Who says getting fit is all about excruciatingly slogging away at the gym? There has been a surge of unorthodox fitness festivals that guarantee to rev up your workout motivation as you relish the rush of adrenaline. From dressing up as a Disney Prince for a marathon, completing a challenging obstacle race when being drenched in mud, to learning how to soar through the air gracefully as if you were in a circus, we’ve rounded up the most exciting and quirky events worldwide for you to accomplish your fitness goals when pushing the boundaries of your comfort zone and getting the sense of camaraderie. Better still, you have more reasons to get out of town and satisfy your wanderlust!

Tough Mudder, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane

Designed to challenge you mentally and physically, tough mudder is a team-oriented obstacle race that features grueling 10 miles of mud and 20 miles of obstacles to help you push the boundaries of your comfort zone. The race is definitely not for the faint-hearted as it involves challenging tasks from crawling through the mud to electric shocks to scaling 25-foot structures. You are guaranteed to get a sense of camaraderie at the event, whether it comes from a helping hand or an extra vote of confidence from your teammates.

Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, Florida

Ever thought that you could live out your Disney fantasy while torching calories? As bizarre as it sounds, you can dress up as a Disney Prince or Prince and run a marathon at Walt Disney Resort in Florida with Mickey, Donald Duck, Snow White, and Tinklebell cheering you on from the sideline. The event combines two days of magical run, including the Disney Princess Enchanted 10K and the Disney Princess Half Marathon. Those who finish both will be awarded finisher medals.

Gorilla Circus Flying Trapeze School, London

Ever wondered what it feels like to soar through the air like a bird? No, I’m not talking about skydiving. I’m talking about performing insane tricks on the flying trapeze. Located in Regent’s Park and Kensington Gardens, Gorilla Circus Flying Trapeze School, hosts private sessions and corporate team building events throughout the year. The event is ideal for those who want to hone their strength and flexibility. Even better, it gives you the bragging right!

SeaWheeze Sunset Festival, Stanley Park, Vancouver

Not your average and ordinary fitness event, SeaWheeze Sunset Festival is a unique event where you can get your yoga flow on with some world-class yogis. Then when the sun goes down, bring out your dance moves with musical accompaniment by Diplo and Felix Cartal. There’s nothing quite like a fitness event that features EDM, dance party, yoga, and beers. Sounds perfect to you? go for it.

Who says you have to load up more weights for the deadlift, overexert yourself by pounding away at the gym and being drenched in sweat to improve your physique? Sometimes simple weight-bearing movements like doing a plank everyday work wonder for your body and mental strength. For those “sloths” with a sedentary lifestyle, doing planks is the best way to kickstart your workout routine and then slowly build momentum from there. Don’t ever underestimate this simple workout movement as it fires up more core muscles than any other movement. The posture of a plank looks ostensibly straightforward and as easy as pie, but actually, it takes immense strength and endurance in your core, abs, and hamstrings. And even better, you can do planks remotely without any types of equipment. You’re guaranteed to see changes in your body and strength if you do it regularly and incorporates it into other strength-based and cardio driven workouts.

It Strengthens Your Core Muscles

Core strength is extremely vital in your golden age as it prevents you from falling and getting strain injury. Bodyweight exercises like planks can help you keep your spine in alignment and improve the strength of your skeletal system. Doing planks is also instrumental in achieving the classic six-packs by toning your abdominal muscles. But of course, you’ll need to ditch the love handles first before you gain the six-packs!

It Improves Flexibility

If you’ve done yoga before, then you might wonder why the plank seems to be an important element in yoga routines. Yoga is known for improving flexibility and guesses what, planks don’t just help fire up your abdominal muscles or help you get a toned belly, it also helps grow and stretch your collarbone, shoulder, and the entire muscle group in the back of your body with continued planking. Variations like side plank or side plank knee to elbow crunch can improve your flexibility even more.

You, Will, Have Better Posture And Balance

To do the proper form of the plank, you need to engage your core muscles and stay uptight to support yourself up. If you do it regularly, you’re guaranteed to have a better posture and have your hunchback fixed. Planking is a weight-bearing exercise that is modifiable and versatile, meaning you can change it up and challenge yourself to get better results. For instance, you can do side planks with one leg up or planks with extensions to build stability.

It Improves Your Mood

You might have heard that virtually all exercises cause a release of endorphins, the feel-good chemicals in our brains. The same goes for planks as mind and body go hand in hand! Besides, the muscle group’s planks target are the ones that are often knotted or strained. Depression and anxiety can make you prone to physical diseases, which is known as a psychosomatic disorder. Doing planks can release tension in your body, feel more confident, and reduce the risk of getting diseases.

