Healthy Activities That Keep Up Your Fitness Level Without a Gym

Fitness-Chispa MagazineKeeping up a healthy lifestyle through outdoor sporting activities is one of the best ways to stay in shape. When you go out regularly, you don’t need a gym because you’re active enough already. By varying up your sporting and other activities, you work many different sets of muscles, tendons, joints and bones so they stay in optimal health for longer. After all, staying sedentary is deadly long-term.

Here are a few healthy outdoor activities that help with your fitness.

Surfing + Paddle Boarding
Surfing and paddle boarding fall on two ends of the spectrum for this type of activity set. With the surfer, they’re always trying to catch the best waves and don’t mind throwing their whole body into it. A good sense of balance, timing, and attention to the water is necessary to ride the best waves and stay safe while doing so. With surfing, you work many sets of muscles and it’s quite tiring.

With paddle boarding, this is usually done on a lake, a river, or near the shore on the ocean. Calmer waters are the water conditions of choice here. However, you still need a good sense of balance, confidence on the board and a willingness to get wet every once in a while. It’s certainly easier to go paddle boarding when you’re older and a little less flexible, and it provides a good whole-body workout.

Chopping Wood at a Cabin
When you wish to get in a remote area and stay in a wood log cabin, it’s natural to want a fire where you can roast some marshmallows. Taking out the best axe for splitting wood and chopping up some logs to sustain the fire long into the evening is great exercise for the hands, wrist, arms and shoulders. Your back will be bending and twisting too, so be prepared for that. Cutting wood is usually a job for the men, but women can have a go if the axe isn’t too heavy to get a good swing. Just be careful to have the right technique to stay safe as medical assistance won’t be nearby.

Paintballing
Going paintballing with some friends is great fun. You’ll run around for several rounds ducking, hiding, and bending around corners to get the best shot. There’s a great deal of running, crawling, jumping and careful aiming which presents plenty of challenges for the body. For anyone who hates the gym and prefers to keep physically active as the next best thing, being challenged to a paintball competition is a terrific activity.

Be aware that when the balls hit you, they’ll leave a bruise for a few days. Not enough to slow you down, but they’re there. This is why wearing good protective head gear and clothing including padded elbow and knee guards makes good sense.

When you dislike going exercising because of the monotony commonly associated with it, just dream up a new activity that you’d like to try. The challenge of learning something new and going through the motions as you get better at the new activity provides plenty of stimulation for the mind and body.

Photo by Hoang Pham

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Mia Guerra

Mia Guerra

Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine
Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine, Mia Guerra is a writer at heart. Regardless the topic, she loves to investigate, encourage, and ruminate on topics that can make us better people. Aiming to live a Proverbs 31 life, Mia is ecstatic to be following her calling with Chispa. At home she is her husband's sidekick and together they are raising a God-fearing family in Atlanta.

Mia Guerra

Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine, Mia Guerra is a writer at heart. Regardless the topic, she loves to investigate, encourage, and ruminate on topics that can make us better people. Aiming to live a Proverbs 31 life, Mia is ecstatic to be following her calling with Chispa. At home she is her husband's sidekick and together they are raising a God-fearing family in Atlanta.