You may be someone who wants to work out but needs action and excitement in their exercise sessions to stay motivated. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to build your strength, speed, and endurance without getting into a gym or health club rut. Whether you prefer team sports on the field or being all by your lonesome in the great outdoors, there’s a sport that offers plenty of cardio, challenges, and thrills for you out there. Here’s a selection of sports that can get your heart pumping in multiple ways.
Rugby
If you like rough and tough team sports that you can get down and dirty in, rugby is your best choice. As the ancestor of modern football, this sport involves tackling, blocking, passing, and running, though these all fall under different rules. Another aspect that distinguishes it from football is the fact that players don’t wear protective equipment. Rugby will keep your heart rate up because it keeps you moving constantly. This is because you’re either getting away from other players or charging towards them. And you’ll doubtlessly feel the effects of pushing the other team for possession of the ball during a scrum on the following morning. Through rugby, your speed will increase, and so will your endurance. It’s also a great way to burn off aggression as well as calories!
Cycling
The beauty of bicycling is that it comes in assorted flavors. Are you competitive? Cycling offers multiple racing opportunities that you can do individually or as part of a team. Enjoy winding roads, punishing courses and weather, and the opportunity to soar for miles over endless roads? Long-distance cycling will get you outside and build up your endurance. Mountain biking may be more to your taste if you like the idea of tooling around backwoods trails and going up and down hills. Freestyle mountain biking is great if you want to perform stunts. Every cycling sport needs two pieces of equipment: a bicycle and a helmet, whether it’s a partial recreational riding helmet or a full-face mountain bike helmet. Other gear is necessary according to the respective risks in each sport. You might need to get from elbow pads or back armor, for instance.
Rock-Climbing
Enjoy hanging on to dear life by your fingertips? Rock-climbing will challenge every muscle group you’ve got while keeping your heart and lungs chugging along nicely. Start small with a basic wall at the gym and work your way up to taking on an actual cliff face in the wild. This sport demands high flexibility and incredible coordination, which you’ll need to develop quickly to avoid breaking bones. Sure, your heart might beat so fast you’ll feel it in your throat, but the view from the top makes it all worthwhile.
Hockey
Hockey is another team effort that demands synchronized reflexes, incredible hand-eye coordination, and the ability to skate and stop on a dime. As far as exercises go, hockey is perfect for building up just about every group of muscles on your body, boosting your metabolism, and using up calories like crazy. Out of all the sports that can get your heart pumping, hockey never stops—and while playing it, you won’t want to either.