Fun Fitness

Many people believe there's no such thing as fun fitness. In their minds, a good workout means trudging on a treadmill or lugging weights around a joyless gym, and that there’s no gain without the pain.

This, of course, is nonsense. There are many ways to combine fun and fitness.

Activities that fall under the fun fitness umbrella include:

• Competitive sports - Basketball, Soccer,Tennis, and Racquetball are some competitive sports that can help improve your fitness. Some gyms are even offering competitive dodge ball as a fun game to get your heart pumping.

• Outdoor activities - Walking, jogging, bicycling, and swimming can get you out in fresh air and sunshine, making your fitness workout feel less like work and more like play. Other options include kayaking, hiking, inline skating, and skateboarding.

• Martial arts - Classes that teach karate, jujitsu, judo, tae kwon do, or kickboxing provide a workout aimed at improving your fitness, coordination, and mental discipline.

• Dance classes - Energetic ballroom dancing is considered a vigorous workout by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dance styles like the salsa, meringue, and mambo can keep you whirling and twirling so much you forget you're actually getting into shape.

• Acrobatics - Activities like tumbling, headstands, and somersaults can condition your body and help you feel like a kid again. You can use a balance beam, rings, or just a padded floor. Bouncing on a trampoline is another type of acrobatic fitness fun. Just be careful — these activities can lead to injury if your form is off or you lose your balance.

• Kid stuff -Don't discount the fitness to be had in kids’ activities like jumping rope or riding a pogo stick. For example, jumping rope improves your balance, stamina, and coordination, while working muscle groups in your arms, legs, chest, back, shoulders, and abdomen.

• Nintendo Wii - The venerable video game maker upped the fun factor for fitness when it released its Wii Fit game. Other game makers have followed suit with more video workouts involving the Wii.
  

Finally, You can make any fitness activity more fun by recruiting a workout buddy or joining a group.

Source:www.everydayhealth.com