The Fit Parade
50 ways to have fun and stay fit
By Roger Brooks, Courtney Nash, Jim Gullo, Meri-Jo Borzilleri, and Jessica VoelkerWith contribution from Jena Vuylsteke, Erin Pursell, Laura Peach, Lee Fehrenbacher, Stefan Durham, and Bill Thorness
11 | Get In the Pool
Water Aerobics
Gear required Bathing suit, goggles (aqua gloves optional).
Vanity value Leave the “workout of the week” to trendier friends: You’re all about bathing with the blue-hairs.
You’re all wet if you think that water aerobics are for sissies. It puts less stress on your joints than regular aerobics, and at the Pro Sports Club’s multipurpose pool in Bellevue, the action is fast and relentless during 55-minute H2O Cardio conditioning classes—especially when instructor Kari leads the workout. You’ll run in place, kick, work upper-body muscles with resistance bands, and race from one side of the pool to the other.
Pro Sports Club, 4455 148th Ave NE, Bellevue, 425-885-5566; proclub.com
“I love water, it’s a natural place to be,
and I can get a great, all-around workout.”
—Laura Liedtker, Redmond
12 | Befriend a Beach
Shoreline Work Parties
Gear required “Get dirty” clothes.
Vanity value Beautify the beach while working your bod.
You can’t tell by looking, but the shorelines along Lake Washington and Puget Sound are starved for healthy-beach essentials like sediment to hold down sand and trees planted near the water line. Fortunately, Seattle Parks and Recreation organizes volunteers into restorative work parties where they dig holes, push gravel-filled wheelbarrows, and rip out invasive vines. There are also less strenuous tasks, like spreading mulch, so bring along family and friends of all strengths and sizes.
Seattle Parks and Recreation, 206-615-0961; seattle.gov
13 | Take a Ride in the Park
Biking Seward Park
Gear required Bike, helmet.
Vanity value Give your kid something to boast about at school on Monday.
“When you slide down the east side of Bailey Peninsula, it’s like you’ve left the city,” says rider Tom Deen of Seward Park’s thumb-shaped landmark. The flat, paved 2.4-mile lakeside loop is a great place for kids to test their cycling skills or for adults to get their wheels back under them. No through traffic means fewer crowds and easy parking. Out on the trails, clamoring city noise gives way to the whispering branches of towering Doug firs.
Seward Park, 5902 Lake Washington Blvd S, Seward Park, 206-684-4396; seattle.gov
14 | Pummel Your Pals
Dodgeball
Gear required Matching colored T-shirts.
Vanity value Hone your aim with socially acceptable target practice.
Line up in a gym, avoid a speeding ball, and then—joy of joys—fire it back at the person who threw it at you. Then go have a beer. At Underdog Sports Leagues, grown-ups are reclaiming the age-old game of dodgeball, but with some 45 teams playing on three different nights, this is no low-key pickup game. If you have a sudden urge to hide in your locker, consider this: Games are strictly refereed, and everyone wins a prize at the postgame parties held at sponsoring bars.
Underdog Sports Leagues, 206-320-8326; underdogseattle.com
15 | Align Your Spine
Gyrokinesis
Gear required Comfortable clothing.
Vanity value An organized body is an attractive one.
Gyrotonic Seattle was the first studio of its kind in the region, founded more than 20 years ago by former Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Magali Messac. Group gyrokinesis classes unlock your spine and “organize” your body through integration of flexibility, strength, and body awareness. Using a stool and a floor mat students are led through breathing and fluid wavelike movements that undulate the spine. Best of all, you’ll feel revitalized—not beat up—postworkout.
Gyrotonic Seattle, 7409 Greenwood Ave N, Greenwood, 206-784-7895; gyrotonicseattle.com
“Physically, gyrokinesis offers a sense
of exhilaration and an ecstatic, whole-person sense of strength.”
