Let’s assume you can’t find a sport you’d like to practice. Or you don’t want to learn any sport specifically – all you want is to move your body in an enjoyable and healthy way. While I think that focusing on a specific sport is better because it gives you structure and an easy way to track your progress, that doesn’t mean it’s the only option.
Below are some physical activities that don’t focus on a specific sport and are just some good ways to become physically active. Most of them require you to forget about being a big responsible adult and embrace a child-like spirit of play and exploration.
Go to the nearest body of water – a lake, ocean, sea, etc. – and spend an entire morning or afternoon there with a group of friends or family. Swim a little, wade, take a walk, or throw a Frisbee.
A few hours spent in such a way won’t feel like exercise at all, while giving you plenty of opportunities to get your body moving.
If you’re into beautiful scenery and exploring wilderness, few things are better than hiking. It allows you to benefit both from surrounding yourself with nature and from exercise.
Hikes that take a few hours provide well over the minimum amount of exercise you should get each week. Moreover, they exercise different parts of your muscles, especially when you’re hiking in the mountains. Lastly, they don’t feel like a boring set of exercises – and that’s what we’re after.
If you’ve ever tried to keep up with a 5-year old kid, you know how much energy she has and how difficult it can be not to lose your breath when trying to participate in all of the games she invents.
Consequently, it’s a perfect type of physical activity for every person who dislikes regular exercise. It doesn’t feel like exercise – because it’s not exercise, it’s pure play. It also serves an important role of strengthening your bond with the kid, whether it’s your niece, daughter, or your friend’s child.
Please don’t say it’s reserved for kids. People of all ages can enjoy games of dexterity, and if you rarely engage in physical activity requiring balance and flexibility, Twister can be a great choice for you and your entire family or a group of friends.
Dancing is yet another way to engage in strenuous physical activity without it feeling like exercise. Try a traditional dance and not a dance fitness program like Zumba – that can feel more like boring fitness classes than dance and the art that’s behind it.
It doesn’t matter what type of a dance you practice as long as you enjoy it. A few hours of dancing a week – or a wild night out each week – will provide your body with enough exercise to feel like you’ve just finished a workout (while not feeling like exercise while doing it).
Dogs are perfect companions for long walks. A dog requires at least three to four walks a day, each at least 10-minute long, which in total translates to about twice the minimum amount of exercise you should get each week.
For even more activity, get a dog-friendly Frisbee to get a workout for your upper body, too. Don’t feel silly chasing after the dog or playing with it.
Traveling can be a great way to get more exercise if you spend more time exploring the local attractions and not just exploring how comfortable the armchairs by the swimming pool are.
When in a different city or a foreign country, you’ll probably tend to walk more and possibly engage in more sports and physical activity in general (for instance, hiking, or surfing lessons) just because enjoying the local places requires doing so (what’s the attraction of riding a bus to Machu Picchu when compared with actually hiking the entire trail?).
Please don’t think about it in terms of exercise and calories burned while doing it. Sex is a natural, powerful way of bonding that can also provide some of the benefits of exercise.
A 2013 study on 21 couples compared the effects of moderate exercise on a treadmill and sex. The scientists found that sex is performed at a moderate intensity and “may potentially be considered, at times, as a significant exercise”[xli].
While sex isn’t likely to become your primary way to exercise, next time you find yourself saying you don’t have time for exercise, remind yourself that you can replace it with a different type of “workout” that will probably not be such a burden on your willpower.
Gardening, and especially doing things like yanking out weeds or raking by hand, is a calming, almost meditative-like activity that can not only help you reduce stress, but get you moving a little and get your muscles more active.
Other types of outdoor activities like splitting your own wood (instead of buying bundles of firewood) or fixing things around the house also count as low-intensity exercise.
Knife or hatchet throwing, skills that can be technically considered sports are also a good way to spend time outside in an active way and get a solid workout.