 Consider what kind of things are just fun to you. Things you don't have to spend an hour talking yourself into. What did you like doing as a kid or a teenager? Did you love the swings? Or riding bikes? Or jumping on the trampoline for hours? Use those things as your starting point. CONTINUE READING FOR MORE IDEAS Tennis, Ping Pong, and RAquetBallTennis and Racquetball are sort of standard fare for competitive sports that keep you pretty active. Here in Virginia Beach, most of our Rec Centers have great Racquetball courts with tournaments scheduled regularly. The other nice thing is that both of racquet sports are relatively inexpensive to get involved in. An inexpensive racquet will run you around $30 and a container of balls is about $5. (It is also wise to buy a pair of goggles, about $10, for raquetball to avoid a brutal eye injury). Ping Pong is a surprisingly aerobic game, check out this table tennis match from the 2012 London Olympics, if you don't believe me. This requires a bit more equipment obviously, but you've probably got a friend with a table. Speedminton® Photo courtesy of speedmintonusa.com Speedminton® is a relatively new sport, invented a couple of years ago in Berlin. Speedminton requires no net and it's birdie, called a Speeder®, spins through the air making play much faster. The advantage of Speedminton® over Badminton is the portability of play: there is no net. 0_0. I was given a Speedminton® Fun Set, about $30 on Amazon, for my birthday recently and it is super fun, at least after it cools down at night. Oh, did I mention, you can play at night?! Yup, the have a special glow stick that lights the birdie up for nighttime play! (This might be a better option for your insomnia than video games! ;) Bikes & rollerbladesIn the 1990's, rollerblading was seriously popular. It's still a fun activity, provided you can find a smooth flat surface. Both rollerblades and bicycles will set you back a little more, but you can also find them second hand pretty easily. One of my favorite places around here to bike is First Landing State Park. The trails are long and well maintained. During the off-season, I used to rollerblade on the boardwalk at the Oceanfront. Casterboards & Skateboards Photo Credit: puuikibeach via flickr RipStik®, a two-wheeled skateboard on casters, became popular while I was in grad school. So, I spent A LOT of time zooming around our parking lots on one of these perpetual motion boards. It was surprising to me that it wasn't that hard to learn to ride. Make sure to wear a helmet, knee, elbow, and wrist guards. This activity is a bit more expensive, a new board is around $90. Take A Dance ClassTrikke™ Carving VehiclesTRampolines Photo Courtesy of trikke.com The Trikke™ is my favorite non-exercise to date (pronounced tr-EYE-k). Th perpetual motion three-wheeled scooter is a blast. Once I learned to ride, I was taking it with me everywhere (it folds in half and fits in the trunk). You make it "go" by swiveling both feet back and forth at the same time you twist the handlebar. It does take some time to get it right, but it was totally worth it. I usually ride my Trikke™ at Mt. Trashmore on the path around the pond. I've heard that the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail in Chesapeake is a great flat concrete trail and perfect for trikking. Swing, Ballroom, and Latin dance classes will make you forget that awful word (the gym) as you learn new steps. Dancing helps build confidence, coordination, and poise. Lots of good reasons that have nothing to do with exercise. A Time To Dance hosts dance parties each weekend with beginner classes to start the night off.  Photo Courtesy of Suzi Toth-Noyes Anyone else pine for a trampoline while growing up?? Well... if you've got the backyard now, go for it... but if you're still apartment-bound, trampoline parks are popping up everywhere. In Hampton Roads, Cloud9 in Chesapeake and Rebounderz in Newport News are your new favorite hang outs. Who needs a gym? (Gym should be a forbidden four-letter word). Cloud9 has a staggering list of activities: CloudFit, BoardBounce (like a snowboard for a trampoline?!), Trampoline Dodgeball, and the list continues. (This place is the BEST!) Zumba® and Pure Barre®Zumba® has become really popular in the past few years. Our area has classes every day of the week all day long somewhere! At gyms, dance studios, churches, rec centers, you name it, there's one somewhere around here. The Latin style exerdance is a super fun way to get the needed cardio without ever uttering the word "exercise" Pure Barre® now has two studios locally, in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, and offers a variety of classes that should make anyone comfortable. Classes are similar to ballet exercises done at a barre. ExerGaming for ADHDXbox Kinect and Nintendo Wii U™ have made exergaming a mainstream reality. The Wii U has more available titles, but you are tied to controllers, which can limit your movement somewhat. The Kinect uses a camera to track movements and feels more natural, but again titles are a little limited. (We recently bought a Kinect and have been having tons of fun with Dance Central and Fruit Ninja). I think this is a great option if you are stuck indoors during the winter or with young children. Rock Climbing, Rafting, Parkour Photo Courtesy of Mike Baker These are for the adrenaline junky. Whitewater rafting is an exhilarating sport, though I don't think I'm really doing much exercise in this video as a Guide-In-Training (I'm in the front in the right of the photo.) If you're interested in going, trips run from March until October each year in West Virginia at North American River Runners, where I spent every Spring, Summer, and Fall in college on the New and Gauley Rivers. Rock Climbing is a great upper body workout and doubles as a problem-solving exercise, mindfulness training, a fear-conquering opportunity. Rock Gym in Virginia Beach is a local favorite. Ever Heard of Parkour? Photo Credit: agenciaandes_ec via flickr Yeah, me either, until recently while researching non-exercise. Parkour is like Zombie Preparedness Survival Training. What is the most efficient effective way to get away from the zombie chasing you? Whatever that is in the moment, that is Parkour. Nerd Fitness has an excellent Beginner's Guide to Parkour, just don't go around yelling "Parkour!" all the time. And Speaking of The guys At Nerd Fitness...They are running a camp... a nerd camp... for adults. What?! But, much to my disappointment, it's already booked for this year! Here are some things they featured at last year's camp... "Kung Fu, Parkour, Tricking, Yoga, Meditation, how to squat and deadlift properly, bodyweight exercises, how to cook easy meals, how to deal with depression, how to have a healthy relationship with food, how to bend nails, do things like handstands and cartwheels...!" How To Not Hate the gymWellllll... this takes special effort. If you insist on mundane forms of fitness that we call "exercise" (I hear everyone groan, but you, because as I mentioned the gym is a four-letter word :-/ .) Here are my suggestions... Audiobooks, Netflix, MusicIf you are trying to "like" running, walking, etc. Try listening to an audiobook on your smartphone. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake both offer a large (FREE) selection of audiobooks that can be downloaded via Overdrive. Any audiobook you can't find for free at the library, you can probably find on Audible. Take your smartphone to the [four-letter word for fitness place] and connect to wifi, proceed to binge watch your favorite Netflix episodes. Audiobooks and Netflix are particularly motivating if you ONLY listen to them while you are at said four-letter word place of exercise. When you get to that final episode of the season, you'll be running to the [four-letter-word-I-refuse-to-write-again] at least once a day! Music is self-explanatory... but what if you like swimming. Ahh... no bueno. But wait.... what about waterproof bluetooth headphones?! Indeed. You can now swim AND listen to your favorite music. So, how are you going to sneak up on exercise? Let me know in the comments.
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Nikki Schwartz,
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