Recognising the integral role that schools play in instilling fitness-focused habits in the country’s youth, Dubai Fitness Challenge, DFC, 2020 is ensuring that more than 620,000 students across 600 schools adopt healthier and happier lifestyles for 30 minutes for 30 days.
The fitness programme of free events, sports activities and family-friendly virtual sessions will continue throughout the month, while a new robust library of free online resources for parents and teachers will further, enable them to motivate children to get fit while having fun. Exciting activity calendars can be downloaded for free on the DFC website, catering to various learning models with over 80 fitness and wellbeing-focused activity templates and games for children aged two to 16 years. For an extra boost at home, kids can also join their beloved superheroes and cartoon characters in online workouts, wellness and dance sessions for free, easy-to-follow exercises and routines.
Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director-General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, KHDA, commented, “More than any other time, this year has shown us how important it is to be fit and healthy; to have fun and to spend time with friends and family. The Dubai Fitness Challenge brings all these values together. It’s been great to see so many schools and families get together online to build on existing fitness habits and to start new ones. We are grateful to the team at Dubai Tourism for bringing us all together and for giving us a challenge we can all rise to.”
Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, DFRE, commented, “For children and young people, the importance of physical activity can never be understated. Now, more than ever, sports, exercise and wellness activities are crucial to inspiring sustained shifts towards more active routines for children.”
Little ones can choose from an incredible range of free workouts that the whole family will love – be it exclusive workout videos from PJ Masks that are released each week throughout DFC; fun workouts with all the favourite characters from IMG Worlds Of Adventure; Les Mills Born To Move music workouts; FIFA and EA workouts, with drills and tricks by Kotaro Tokuda – the youngest freestyle football champion; or special song routines with Papa Smurfs, Brainy Smurf, Smurfette and Vanity Smurf at Motiongate Dubai.
To make 30 minutes of daily exercise fun for the whole family, DFC’s flagship Fitness Villages also promise something for everyone. You can head down to the Mai Dubai Fitness Village Festival City Mall and experience bag jumps, quick flights and the region’s largest mobile pump track at The Arch. Go to the DP World Fitness Village Kite Beach and try out trampoline workouts at Fitbit Rebounder; boot camps, dance classes and functional training at the Teen Fit area; or monkey bars and climbing challenges at the Kids Camp. Enjoy a day out at the park with the Emirates NBD Fitness Village Al Khawaneej and choose from a packed daily schedule of activations on the Emirates Fitness Stage; group classes and open workouts at the Dubai Chamber Family Fitness Zone, and junior boot camps, functional training, low climbing walls and parkour obstacles at the Kids Skill and Play Area.
