Getting and staying fit doesn’t have to be boring or done in a specific traditional way. Maybe you want to get fit but are discouraged by activities like lifting weights.
You can improve your fitness and have fun while at it with these interesting hobbies:
1. Running
Running is one of the easiest ways to build general endurance and get fit. All you need is a pair of well-fitting running shoes and a place to run. You can run outside at a park near you to enjoy the fresh air, which is great for stress relief.
Also, the company of other runners makes it fun and motivates you to keep at it.
You might prefer to run indoors on a treadmill or indoor track. How about you try each running environment to decide what suits you. If you’ve never run before, don’t put pressure on yourself. Just get started today, and you will improve with practice and repetition.
2. Yoga
Yoga is an excellent way to get fit because it involves carrying and holding your body weight through arm balancing and positions like Downward Facing Dog and Plank Pose. When you lift your body weight, you will naturally strengthen your muscles and bones.
Yoga will build long, lean muscles, sculpt your body, and keep you in great shape. It also encourages long holds, which lead to better stamina. Stamina focuses on endurance, which is essential for optimum fitness. Find out if there’s a yoga studio or instructor in your area and start your fitness journey.
3. Hiking
Hiking is physically demanding because you climb steep hills for several miles with a 30lbs backpack on your back. Sometimes hiking is so enjoyable that you hardly notice how far you’ve walked. This is a great way to stay fit.
Balancing your body and shifting your weight will cause you to engage and strengthen many muscles in your body. Most hikers have strong calves, hamstrings, glutes, and quads, if you haven’t noticed.
Hiking with a group of friends makes it even more fun. It’s a sustainable hobby to improve your fitness because it’s gentle on your joints due to soft trails.
4. Swimming
Swimming is a fun way to improve your fitness. If you’ve been swimming leisurely and once in a while, try making it a regular activity. Swimming strengthens almost all your muscles. As you pull and push in the water, there’s a natural resistance that works your muscles.
Swimming also burns calories and excess body fat. You’re less likely to get injured while swimming, which motivates you to do it even more. As you gain muscle, you also improve your sense of balance and get even stronger.
5. Indoor Rock Climbing
This activity is a full-body workout and so much fun. As you climb up, you’ll engage every muscle group in your body to keep yourself moving upward. Your glutes, arm muscles, core, and legs all play a part in this exercise.
Rock climbers burn calories at the same rate as high-intensity workouts like resistance training and spinning. With climbing, you get the best of both worlds – muscle building and cardio.
You don’t have to be a weightlifter to try this. Start climbing, and each day you’ll grow stronger and climb up further. Look at it this way; you don’t have to pump iron at the gym to build muscle. As you get better at it, you’ll take on more challenging walls and get even fitter.
6. Dancing
When you start enjoying dancing, it won’t even feel like a workout. It will be pure fun. Did you know that dancing makes you fit because it requires your body to use more muscles than it does during regular exercise?
It also reduces the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and cancer.
While you’re having fun dancing with your friends or family, you’re burning extra fat and strengthening your muscles. Enroll in a salsa dance class or buy dance videos and enjoy it.
You can also play music that you enjoy and get dancing. Your fitness will improve if you make this activity regular.
7. Gardening
Gardening involves physical exertion that works all the major muscle groups: arms, legs, shoulders, glutes, core, back, and neck. Gardening tasks like raking, weeding, reaching for branches, lifting mulch, shoveling, and pushing a wheelbarrow, all strengthen these muscles and burn calories.
The stretching involved in gardening also keeps your bones and joints healthy without stressing the body. If you’re new to all this garden activity, start slowly and vary your tasks. Your muscles will feel tired, but you’ll get a good workout.
8. Horse Riding
Horse riding sounds like an activity where you’re just sitting and not engaging any muscles. If you’re trying not to bounce off a horse, you will engage your leg and core muscles.
Your core must be engaged to ride comfortably. This keeps you upright and strengthens your muscles.
Horse riding is similar to leg day at the gym. Holding that position for 30 minutes will cause you to feel the same burn you would feel in the gym. The horse’s basic steering will require balance and core strength, and your arms and shoulders will carry their load.
9. Pole Dancing
If you just raised your eyebrow, don’t worry. Pole dancing classes are not associated with any kind of adult entertainment. This high-intensity workout has evolved into a popular fun and fitness concept used by professional dancers, students, athletes, and performers.
Dancers learn to hold their entire body weight with one arm, building upper body strength while using their core.
This activity engages all main muscle groups and combines strength training, flexibility, endurance, providing a complete body workout. If you’re a beginner with little upper body strength, you’ll build it up with practice.
Pole dancing classes are fun, and you won’t realize how hard you’re working your muscles – until the next day, but it will be worth it.
10. Boxing
Most people think that boxing is just about punching, but it’s more than that. This fun and enjoyable hobby involves head movement, footwork, and defensive techniques.
Boxing is the ultimate full-body workout as it engages both your upper and lower body, strengthening all major muscle groups. It improves cardiovascular strength and endurance better than most workouts available today.
