New Ways To Work Out Away From The Gym

These unconventional exercise classes, held outside of the gym, offer an unusual yet rewarding experience.

- Renée Batchelor

IF YOU HATE the gym, but want to get fit, it can be a bit of a conundrum in Singapore. With searing temperatures and high humidity, not to mention the pollution from vehicles, the outdoors isn’t always the most pleasant place to work out, whether you’re looking to jog or even to do yoga in a scenic spot. Yet devotees of outdoor sports and fitness swear by these classes that allow more breathing room and a welcome escape from whichever four walls you wish to get away from.

While group runs and yoga in the park are par for the course, there are new fitness trends that have emerged — these classes utilise open spaces and outdoor structures in unusual ways — where practitioners become so immersed in what they are doing, they hardly notice the discomfort.

Nathan Williams, the head of group training at UFIT, a fitness training company that provides personal training, CrossFit classes and bootcamps, believes that everyone can benefit from some outdoor time. “Humans are meant to be outside, it’s that simple. As health professionals we should be advising our clients and friends to spend as much time in nature as possible to provide a much needed ‘system interrupt’ away from our daily, working lives. Combining nature and exercise, especially with some early day, natural sunlight can provide numerous benefits that will lead to improvements in overall health,” he says.

WAKE FOILING