Setting Your Child Up For Fitness Success
As a dad of one (soon to be two) a deep dive on this topic was pretty high up on my to-do list. I’ve worked as a strength and fitness coach for 8 years now, so I had my assumptions of what was important and what wasn’t when it comes to giving my child(ren) a really positive start in health and fitness. I won’t lie, after my review, I’ve changed my mind on some things..!
TL;DR
As a parents, your own fitness habits do matter, but probably not as much as you might think.
Your own training or sport is helpful (in fact I maintain that it’s probably foundational to your child’s success), but it’s how you enable, encourage, and normalise movement within your family that predicts whether your kids will grow up successfully active.
What I wanted from digging into this topic was to figure out exactly what behaviours we as parents can enact that have a positive impact on our kids’ engagement with physical activity. So, here’s…
What the Research Says Works
Role Modelling → weak-to-moderate effect
Active parents tend to have active kids, but that relationship is not as strong as we might assume.
Meta-analyses show small-to-moderate correlations (r ≈ 0.15-0.25).
Your child seeing you train helps normalise exercise, but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll join in.
Parental Support Behaviours → strong effect
Encouragement, transport, and providing opportunities are 2-3× more predictive of children’s physical activity than simple role modelling.
Practical and emotional support shape access, confidence, and enjoyment.
Co-Participation → strong effect
Doing it with them (walk, play, cycle, climb, hike, kick a ball, dance) roughly doubles the impact of role modelling.
Shared enjoyment reinforces motivation and family bonding.
Motivation Style → critical!
Autonomy-supportive parenting* → higher intrinsic motivation and long-term adherence.
Controlling or pressuring styles (“you must exercise”) → reduced motivation, regardless of parental fitness.
*Autonomy-supportive parenting in the context of physical activity means guiding rather than commanding. Parents provide structure and rationale for being active while allowing their child meaningful choice and input. Instead of pressuring or controlling, they explain the “why,” offer options (“would you rather go to the park or ride your bike?”), and focus on effort and enjoyment rather than performance. This approach helps children internalise the value of movement and develop intrinsic motivation - they become active because they want to, not because they’re told to.
Environment & Structure
Homes that limit sedentary options and embed movement opportunities (balls by the door, bikes visible, active weekends) predict greater habitual activity.
The Bottom Line
Of course your fitness matters, but what you enable, encourage, and normalise for your children matters more.
Being a supportive, autonomy-building parent who makes movement part of family life is more powerful than being the fittest parent on the playground.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to be the fittest parent on the playground…
Thank you for reading, I’d love to know if you found this useful!
Tom
Key References
Yao & Rhodes (2015) Parental correlates in child and adolescent physical activity: a meta-analysis PMID: 25890040
Su et al. (2022) Parental Influence on Child and Adolescent Physical Activity Level: A Meta-Analysis PMID: 36554746
Schoeppe et al. (2017) Associations between parental support and children’s physical activity and screen time: a meta-analysis PMID: 28679485
Petersen et al. (2020) The role of parental support in children’s physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis PMID: 31918758
Keegan et al. (2010) Autonomy-supportive coaching and its associations with motivation and well-being in youth sport PMID: 20661807