Ever put on an up-tempo metal rock with pulse-raising beats to brace yourself for a heavy deadlift? It may help you unleash your inner beast and agony but the downside is your eardrum could be damaged by the loud music. Instead of listening to eardrum-busting music, why not put on some inspirational podcasts or audiobooks for a long workout to rev up your motivation, stamina and unlock your subconscious mind? Some music can trigger your lingering thoughts about day-to-day trivial things that bug you whereas listening to motivational podcasts can help you keep your mind off them and channel the positive energy from inside out. Read on to find out more about the best audiobooks and podcasts for workouts!

Motivational Audiobooks:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

A memoir of a well-acclaimed novelist and avid runner who went through antagonizing pain as he struggled to finish the New York City Marathon, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running gives you insight into how the author managed to overcome insecurities and push through to the end. According to the author, the greatest qualities of a novelist are the talent, focus, and endurance, which are pretty much what it takes to be a bodybuilder. Those who thrive on challenges will definitely resonate with it. It is also sure to rev up your stamina and motivation when you’re lifting heavy weights or running on the treadmill.

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

Perfect for those who want to thrive in a high-stress environment, The Obstacle Is the Way is a collection of ancient stories and philosophies about stoicism. It offers thought-provoking perspectives on how to accomplish your goals and find triumph from tragedy. Whether you’re hammering away at the gym or just going through hardships, this audiobook is sure to leave you with a new way of thinking. Some of the quotes like “Being stuck is not a fate but a position”, and  “What stands in the way becomes the way. There’s always a way out or another route to get to where you need to go” are very profound and inspirational.

Fitness Podcasts

The Mike Dolce Show

If audiobooks that talk about life philosophy don’t float your boat, then put on The Mike Dolce Show that shares topics revolving around weight loss, muscle gain, and overall healthy living. Mike Dolce was voted the World MMA Trainer from 2013-2016 and acclaimed for helping many UFC athletes like Johny Hendricks and Ronda Rousey lose weights. This podcast also takes you behind closed doors to the world-class training camps. Mike also published a few international best-selling books include The Dolce Diet: 3 Weeks to Shredded, The Dolce Diet: Living Lean, etc

Barbell Shrugged

Looking specifically for quality content on CrossFit, weightlifting, and physical health goals? Barbell Shrugged has it covered. Featuring hundreds of entertaining and interactive interviews with professional athletes like Kettle-bell World Champion Mike Salemi, Barbell Shrugged provides gym-goers all aspects of health tips ranging from how to improve conditioning, the magic of mushrooms to nutrition for weightlifters.

It takes tremendous motivation and conscientiousness to get a shredded physique. There’s no way you can just hammer away on the treadmill and expect to shred pounds overnight. In order to achieve consistency with your diet and exercise regimen, it’s important to keep track of your calories intake and the fat-burning activities that you’ve done throughout the day. But don’t worry, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to measure your blood sugar level or take notes of the labels of everything you eat. There are many apps that help us track weekly progress and stay motivated. The number shown on your scale doesn’t reflect the change in your body composition or measure how much fats you’ve burned. It’s high time you ditched the scale and installed below weight loss apps!

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular apps that provides a detailed breakdown of your calories and nutrients intake after you insert the food you consumed throughout the day, with a barcode scanner for packaged food and a database of 3,282,000 different kinds of food to choose from. It also generates report of your total consumption of macronutrients. Another great feature is a forum that allows fellow users share their successful weight loss journeys and personal struggles.

Yummly

Founded by Dave Feller, who understands the pain point of not being able to filtering a recipe by excluding a specific item. Deciding what to eat can be nerve-wrecking when you have dietary restrictions and Yummly has got it covered. Yummly tailors a list of recipes that suits your taste buds based on your dietary preferences and cooking abilities, etc. It also features an unique filtering searches for users to filter out the unwanted ingredients to create a recipe that best suits their needs.

BioForce HRV

We all know a friend who’s a gym fanatic and would measure everything from their blood pressure, heart rate to carb grams. Well, tell your friend that the latest trend is tracking your heart rate variability (HRV). Too much fluctuation in the rhythm of your heartbeat could be an indicator that your body is overexerted. BioForce HRV is a device that gives a solid metric for you to factor into the decision of how much and what types of workout you should do.

HappyScale

Designed to make your weighing-in experience more pleasurable, HappyScale displays your weight change with a smooth trend line and takes the fluctuation out so you can see the progress you’ve made. It also breaks down your weight loss goals to make them more attainable, and predicts your weight based on your current lifestyle habits.

Fooducate

Grocery shopping can get overwhelming and Fooducate has got it covered. Featuring a “nutrition scanner” that generates a detailed information on the nutrition facts and ingredients of the items on the shelves, Fooducate is a nutrition tracker that helps you to discover things manufacturers don’t want you to notice.

If you’ve been slogging away on the elliptical for hours every day in hope of getting a chiselled physique but still not seeing the result, then it’s an indicator telling you that it’s time to tweak your workout routine. Did you know that 20 minutes of high-intensity interval training is more efficient for burning fats than steady pace cardio? And it’s definitely more fun and adrenaline pumping than other traditional regimens.

