22 Mar 2017

The fitness craze has been on trend for quite some time now. There’s the abundance of #fitsperation Insta posts, the prevalence of green smoothies and then there’s the people on street corners who harass you to join gyms. It’s getting out of hand. Everyone’s getting hella fit and then shoving their sexy selfies in our faces.

And while fitness and exercise are undeniably a sensible lifestyle choice, some of us feel that working out is just a repetitive chore. If, like me, you think that going to the gym sounds like a brutal and hellish version of purgatory, check some of these alternative ways of exercising. Maybe they’ll be more appealing than lifting heavy stuff and running on a treadmill.

1. Indoor trampoline parks

Probably a little bit more dangerous than walking on a treadmill, but indoor trampoline parks are an epic place to unleash your inner child-on-a-jumping-castle yearnings. It’s all about backflips, fly kicks and foam pits, rather than lifting up heavy things.

2. Indoor rock climbing

Rock climbing is a good way to work your upper body without ending up looking like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. It’s also actually a full body work out that’s super fun and a little bit scary. Once you learn the ropes (literally), you can take your skills out into mother nature and climb some hectic cliffs.

3. Sober dancing

Also known as a “tantric raving” or “no lights, no lycra”, the concept here is a sober dance party. Though it probably sounds like most people’s worst nightmare, people rave about how it helps them confront their insecurities and get some mad feels on the d-floor. Also, dancing is the most creative of all the work outs, hands down.

4. Bushwalking

Bushwalking is probably more about leisure than fitness. While serious bushwalkers can embark on multi-day hikes, sometimes carrying all their food and water supplies on their backs, those who prefer to keep it chilled can just go for a stroll in the bush. All you’ve gotta do is get to a National Park and have a wander.

5. Join a c-grade sporting team

Whether it’s touch footy, volleyball, soccer or ultimate Frisbee, joining low standard, non-serious sporting team is a good way to have a laugh and do some exercise. It’s also very easy to stay motivated, mainly because every time you try to flake out, your teammates will guilt trip you into rocking up.

6. Surfing

They say there’s no better feeling than paddling your shred stick out the back and getting pitted by some double overhead bazzas. I wouldn’t know though, since surfers generally refer to me as “a kook” before chasing me off the beach. Though not generally known for their ability to embrace newcomers into the subculture, surfers are pretty fit, I guess.

7. Ocean swimming

There’s nothing quite like sliding into your budgie smugglers/vintage onesie and embracing a little bit of breast stroke on a hot summer’s day. Swimming in the ocean is pretty cool too. Fun fact: exercising while submerged in water is much easier on your joints and ligaments than land based sports.

8. Boxing

Ever felt like punching the sh*t out of a random bag of padding, just for the lols? Then maybe boxing is your thing. Throw in some skipping, ducking and weaving, and you’ve got a sport. If you get really good at it, and your game, you can enter a ring and attempt to brawl an actual person.