy as you’d like, and even have prizes for the winners!  With how many commercials there are during the big game, you’ll get a pretty decent workout and you won’t have to sit bored through the same ads multiple times.

The Victory Lap

If you’ve got a friendly bet going against a friend or family member over which team will win this year, why not make the wager fitness related?  If your team wins, you get to take a victory lap (or two, or ten) around your street.  Not a big fan of running around?  Switch it up and make the loser take the laps!  Either way, someone is going to be getting some cardio.  Perhaps the adrenaline rush that comes with a big victory will inspire you to run even further than you expected!

These are just some ways that you can incorporate fitness into your game day this year.  Combine this with your healthier food options and you’ll be all set for a happier, healthier Super Bowl!

What are some other ways you like to make healthy choices during the Super Bowl?