Yes, we’re aware that we’re a fitness blog, and travel posting should really be left to the professionals in that area. But who said we’re giving you a travel guide here?
What we simply want to do is give you a list of adventures to go on right here in our beloved, sunny (on most days), side of the earth. With some tips on how they keep you fit. Sounds interesting to you? Then read on.
You see, we just thought that; yeah, we’re fit (or trying to get there), we’re active, and somehow intermeshed with all the active lifestyle and insatiable thirst for working out is an equally insatiable yearning for adventure.
This is us figuring out that we want to go on adventures. And we want to go on tons of them, and we want to have the maximum level of fun on them.
These adventures often entail a lot of walking for long periods of time, lugging around heavy bags, some water sports action, and a lot of other activities. Activities that are physically demanding and may entail a need for some level of fitness and understanding of body mechanics for you to fully enjoy.
So if we may, we’d like to round up some adventures us Filipinos love going on and here’s the twist; we’re telling you what physical attribute they work out specifically and how to work-out to improve your abilities to execute these activities.
1. Surfing
A popular one here in the Philippines, mainly due to the fact that there are at least three epic surfing spots that are less than a day’s drive away from the metro. It’s definitely fun, and it’s definitely a workout (I mean… have you seen the abs on those surf instructors??) and a full-body workout, at that.
From paddling out to pushing up from the board, jumping to stance, and controlling your balance, surfing demands much from your body. So don’t be surprised if you’re greeted by sore muscles in the morning.
The workout it offers: full-body
Key areas you should workout to improve:Balance and coordination, arm strength, (a lot of) core, and a touch of lower body strength.
How to do it:
• For balance and coordination – try your hand at balance boards. Or if balance boards are unavailable to you, a bit of yoga practice helps with this. Yoga will also help you understand your body mechanics better, and improve your coordination.
• Arm strength – your regular push-ups will be enough for this. If you want to step it up, you can also include rows. For the paddling out, work your shoulders and upper arms. Try a few reps of shoulder presses, tricep curls, side lateral arm raises, as well as front arm raises.
• Core – engaging your core will help keep you upright on that board. So to work this out, of course you have your planks; full planks and side planks. You can also do different variations of crunches (upper abdomen) and leg raises (lower abdomen).
• Lower body strength – you’re going to have strong hips and legs to control that board and not get swallowed up by that swell. To improve in these areas, you can turn to your simple sumo and front squats. For the hips, you can do kettlebell swings and hip raises.
2. Wakeboarding
Surged to popularity in the Philippines circa 2013, wakeboarding is a specific activity you can do at wakeboard parks where you’re pulled by mechanically-operated cables.
Although that’s the more popular method of doing this activity, it can also be done at beaches where the water is calmer, and the boarder is pulled by a jet ski. Since you’ll be holding on to a cable for a significant amount of time, grip and arm, as well as lower body strength is also important here. Especially if you want to progress into a trickster.
The workout it offers: full-body
Key areas you should workout to improve: grip, arm, and lower body strength
How to do it:
• Grip and arm strength – the force that your arms go against here is a pull. So you should do workouts that will strengthen your counter-pull on the cable. For grip, have a go at your dead hangs, pull-ups, kettlebell walks, and kettlebell raises.
• Lower body strength – to improve your push and control on the wakeboard, you can again turn to your squats and hip exercises for this.
3. Skin or free-diving
This activity has recently gained popularity with the weekend warriors because of the amazing underwater photos that people put up on their social media feeds. The view of the deeper blue enthralled and amazed people so much that everyone started signing up for starter pool sessions with certified skin-diving schools in the Philippines. It’s fun, exciting, and the mystery of the deep just pulls you in. If you want to do this on your next adventure, it fairly easy to get a foothold on. Added bonus: you don’t have to know how to swim. You just need to be able to hold your breath and kick well with those fins. And while it isn’t as physically demanding as the first two water sports we’ve talked about, it does however heavily workout a different aspect: mental fortitude.
The workout it offers: light lower body and core, heavy mental conditioning
Key areas you should workout to improve:
• Mental fortitude – you don’t want to be panicking, because panicking makes breathing rapid, and you need to be able to hold your breath for extended periods of time for this. The key to working this out is meditation. Learn to focus on your breaths (or calming yourself).
• Lung capacity – any cardio exercise will do. Try running, spinning, and—if you can—some laps in the pool.
• Leg power – again, your squats are life. Also, try working your glutes with backward and side leg raises (you can add a resistance band for an extra challenge)
4. Hiking
One of my personal favorites. Hiking in the Philippines is one that everyone should do at least once in their life, because we have so many lovely mountains here. And even if not every mountain provides a grandeur view up at the summit like Mt. Pulag’s famous sea of clouds, every climb is worth it. You’ll need strong legs, and if you’re going to camp up in the mountains for a few days, you’ll also need a strong back and core, because you’ll be hauling a lot of stuff up.
The workout it offers: heavy lower body and core workout
Key areas you should workout to improve:
• Back – I won’t mention core workouts anymore, because that would be redundant. To workout your back, you can do barbell deadlifts, bent-over barbell deadlifts, wide-grip cable rows, and dumbbell rows.
• Leg workouts – the movement here is different. It’s an upward motion, so you might need to change-up your squats into jump squads. Forward and backward lunges and box-jumps will be very helpful here.
5. Rock Climbing
Although rock climbing out in the wild isn’t as popular here as it is in countries like the US, there are however, a lot of rock-climbing gyms that opened up in the metro that helped introduce this activity to Filipinos. These gyms even offer on-field classes where they teach you to climb actual rocks in nature. To excel in this activity, grip and arm strength is very important. And maybe a few callouses here and there so it’s not too painful to grab onto those rocks.
The workout it offers: heavy upper body workout
Key areas you should workout to improve:
• Grip – refer to grip workout at the wakeboard section
• Arms – refer also to the wakeboard section
• Shoulders – for shoulders, your pull-ups will help you greatly here. Because of course you can just depend on the pushing force of your legs to move you up that wall.
• Back and core – refer to hiking and surfing sections for this.
So, there you have it! A short list of adventures, but very rich in workout tips. With this, we hope to hear you guys doing better—or even trying these activities for the first time because this helped you to better prepare for them. If you have other insane local adventures you want us to look into, let us know in the comments section!
