Top six indoor sports to escape the cold

“It’s too cold, I’m not going outside today,” I think everyone has used the weather as an excuse to not exercise. We get you, it takes a lot of guts to pluck up the courage to go on a jog or take part in your favourite outdoor sport when it’s freezing outside.

When you think about it, there are actually plenty of indoor sports out there including basketball, badminton, squash, martial arts, swimming, ping pong and more. But if you fancy something a little bit different, how about you take up one of these sports:

Futsal

Futsal is translated as ‘indoor football’ and was started in 1930 when a teacher in Uruguay invented an indoor version of football as an activity in YMCAs. It’s played between two teams of five players on a hard court smaller than a football pitch. A Futsal ball is smaller and harder than a regular football.

Futsal is a great aerobic activity which helps improve lung capacity, overall strength, muscle tone and lowers body fat. As well as all this, futsal is also good for your overall wellbeing, encouraging teamwork and improving communication skills.

Trampolining

Not only is jumping around on a trampoline a great way to have fun, but it’s also an even better way of getting exercise! Trampolining increases your heart rate and pumps more oxygen around the body, as your overall body fat can be reduced by jumping, this form of exercise is great for toning up muscles and improving coordination.

As well as improving overall fitness, trampolining is great for reducing stress and anxiety, thanks to the endorphins released by the brain. What’s more, if you bring a group of friends, you can have a great day out and get some exercise without having to psych yourself up for it.

Indoor Climbing

Rock climbing is considered a total body workout that tests your endurance, strength, agility and balance. Climbing can lower your BMI, decrease your body fat and improve flexibility.

Not only is it a great way of keeping fit, but it’s good for increasing mental strength, rock climbing encourages problem-solving for example, working out your route and where to place your hands and feet. Rock climbing is also a great confidence builder, reaching the top is a great achievement which is bound to do wonders for mental health and stress relief.

Volleyball

Not just reserved for the beach on a hot day, volleyball can be played all-year-round! Volleyball can be played both indoors and outdoors, it’s a great sport played between two teams of 6 players. Playing volleyball is a great way to stay in shape and it helps burn calories which leads to a healthy weight.

Volleyball also improves strength and builds muscles because you’re using your legs to jump up and your arms to hit the ball over the net.

Dodgeball

This one may remind you of school, but dodgeball is a great stress buster and improves your strength from throwing, ducking, and diving. As its name suggests, the idea of the game is to dodge a ball thrown by the opposite team.

This sport improves your overall agility, flexibility and balance as you’re twisting to avoid getting hit by the ball. Dodgeball also improves hand-eye coordination because you need to keep an eye on the ball at all times when dodging and throwing.

Clubbercise

The ‘70s brought us aerobics, in the 90’s there was Zumba, now we have clubbercise, a mixture of the two but with glow sticks! Imagine a dark room with disco lighting and people dancing wearing trainers and not heels, that’s clubbercise. Not only is this type of exercise class based indoors, but it’s also a very relaxed way of exercising with other people who want to have fun at the same time. What’s more, you’re in a dark room so no one can see you anyway so you don’t feel judged.