Boxing stimulates muscle fibers you have never used. That explains why, after training for a while, boxers have the strength they never had before. These muscle fibers are generally ignored in other workouts.
Boxing trains your heart, making it healthier and more efficient. It also makes the human body energy efficient. That explains the lean and cut structure of professional boxers.
11. Playing with Pets
If you don’t have a dog, you should know that they are great motivators for getting out of the house and living a healthy and fit life. Dogs love to take walks, run, and play. It’s good for their health, and you get to enjoy the fitness benefits too.
Other ways to play with your dog include swimming, rollerblading, playing fetch, and hiking.
Playing with your dog will work your arms, feet, hands, and legs, keeping you fit. Keep in mind that some dogs aren’t overly active. So, if you’re thinking about getting one, find the right fit.
12. Volunteering
Volunteering may not occur to you as a fitness hobby at first. However, active volunteering can keep you fit and healthy. Charity runs, community cleaning, and volunteering as a sports coach are all activities that can strengthen your muscles and keep you fit.
Anything that involves recreational play or physical activity will keep your body moving and burning fat for effective fitness and weight control.
13. Jump Rope
You played jump rope as a child and forgot about it, right? This is one of the most effective exercises, believe it or not. It’s a full-body workout that uses almost all the muscles in your body.
If your muscles have been inactive for a long time, you’ll feel soreness the next day, and if you keep going, you’ll soon have stronger muscles.
Not many exercises burn calories like a jump rope. Jumping moderately will help you burn 10 to 16 calories per minute. Imagine what will happen when you amp it up. Jumping ropes are affordable and portable, so you can carry it with you to the park or the gym.
14. Trampolining
This fun childlike hobby works out the entire body, not just your legs. With each jump, you’re twisting your body for balance and working your stomach and core muscles, thus strengthening and toning them.
If you add some trampoline moves as you bounce, your whole body will fire up – in a good way. Trampolining also improves balance and agility and helps lessen the pain of arthritic joints.
15. Cycling
Cycling works based on a resistance element which quickens fat burning. It also strengthens the hamstrings, glutes, calves, and quads. The aerobic nature of cycling works out your lungs, heart, and blood vessels, enabling you to breathe deeper and improve your overall fitness.
Depending on your weight and cycling intensity, you can burn 400 to 1000 calories per hour.
If you combine this activity with a healthy diet, you’ll lose weight and stay fit. Make cycling fun by joining a cycling club. You’ll get all the advice you need there.
16. Martial Arts
Martial arts training is not just for self-defense. It also improves your fitness and overall health. This might be a less popular way to exercise, compared to lifting weights and running on a treadmill.
However, it’s a full-body workout and effective in improving your fitness, no matter your age or fitness level.
Some popular styles of martial arts you can engage in include Taekwondo, Karate, and Tai Chi. The style you choose depends on what areas of fitness you’d like to address.
Find a martial arts class and instructor that suits your needs. Ask the instructor if you can watch a session first before you sign up.
17. Zumba
Zumba is popular because it’s more like a dance party than a workout, hence their tagline ‘Ditch the Workout, Join the Party.’ All you have to do is move to the music.
You’ll have fun, strengthen your core, melt extra body fat, and become more flexible. It’s suitable for any age group and anyone who’s not into intense workouts.
One study linked Zumba’s movements to improved balance and increased core strength in overweight women. Zumba can be modified for your specific fitness level.
If you enjoy moving your body to music, this hobby is perfect for you. Start slowly if you’re new to Zumba.
18. Mountain Biking
The great thing about mountain biking is that it doesn’t stress the joints like other aerobic activities but still uses all the muscles in your body. Cycling requires staying balanced and upright, building your core muscles.
The climbing and turning strengthens your upper body. It also builds strong muscles in your thighs, calves, legs, and butt.
For a more effective workout, just like runners do, increase your speed in the second half of your route. Make sure you have a good-quality mountain bike.
19. Team Sports
Playing in a team sport is fun, especially because you’re interacting with other people and working together. Running across a football pitch or basketball court is an excellent exercise for your cardiovascular health.
Training for a game and playing improves your muscle strength and makes you fit over time. Team sports are so much fun. Every game is different with new lessons and challenges.
20. Bowling
Bowling is not an intensive workout per se, but it comes with physical benefits like promoting muscle growth. While bowling, holding the heavy ball works your arm muscles, and you strengthen your leg muscles as you approach the foul line. Swinging your arm works out your joints and ligaments.
You’re limited to a small area while bowling, but you keep walking back and forth to pick up the ball and swing it. You might not be sweating, but you’ll burn fat and stay fit with all that movement.
21. Traveling
Traveling offers several opportunities to keep you fit. When you’re exploring a new city, walking to the various tourist attractions and historical sites is good exercise. It’s not intense because you walk at your leisure, but after a couple of days, your muscles will get stronger.
Another way to stay fit while traveling is through adventurous activities like ziplining, skiing, white water rafting, surfing, and kayaking. These strengthen most of your muscles and burn lots of calories.
Conclusion
Most people avoid exercise because they see it as boring, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can stay fit and have fun too with any of these hobbies. Find one that works for you, have fun, and stay fit while at it!
