Make the most of the start of spring by trying a new outdoor activity.
As we wave goodbye to winter and welcome in spring (which officially starts next week), now’s the time to get out into the great outdoors.
Here are three fun, healthy activities to try as the days get longer, warmer and brighter.
Play padel
Try your hand at the fastest-growing sport in the world: padel (pronounced paddle).
It’s fun and sociable and will improve your coordination, mobility and aerobic fitness.
Padel originated in Mexico in the 1960s and is hugely popular in Spain.
Like tennis, it involves hitting a ball over a net with a racquet. Unlike tennis, it’s always played as doubles, and you can serve underarm.
A padel court is smaller than a standard tennis court and enclosed on all sides (the ball is allowed to bounce off the walls).
There are 500 padel courts in the UK already, with plans to build 1,000 more, so look out for one near you.
Try geocaching
This high-tech version of orienteering is a fun, free way to explore the outdoors, especially if you love treasure hunting.
Here’s how it works. A cache – a waterproof container containing a logbook and sometimes trinkets – is hidden in a random location. The coordinates of the cache are then posted online.
Geocachers navigate to the location (using a phone app) and search for the cache.
Once you find the cache, you open it, sign the logbook and trade trinkets. You then return the cache to its original location.
There are more than 3 million geocaches around the world. Find one near you, by visiting www.geocaching.com.
Walk like a Finn
Walking is a great, low-impact workout. But why not take things up a notch by following in the footsteps of our (superfit) Nordic neighbours?
Nordic walking – walking with the aid of poles that look like ski stocks – originated in Finland and has long been popular in Scandinavia.
While it may look a tad unusual, Nordic walking burns more calories than regular walking (because you’re using your core, shoulders and arms to propel the poles).
Furthermore, the poles help spread the load, so there is less pressure on the knees and hips.
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