Teenage years are a challenge for parents and kids alike. These past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic have made that relationship even more challenging. The simple act of walking with your teenager will have a major beneficial impact on their mental health.

 Teenagers go through a complex phase of physical, emotional, and neurological growth. These phases create uncertainty and anxiety in many teens.

While teens generally seem independent from their parents, and communication can be strained, it’s at this time that teens need support and understanding.

guidelines for helping the teen in your life.

• Honest Communication is Essential: Listening to your teen is a must. Please make time to encourage them to discuss their issues. Please don’t rush to judge them and be open to compromise. It’s a fundamental aspect of human nature to feel heard. So, be supportive, kind, and respect their needs and opinions.

• Strong Bodies Lead to Strong Minds: Encouraging your teen to be fit, strong, and healthy will set them up for a lifetime of success and happiness. Vigorous exercise releases feel-good endorphins and other beneficial neurotransmitters, which help improve mood and concentration and reduce anxiety. 

• Accept Challenges and Embrace Change: Change is inevitable, so having a growth mindset and a willingness to fail will have your teen adapting more quickly and easily to any challenge they face. Blaming others or circumstances is easy to do, but we reap the most significant rewards when we focus on challenging ourselves and succeeding.

Raising teenagers is a challenge, but if you set a good example, encourage them to look forward to future opportunities, and focus on health and fitness, you will be raising independent thinking, strong and compassionate individuals.

It’s important to note that humans evolved to move; the acts of hunting, running, foraging, and climbing all involved movement that encouraged brain growth that eventually separated us from other animals.

Physical activity stresses our brain in the same way that it stresses our muscles. Like active muscle fibers, neurons of the brain break down then recover to become stronger and more resilient with exercise.

Especially Important for Teens is that Exercise Encourages Mood Stability

• Scientists have encouraged exercise to treat depression and anxiety-related disorders for years.

• Studies of daily yoga and meditation have shown shrinkage of the amygdala, a deep-brain structure strongly linked to the processing of stress, fear, and anxiety.

• A smaller amygdala means a lower rate of concern and worry and a heightened sense of calm, allowing us to concentrate on the task at hand.

• Exercise has been shown to be as effective as antidepressants for patients with major depressive disorders.

• Exercise is essential to relapse prevention.

  • This increase in serotonin production (happy mood neurotransmitters) during exercise is responsible for alleviating chronic depression.

• Exercise helps normalize sleep, which is protective of the brain.

Your Next Step: Walking and Talking with Your Teen

Get out on a walk with your teen. Walking will help lessen any underlying tension between you and your teen, thereby opening the door for a constructive conversation. The rush of endorphins will encourage dialogue, and the rhythmic movement of the walking motion is calming.

To Get Started Walking With Your Teenager

• Begin with a simple warmup routine. A warmup gradually takes your body from inactivity to activity thereby reducing the chance of injury. This takes only a few minutes and if you add some light banter into to the mix, you and your teen will begin to build rapport.

• Do a set (5-10 reps) of squats, lunges, etc. My Pleasure Walking Exercise Program has a great warmup routine. Check out this great offer <<

• Keep the cellphones in your pockets and agree not to look at them during the walk. Or, at least set up some guidelines such as stopping every 20 minutes to look at the phone for only 2 minutes.

• Begin walking. There is no need to force conversation at this point. Just enjoy the physical movement and the outdoors.

• Very quickly, the rhythmic movement of walking will have you walking in a nearly synchronized strike. I find it’s at this point that conversation begins.

• Keep it light at first. As I stated above, exercise means a lower rate of concern and worry and a heightened sense of calm, allowing us to concentrate on the task at hand.

Give these steps a try and comment below to tell me how it working with your teen.

The information in this post is taken from my Walking Inspiration Newsletter, Issue 13, Spring 2022. Get your free download HERE <<

I release a new issue of Walking Inspiration every 3 months for the change of seasons.

You can download my brochure, How Physical Exercise Boosts Brainpower for Teens below and get more great walking information!

How Physical Exercise Boosts Brainpower for Teens

I’m a high school teacher and the father of a young man who just got out of his teens.

I put this brochure together for my school’s health fair and the information in it will be beneficial to your teen and to you!

If you are looking to start walking for health and fitness, check out my Pleasure Walking Exercise Program. This unique program combines walking and listening to music and affirmations. This combination makes you look forward to getting out the door and exercising.

I created this program for myself and found that works for anyone at any age and the price of this program is less than toll at the George Washington Bridge… in 2008! (PS… it’s only $7. The bridge toll in 2008 was more than this)

Walking and mindset go hand in hand, try out this great program risk-free

This is Frank for Walking for Health and Fitness, Walk on!