Weight Loss & Improved Metabolism

High-Intensity interval training refers to a cardio exercise that alternates between intense anaerobic exercise period and less intense recovery period. It’s been scientifically proven that HIIT burns more calories compared to other traditional regimens. All the intense exertion makes your body burn more fats for energy instead of carbs. HIIT also revs up metabolism when you push yourself to the limit where it’s hard to breath, which eventually helps you burn more calories post-exercise. Ideal for those who want to keep the blood sugar level in check, HIIT increases glucose metabolism as well as insulin sensitivity, which means a lower chance of getting diabetes, obesity and heart disease, etc.

Tailor Your Training

If you want to fire up more muscles and fully capitalize on the benefits of HIIT, you can incorporate strength and conditioning workout into it – You can do barbell deadlift as many as possible in 15 minutes with 2 minutes rest between each movement, and add weights incrementally. The key is not to rush it but focus on your breath and form. If weight lifting doesn’t float your boat or sounds too daunting to you, then just do as many burpees as possible in 30 seconds and rest for 10 seconds, then repeat for 5 minutes. If you’re looking to strengthen your core muscles and get chiseled six packs abs, then do crunches, situps, and hanging knee raise and rest after a half burpee in each round. Whichever way you choose, you’ll build endurance and a body of toned muscles!

It Saves Time & Money

The best thing about HIIT is that it doesn’t require a fully stocked gym and you can do it remotely at no cost. But if you prefer to be surrounded by a bunch of gym rats to keep your motivation high, then signing up for a group HIIT class is an option. HIIT is all about putting forward all your energy towards a short period of training, which means you can just squeeze a bit of time (like twenty minutes) out of your busy work schedule to get it done. You can always look up the tutorials online instead of paying for an instructor too.

     Staying fit contributed heavily to our social,

spiritual, and physical well being and this is the primary reason why it is of great importance that you ensure that fitness is part and parcel of your day to day life.

This, however, is a big challenge for many people in the world today since everybody is busy with their careers and businesses. To many individuals, fitness is not their primary concern until it is too late. This is why we are witnessing a high increase in serious ailments such as depression, diabetes, cancer, and obesity, among others. Some of the ways of keeping fit include;
• Ensuring you get enough sleep. This is something that is very essential and that a lot of people take for granted. Lack of enough sleep negatively affects both our mental and physical health. Our concentration, our immune system, our mood, is all affected by lack of enough sleep.
• Letting go of your bad habits. There are some habits that we indulge in that are harmful to our health and they include drug abuse, smoking, and excessive drinking of alcohol. There are other habits that are equally harmful to our health but are not regarded as bad, and they include consuming too much junk food and sugar. Such habits if not regulated can also cause you health issues.
• Eating healthy. This is a very important step in fitness as we are basically defined by what we eat. Ensure that you include as many vegetables, fruits, and whole grains into your diet as you can. Remember that your body needs different minerals so ensure that you have a balanced diet. Beans, chicken, and fish are some of the ideal sources of protein out there today.
• Exercising regularly. This is very crucial as keeping your body active ensures that you live a long healthy life. There are several ways of exercising so choose the one you are comfortable with. You can go to the gym or you can walk or even run a few times per week. Some of the exercises that you can do include strength training which helps to keep the muscles strong, cardiovascular exercises which strengthen both the lungs and the heart, and stretching which makes us be flexible.
• Drinking a lot of water. It is from a very informed point of view that health professionals recommend that we should drink a minimum of eight glasses of water per day. Water acts as a natural cleanser for our digestive system and our organs so the more water we drink per day the more toxins we help to get rid of from our bodies either via sweat or urine.

 Here are the top health benefits that practicing yoga has to offer

1. Practicing yoga can improve your flexibility, strength, and posture

Practicing yoga can improve your overall muscle strength, flexibility and posture. The muscles you build while practicing yoga can lower the risk of injury involved in other sports and could help to lower back pain and other joint problems.

2. Practicing yoga can improve weight loss and help you maintain a healthy weight

Practicing yoga can lower the level of stress hormone known as cortisol in human body. Constant stress and anxiety can drive up the level of fat hormone or cortisol. However, practicing yoga can help to calm your nervous system and improve weight loss.

3. Practicing yoga can help to improve your immune system

Practicing yoga can improve your overall health by improving the blood circulation and nervous system. Yoga can also help to lower the risk of many chronic and degenerative diseases and boost your immune system.

4. Practicing yoga can improve memory and brain function

The stretching and breathing techniques that involves yoga can help to improve your memory capacity and concentration. In fact, research shows that yoga can improve memory and lower the risk of Alzheimer’s and cognitive problems.

5. Practicing yoga can improve your mental health