Hi everyone! It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another Friday Five with Courtney, Cynthia, and Mar! This week’s topic is “Five fitness trends I’ll never try”. I feel like there are quite a few fitness trends that I immediately know I’m not going to get into no matter how much other people like them. As I learned from Pilates, not every type of workout will work for each person – everyone has different preferences, goals, and body types. I’m looking for things that will make me a better runner and make my body feel good while getting in a good workout. You might love this stuff, and that’s awesome that it works for your body and your fitness! But these 5 things just won’t work for me:
1. Bikram: I’m not a fan of super hot environments (that’s why I live in Alaska!) so 105 degree heat inside a small room with lots of sweaty people sounds awful. I think the 85 degree flow class at AY is my limit on heated yoga!
2. Crossfit: It seems too intense for me and not really what I’m looking for in a workout. Plus we all know that both runners and crossfitters both exhibit cult-like workout behavior, and I’m firmly in the running cult. I’m not leaving it for box jumps and all that jazz.
3. Zumba: I’m a terrible dancer so there is no way I’m going to try choreographed dancing designed to make me sweat!
4. Mud runs: to be fair, I’ve done one of these before. I ran the Dirty Girl Mud Run in 2013 and it was pretty awful. As a klutz I feel like I’m going to sprain my ankle from normal life things, so having to deal with obstacles was terrifying! It ended with a giant slide into mud and the slide kept getting shut down because people kept getting injured when they slammed into the bottom. Nope, not doing that again! Plus I keep reading news articles about people getting super sick from gross poop bacteria in the mud at big mud runs and that is seriously enough to keep me away from all mud for the rest of my life!
5. The beer mile: I read an article in Runner’s World about the beer mile (chugging a beer after each loop around a track for one mile while simultaneously trying to run faster than everyone else) and I could not understand how that is a thing. Beer after a 5k is totally awesome. Beer while sprinting as fast as possible is totally crazy! Also add to this one any race involving food consumption while running. I love food and I love running, but my stomach needs them to be separate!
And now that I’ve listed a bunch of stuff I’ll never do, I’d like to take a moment to list five fitness activities I’m dying to try! If you haven’t tried these, what are you waiting for?
1. Running a marathon: Okay this is not really a trend, but it’s just really hard and I want to do it someday!
2. Skiing: Either cross country or skate skiing, because both happen on flat ground. As I said before, I’m a klutz!
3. Ice skating: My balance is horrible so this will be interesting. But I bought myself skates and I’m ready for the Westchester Lagoon to freeze over in a few months so I can try them out!
4. Spin: Anchorage is FINALLY getting their first spin studio in August and even though I’ve only taken 2 spin classes in my life I’m really excited to see what our newest fitness studio will be like!
5. SUP: I bought a Groupon for this so it’s totally going to happen soon!
What fitness trend will you never try? What fitness activity have you never tried but really want to?
Mom in the Mtns 
Our lists are pretty similar. I would like to try SUP but not in the polluted river right outside my office window. People do SUP there but I can’t get past the “Warning: Raw Sewage Overflow” signs ….
Ahhhh that’s horrifying! Please don’t do SUP there!
You hit the nail on the head when you said that not every fitness activity is for everybody. We all have different goals and passions, which makes me thankful that there are so many different activities out there to try.
Amen to that! It’s hard to find what works for you sometimes, but I love that I get to try so many things in order to find what works!
I love spin and SUP hope you get to check them out soon! Happy Firday
Me too! I’m so excited to try some new things!
Everybody seems to be doing SUP these days.
I know! I want to know what all the fuss is about 🙂
I would agree to every one of these, although i’ve never heard of #1, i’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to do it!
It’s suuuuuuuper hot yoga that goes through the same poses each class. It’s supposed to be really great for you but the heat is going to keep me away for sure!
I’m with you on bikram, crossfit and mud runs. I really want to try SUP at some point! I’m hoping to get to it this summer. I’ll have to keep an eye out for a groupon.
I’m so glad I found a groupon for it! It looks like so much fun and I’m pumped to try it out!
I got an e-mail advertising the beer mile a while back, and thought it was a joke. To this day I still can’t believe it’s a real thing. I imagine it consisting of lots of people getting sick along the course. Yuck…
Ugh me too! It sounds like it would be full of vomit and spilled beer…which are two things I don’t want to smell while I’m running!
Hot yoga can be dangerous and I don’t think I would ever do that regularly!
And
you’ve never ice skated!? It’s so fun!!! I love ice skating! And of course I want to do SUP some day!
Technically I have, just not outdoors on a lake. That’s the cool thing to do here and I’m so nervous to try it! I think I’ve only gone ice skating twice before and both times I had a railing to hold onto – and I think I was still in middle school!
Cool lists! I would love to try a sprint triathlon! It’s actually most definitely going to happen within the next year (or 2). Also, on the ice skating thing.. beware!! Falling HURTS! Do NOT try to catch yourself with your hands unless you want to break your wrist. The first time I went ice skating I was surprised at how slippery it was! duh, it’s ice!! but I wish you the best of luck!!!
Yay for trying a tri! And that does not make me feel better about ice skating at all 😦 But thanks for the warning! I feel like I need lessons or something!
