We’re All Adapting Surprisingly Well, Aren’t We?
All of these COVID-19 physical distancing efforts have taught us something we perhaps didn't realize before. We're better at adapting to new situations than we probably could've guessed. American families working and attending school from home have taken to the situation in surprising ways. And one of those surprises comes in the form of some families using inflatables like bounce houses to create backyard family fitness gyms.
Americans have had to adapt to a whole lot at once. Parents struggled at first with balancing work and keeping up with their kids and their schoolwork. It’s not always easy wrangling your teenager daughter into doing homework when she’d much rather be recording herself on her phone dancing in a Tik-Tok video.
Our party and rental industry has been forced to adapt just as families have. We’ve pivoted from wedding tents to triage tents. Our customers and the rental companies they own were working birthdays, and now they’re helping first responders and medical facilities.
We all assumed our commercial inflatables—bounce houses, inflatable water slides, slip n’ slides, inflatable obstacle courses, etc.—would cease their sales during this pandemic. But some innovative families have found impressive new ways of putting these commercial inflatables to good use.
All of this adapting has meant some elements of daily life have fallen by the wayside. For millions of Americans, that includes family fitness; it’s difficult to get out and get exercise when you’re ordered to stay home. But some families have turned to an unlikely avenue of promoting family health … building a family fitness gym in the backyard using bounce houses, inflatable obstacle courses, and other large inflatables.
Bouncing Into Plyometrics
Everyone that has ever stepped a shoeless foot inside a bounce house will be quick to tell you two undeniable facts: They’re fun as heck, and you get a surprisingly decent workout in them as well. In fact, the workout you get inside a bounce house is so strong there’s a whole style of exercise devoted to it. Well … devoted to jumping, anyway.
Plyometrics is a form of exercise that involves jumping, hopping, skipping, and—yes—bouncing. It’s not just about building muscle, either. Plyometrics improve balance (especially when coupled with fun balance exercises for kids), strengthen bones, and have a number of cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory benefits as well. And you thought professional boxers were just using jump ropes because they’re fun?
While a bounce house isn’t going to provide the same sort of high-impact exercise you might get from weighted jump ropes or intense plyometric-focused gym regimens, it’s more than enough to get your kids active and moving. And let’s not forget that exercising outdoors is healthy, and generally better for you than exercising indoors, too. Spending time outside is something all of us should be trying to do, while of course maintaining physical distancing practices.
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Climbing Toward Health with an Inflatable Obstacle Course
While a bounce house is great for jumping, bouncing, and skipping, an inflatable obstacle course provides a more versatile workout while challenging kids to best themselves one run after the next.
An inflatable obstacle course is designed not only to be fun, but to push a user physically and mentally. Like their more casual siblings, an inflatable obstacle course will make you jump, hop, and skip. But you’ll also be tasked with running, climbing, sliding, and crawling, too.
It’s not just about the plyometric benefits. Using an inflatable obstacle course also boosts hand-eye coordination, general problem solving skills, and offers great agility exercises for kids. And running the course repeatedly allows users to calculate their fastest routes and cut precious seconds from each run. That means an inflatable obstacle course can help teach efficiency, too.
Time each family member as they run through your inflatable obstacle course using a stopwatch (or a stopwatch app on your phone). Record the times of each run and use that data to allow each member of your family to improve on their personal bests. It's almost a standalone exercise program for kids.
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Incentivizing Family Fitness
Commercial inflatables are good for more than just exercise, too. As we mentioned earlier (and as you’ve surely discovered during the COVID-19 situation), it’s not always easy finding quiet, distraction-free time to complete your work from home tasks with kids in the same room. And keeping said children focused on their school work with so many at-home distractions around them? That’s no small feat, either.
Your bounce house or inflatable obstacle course can be used as a reward for kids, incentivizing them to get school work done. And their focusing on school work can provide you with some much needed quiet time.
Transforming inflatable usage into a reward means kids are less enticed by things like video games and social media. They can use those things anytime, but the bounce house or inflatable obstacle course? That’s a prize. And as we’ve already pointed out, they’re getting the daily fresh air and exercise they’re otherwise missing from gym class.
Call the bounce house and inflatable obstacle course experts at Tent and Table today to learn more about getting a commercial grade inflatable shipped your way today. Call us at 1-716-832-8368 and get your kids bouncing!