Day 43: Family Choice Day
Welcome to Week 7 of the R2R Summer Movement Challenge.
This week is different from every other week in the challenge. There are no new athletic themes to introduce, no new qualities to develop from scratch. Week 7 is The Halfway Celebration, a week that revisits, builds on, and celebrates everything your family has built in the first six weeks.
And we’re starting it the best possible way. Today is Family Choice Day. Your family picks the workout entirely. Any challenge from the first 42 days. Any level. Any combination. Your call.
Why Family Choice Day Matters
Ownership is one of the most powerful motivators in youth athletic development. When a child chooses the workout, genuinely chooses it, with their voice heard and their decision honored, their engagement, effort, and enjoyment all increase measurably compared to a workout handed to them. Today is also a chance to revisit something that was hard and feel how different it is now. Six weeks of consistent movement have changed your family’s fitness in ways that might not be obvious day to day. Doing something from Week 1 with a Week 7 body is one of the best ways to make those changes visible.
How to Choose
Sit together for two minutes before heading outside. Each person gets one vote. Here are the options organized by how your family is feeling today.
If you want to feel fast:
If you want to play:
If you want to feel strong:
If you want to get outside and explore:
If you want something creative and fun:
If you want a real challenge:
If you can’t agree, build your own:
Pick one element from three different challenges and combine them. A warm-up from one, a main workout from another, and a finisher from a third. There is no wrong combination. The creativity is part of the day.
Today’s Workout: Whatever You Choose
What you need: Whatever your chosen challenge requires.
Total time: Whatever your chosen level calls for.
Warm up properly. Complete the full challenge. Cool down.
Age Modifications
🟢 Little Movers: Ages 3–5: Let them choose entirely without guidance or suggestion. Whatever they say goes. Do it with full enthusiasm regardless of what it is. The ownership is the whole point for this age group.
🟡 Kid Movers: Ages 6–8: Give them five options from the list above — one from each category — and let them vote. Time whatever they choose and compare to how it felt the first time they did it. That comparison is today’s coaching moment.
🟠 Preteen Movers: Ages 9–12: Challenge them to go back to the hardest thing from the first six weeks — the challenge that pushed them most — and do it again with six weeks of training behind them. The difference between then and now is the point of today.
🟣 Teen Movers: Ages 13+: Choose any challenge and set one specific performance goal before starting, a time to beat, a rep count to hit, a hold to extend. The goal is the training tool today. Whether they hit it or miss it, it is useful information about where their fitness is right now.
👨👩👧 Parent Bonus: Your job today is to be fully present for whatever your family chooses. Not to coach, not to optimize, not to quietly redirect toward the option you think is best. Just show up and do it alongside them. That presence is the most important thing you will do today.
Did You Know?
Repeating a familiar challenge after a period of training reveals fitness gains that daily progress hides. The human body is remarkably poor at perceiving its own gradual fitness improvements day to day, gains happen too slowly and too incrementally to feel significant in the moment. But put the body back in a situation it remembers as demanding and the difference is usually immediate and clear. Whatever your family chooses today will almost certainly feel different from the first time. That difference is six weeks of work showing up all at once.
Choice increases intrinsic motivation in children more reliably than almost any other variable. Research from the journal Developmental Psychology found that children given genuine choice over a physical activity showed significantly higher levels of enjoyment, effort, and intention to repeat the activity compared to children given the same activity without the choice component. The most motivating workout is the one your child picked. Today’s workout is the most motivating workout of the week by definition.
This Week: The Halfway Celebration
Tuesday: Day 44: The Milestone Run
Wednesday: Day 45: Relay Race Day
Thursday: Day 46: The Halfway Celebration, the official midpoint of the summer challenge
Friday: Day 47: Dance Fitness Party
Saturday + Sunday: Days 48 & 49 Weekend Edition: Halfway Long Run + Active Recovery
See you tomorrow at 6am.