I do not understand the beer mile! (Or how people run one in 5 minutes.) I thought it sounded … interesting, but then read you have to chug a beer BEFORE you begin and that sounds terrible. I did a 2.4 mile beer run with stops between laps (not on a track) and we took 5 minutes between each lap and it was still insane. Plus, it was high octane craft beers. Blargh.
Wow you are brave! Great job on making it through and not puking!
Ditto to all your will-never-tries! Well, maybe I’d try Zumba once to see how it goes, but I’m uncoordinated and self-conscious so I’m assuming I might not love it. But definitely no hot yoga of any kind, no crossfit, no mud runs, and no beer miles! My running club does a pub run that’s a 5K with a required pint of beer at each mile, and there’s no way I’m doing that… that’s just asking for trouble! 🙂
That sounds almost as bad! My local running store has pub runs but the beer is optional and it’s at the end. I can’t imagine drinking while running!
Ooh I hope you enjoy spin classes now your town will get a studio! It is a great cross training exercise. Do you have an idea where you would like to run your first marathon? Philly?
That’s exactly where I’d like to run it! I’m hoping to do it next year if I’m ready 🙂
oh the beer mile sounds absolutely awful! it would most likely make me vomit, which is the exact opposite thing i want to do when running.
Yep, I would definitely be puking with you.
Beer mile! That is a good one. I used to be able to chug. Can’t chug at all and the thought of 4 beers over a mile. Blech. I agree on your others. I like warmish yoga but Bikram makes me feel so sick and dehydrated – it cannot be right for me! Enjoy your spin! And I love SUP!
That’s exactly how I feel about yoga! I don’t mind the warmth too much because I feel like my muscles love it, but if it’s labeled as “hot” I’m not going to be able to handle it.
I’m with you on all points, altho I have to say that I do work with a CrossFit coach. The work she’s done with me has made a tremendous difference in my running. So there’s that…
That’s awesome! I feel like my body would not like it, but I think it’s really cool that it helped you as a runner.
UGH to Zumba and mud runs! My friend was a fitness instructor for Zumba for a while and made me try it – I hated it! I felt so awkward, and like I wasn’t really getting a workout because I wasn’t doing it right. & mud runs…so over it. Injuries, infections. Just let me run at a normal pace and not need to scrub my shoes with a toothbrush afterwards!
I love love love spin & SUP! I don’t do them regularly, but they are fun when I get the chance. I usually stick with yoga or body pump as my form of cross training. Without them I’d never strength train or stretch enough 🙂
That’s exactly what I think about Zumba! I’m just going to be a fumbling, self conscious mess if I try it and then I’ll have to workout later that day anyways since I got nothing done. I’m glad it works for some people, but it’s definitely not my style.
Ok, I need to figure out what SUP is!! I’m not into the Zumba thing or crossfit either!
It stands for Stand Up Paddle boarding! I feel like everyone is doing it lately and I’m excited to see what it’s like.
I don’t get why we have to do HOT exercises. I do that every day when I run in the southern US. I could not produce any more sweat than I do now. No way. And, I’m not paying when I can do that for free. LOL.
Exactly! I feel like maybe people equate more sweat with a better workout, but I don’t!
True life: I got so dizzy in my first Bikram class I had to leave. Then I somehow convinced myself to go back and I LOVE it. But you really need to commit to sitting in the class the whole time (no leaving), sitting as much of it as you need, and coming back for a second or third class soon after. Your body acclimates quickly after that! But people definitely think you’re nuts for doing yoga in a class so warm.
Oh wow that’s cool that you made it work! I just get sick really easily in hot situations so I feel like I’d actually pass out for real.
My list of “will nots” is pretty similar to yours! The only thing is that I actually like Zumba! I danced all through school and college though…I have heard horror stories of Bikram and Mud runs. Can’t do it. Never.
If I was a dancer I’d totally be down! But I can barely do the YMCA so Zumba is definitely not going to happen haha.
I did warrior dash one year, and didn’t love it, but would probably do it again if enough people convinced me to.
I can relate to wanting to try skiing and ice skating. Even though we have snow 6 months out of the year, I’ve never done either.
We barely got any snow last year in Anchorage so all of the skiing lessons got cancelled, and all ice skating was “at your own risk” because the lakes were pretty thin. I’m hoping we get more of a real winter this year so I can try it out! We should both try it and see how it goes!
The beer mile seems like it would be a disaster for me! Not my thing!
Haha yes! Disaster is the best way to describe it for me too.
I am dying to try SUP!!!! and the beer mile, that’s thing? ugh… sounds like a pub crawl to me!
We both need to get on this SUP thing before the summer is over!
I’m with you on the fitness trends you WANT to try! Although I actually tried skiing once and was horrible at it, so I think I can cross that one off my list. 😉 What’s SUP though? I’ve never heard of that one!
It stands for Stand Up Paddle boarding. You’ve probably seen a ton of bloggers trying it lately – it seems so popular right now! I’m just curious to see if I actually can balance on a board haha!
You should also try SUP yoga! I did it on a lake a couple of times and it was AWESOME
That does sound awesome! I’m still working on my balance on solid ground but if there’s a place in Anchorage that offers it someday I’m totally going to try it!