—Jeanne Barrett, Phinney Ridge
16 | Seek and Hide
Geocaching
Gear required Computer with Internet access, GPS device, sturdy shoes or hiking boots.
Vanity value Earn bragging rights with tech lovers and tree huggers alike.
A game of high-tech hide-and-seek may not sound like a fitness challenge: Plug coordinates from Geocaching.com into your GPS device and then go find the cache that’s been hidden there. Return home, hop online, and log your success. Piece of cake—unless the cache is tucked away at 10,000 feet near Mount Rainier’s Camp Muir. Many cache owners craft strenuous routes (check the site for difficulty ratings) and, with over 11,000 caches in Washington alone, a geocache hike promises nature, scenery, and a tailor-made workout.
Geocaching, geocaching.com
17 | Give the Gift of Green
Tree Planting
Gear required Shovel, watering can, potting soil, gardening gloves, knee pads, tarp, wheelbarrow, neighbors’ phone numbers.
Vanity value Help keep the city—and your biceps and deltoids—beautiful.
Dig (deep) hole, lift and plant tree, fill hole. Water, rinse, and repeat until your neighborhood is greener and you feel a pleasant ache in your muscles. The Department of Neighborhoods’ Tree Fund delivers the trees directly to your hood, ready to stick in the ground. All you have to do is apply as a group, show up for a two-hour tutorial, and plant and care for the trees.
Department of Neighborhoods’ Tree Fund, 700 Fifth Ave, Ste 1700, Downtown, 206-684-0719; seattle.gov
“We thank our trees every day for the safety and security they provide and the many hours of aerobic exercise and rotting mulch their leaves provide when raked and composed.” —Chris Hennessy, Ballard
18 | Live Your Hoop Dreams
Hula-Hoop Aerobics
Gear required Comfy clothing (instructor provides hoops).
Vanity value Hula moves are surprisingly sexy.
Susan Chace, owner of HoopDelite, reminds you how much fun resides in a sparkly plastic circle. Seattle’s only instructor certified in the “HoopGirl” method leads giggling students through moves like the Wild West (twirling the hoop, lasso style, above the head) and Limbo (leaning back while spinning the hoop around the waist to create a vertical loop). Sign up online for a six-week session (held at Denali Fitness in Interbay and Sonny Newman’s Dance Center in Greenwood). Your inner child—and your waistline—will thank you.
HoopDelite, 206-697-5339; hoopdelite.com
19 | Be Naughty
Urban Strip Tease (Women Only)
Gear required Gym clothing.
Vanity value Your significant other will fall at your (bare, seductively pointed) feet.
Tricia Murphy—guru of gyrations at Denali Fitness—won’t actually make you strip, but she does ask that you shake your booty. The moves that make up her hour-long class (free with membership or $15 for drop-ins) are more Britney Spears than Lusty Lady, and women who blush at performing butt pops and pelvic thrusts should know that when the studio doors are closed and the lights are lowered, no one will see how much fun they’re having.
Denali Fitness, 3257 16th Ave W, Ste A, Interbay, 206-282-7400. 3130 E Madison St, Ste 104, Madison Park, 206-325-3300; denalifitness.com
20 | Hit the Rinks
Roller Fitness
Gear required Roller skates.
Vanity value Go low for the limbo and laugh when you fall—skating is so much better without the teenage angst.
It’s time to pull your old four-corner, rainbow-colored skates out of the closet. The reincarnated version of the roller rink has folded in hip-hop, Christian music, and other surprises to that ’70s soundtrack you remember. Bellevue Skate King’s roller-fitness classes test strength and coordination. If you don’t sport a Y chromosome the twice-weekly ad-hoc “Potential Fresh Meat” sessions welcome women who seek a boost of moxie and the fitness benefits of a roller-derby workout.
Bellevue Skate King, 2301 140th Ave NE, Bellevue, 425-641-2046; bellevueskateking.homestead.com. Potential Fresh Meat, sports.groups.yahoo.com
Published: March 2008