We all know that exercise is good for our physical health and our mental well-being, but with all the things that teenagers are trying to cram into their day sometimes, it’s tough for them to hit the gym or get outside when they arrive home after dark.
Or gym memberships and personal trainers can be expensive, and some facilities won’t allow teens under 18 to attend without an adult present.
While no parent of a tween or teen wants their kid to be on their phones any more than they already are, no one can argue that the Internet can help your child live a healthier lifestyle.
Do home workout apps work?
The short answer is yes! If used consistently, home workout apps can help you build muscle, lose weight, increase your fitness, and improve your overall health. Most of the apps also include content on motivation, nutrition, and other healthy living tips from trainers and professionals, so you get more than just fitness routines.
Home workout apps are a great option for exercising
There are a lot of great exercise apps and YouTube channels out there to help people get or keep fit right from their homes, and many are great options for our big kids (or bonus if you can do them together.)
These are great options when your teen is off-season from a sport, stuck inside because of weather (or a pandemic), or just wants to fit a workout into their busy schedule.
These are also great to keep on hand for the next time your teen complains that they are bored or that they don’t want to get off their phones. In our house, as long as you are being productive, I won’t complain about the extra screen time!
The Best Apps For Teens to Exercise At Home
Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need a ton of equipment, fancy home gym, or even that much space to have an effective workout. All you and your teen need is a little help from technology for some video guidance, and in some cases, as little as seven minutes.
The following apps can help with strength training, cardio, flexibility, or yoga (which is great to reduce stress or increase mindfulness.)
Apple Fitness Plus
This popular app is designed exclusively for people who have an Apple Watch and an iOS device (and optional Apple TV). You need an Apple Watch to use the service, which offers a variety of workout class types, including core, HIIT, strength, yoga, rowing, cycling, and treadmill running.
We like that there are instructors in the background showing modifications depending on your level of fitness. While the app seemed a little overwhelming at first to us, our teens figured it out quickly and especially liked the feature that allowed them to filter workouts by music.
Of course, if your teen has an iPhone, then utilizing Apple Health is a great start to track activity. Used in conjunction with an Apple watch, there can be a lot of healthy family competition on who is getting the most steps, doing the most fitness activities, drinking the most water, etc. Now that’s a competition I wouldn’t mind losing.
Nike Training Club
This is also one of the best workout apps out there and can help guide you through your at-home fitness routines by providing free workouts such as yoga sessions, cardio, bodyweight workouts, abs, and other targeted workouts.
This app is perfect for those who are working out in smaller spaces and need help customizing their workout routines accordingly. There are 100+ designed workouts for all levels to help your teen live a healthier lifestyle and get their sweat on. The casting feature is nice as well, which allows the user to project the workout onto a larger screen.
Bonus: there is so much content available for FREE without a subscription so it’s great for a beginner who is trying to figure out what kind of workout they want to do.
Yoga for Beginners
This app will make yoga workouts easy to learn and can track fitness progress. This app offers an unparalleled choice of workouts with flows categorized according to time of day and specialization. The easy-to-use categories feature is especially useful if you’re a beginner and unsure about which exercises are suitable, I personally love doing yoga in the morning, and I find that these guided videos create a calm atmosphere while also teaching me new things about the art of yoga.
If your teen is looking to challenge themselves physically, then this might not be the app for them. If they want to incorporate yoga into their routine without hitting the studio, then this is a great option.
Blogilates with Casey Ho
Casey Ho is a fun and well-known YouTube fitness guru, and her app is great for customized workouts, nutrition, and motivation. Teens love her ab workouts and her quick training, such as “12-minute arms” or “15-minute thigh workout.”
Strava
This is one of the best fitness apps for runners and cycles. Strava turns every iPhone and Android into a sophisticated running and cycling computer (and they work with GPS watches and head units, too). It’s more of a social network for athletes allowing them to share information, but we like it to keep our teen’s motivated and on track.
We also love it because it can help you find the best trails and runs wherever you are, so it helps if you’re traveling and need to figure out a good place to run..
7-minute Workout
This is the #1 workout app right now in 127 countries, so there is definitely something to it!
7-minute Workout is the best free workout app out there that also provides a subscription for more premium content. It’s comprised of hundreds of fast high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts that can help a user lose weight and build muscle. The app is designed to encourage users to make exercising a daily habit make be short, there is higher intensity. This is great if you’re looking for more of a challenge.
Glo:
Glo is great if you have a teen who is looking for a little more Zen in their life. This is among the most popular apps for mindful fitness, and it includes a plethora of yoga, meditation, pilates, and core-strengthening classes. All you need is a yoga mat and Glo to get a little more peace in your life!
The Best YouTube Channels for Teens To Work Out At Home
Pamela Reif is a popular German fitness model who began her channel to share her workouts and meal plans. She creates home-workout plans for her followers to help them stay on track and keep motivated.
Chloe Ting is a fitness coach that provides a multitude of 30-day fitness plans that can be found on both her website and YouTube channel. You can follow the hashtag series #chloetingchallenge, which allows her viewers to share their progress with both her and their peers. Her video tutorials for ab workouts are infamous.
PopSugar Fitness is a bit more unconventional but quite a fun way to stay fit. Their classes include dance (Zumba), cardio, kickboxing, and yoga to name a few. They find ways to incorporate popular music to bring in a spunky twist to fitness as we know it.
MadFit choreographs workouts to different songs, similar to PopSugar Fitness. Her song workouts are short videos that focus intensely on your target areas.
At the end of the day, you and your teen can choose whichever avenue works best with your schedule and fitness goals. Even if you spend 10 minutes a day going for a walk, this can be a great way to stay active and get some fresh air.
When you are in the thick of raising teens and tweens, we recommend Loving Hard When They’re Hard to Love by Whitney Fleming. In Loving Hard When They’re Hard to Love, blogger Whitney Fleming shares her favorite essays about raising three teenagers in today’s chaotic world. Written from the perspective of a fellow parent, each story will leave you with tears in your eyes and hope in your heart because someone else is saying exactly what’s been going through your mind.
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