Fun, free exercises for February

With New Year’s resolutions long forgotten, you’ll either be raring to go or lost in a lull. If January pay day also took a long time to come round and you’re not in a position to splash the cash on a new fitness challenge or regime, we’ve got you covered. Here are some fun, free exercises for February to keep your fitness up and the feel good factor high.

Are ready to have some fitness fun?

Kitchen disco

Perhaps you’re already doing this on a Friday night to liven up lockdown, but if not, invest in a disco light, flick off the main lights and turn up the tunes. Fans of Sophie Ellis Bextor may already have discovered her regular Friday night disco lives on Instagram (@sophieellisbextor). Let’s make shapes, no-one is watching, and what better fun, free exercises to kickstart the weekend?!

Fly a frisbee

Find a field and a friend (or your dog) and fly that frisbee high. If you can’t find either, run or walk to pick up the frisbee and go again. You’ll be warm and working on your fitness and getting a decent upper body workout while you’re at it. 

Pack a ball and hit the park

Take your pick of balls or pack a few and head to your local park. Practise your keepy uppies, your cricket bowling technique, or play catch with the kids. The fresh air and freedom are yours for the taking, and you’ll be surprised just how many muscles you use.

Walk and talk

Walking with friends is a given as far as a fun, free exercises go, but have you tried power walking and networking? Or even just taking that next call while out on a walk. The movement will do your body and mind equal good, and if you forewarn the caller of your plan, they might even join you for a walk at their end too. For those of you in Oxfordshire, Jackie Jarvis (@walkingbusinesscoachjackiej on Insta) is a huge advocate of walking and talking wellbeing. 

Do your dance

Pick your preferred dance style, line up your favourite tunes to match and make up your own dance workout. That said, you’ll probably find myriad dance workouts to move along to on YouTube, just take a few minutes to research first. 

Take a hike

Different people have different takes on how to walk. Some like to saunter. Some like to power walk. How about a hike? Take a steady state approach to distance walking over whatever variety of terrain you can find on your doorstep. Lace up your boots or sturdy trainers and have a map to hand!

Skip it out

Skipping or rope jumping has become one of the fitness world’s hit workouts in recent years. For seriously fun, free exercises get yourself a weighted jump rope, or just some plain old rope, and get jumping. Lauren Jumps (@lauren.jumps on Instagram) started skipping during Lockdown 1 and now has nearly 200K followers on the grid – check out her moves, tips and tricks. 

Strike a pose

Never has staying still been so valuable to your fitness and wellbeing as when holding a yoga pose. Ramp up the stretch factor by introducing some balance poses to your flow – from a hip opening stretch into a crow, head down and into a headstand.

Borrow a dog

Maybe it’ll motivate you to run rather than walk. Maybe it’ll just help out a neighbour in need. Either way, borrowing a dog to get you outside and moving, it’s one of those fun, free exercises open to all. Just pick up the phone or knock on your neighbour’s door and get going. 

Do the hula hula

Gone are the days when a cheap plastic hoop was slung around your waist loosely with little control. You can still make use of that one lurking in the garage or shed and join in an online workout for a fun, free core workout. And if you find you have the knack, grab yourself a weighted hoop and make it part of your regime.

Scavenger hunt

If the word ‘walk’ is banned from your family’s vocabulary after one too many lockdown exercise outings on foot, hit the track hunting for nature’s finest offerings. Set a time limit, draw up a list of things to find, photograph or bring home, and make way on foot or by bike. Fun, free exercises for the whole family, time and again. 

Hop to it

Retro games are all the rage and can make fun, free exercises too. Find some chalk and etch out hop scotch, add in a skipping rope to the hopping to ramp things up a little. You’ll be surprised how much of a workout you get from hopping and balancing – plyometrics workout, eat your heart out!

Scrub up a sweat

Sad but true, spring cleaning and scrubbing is one hell of a workout and costs you nothing. You’ll certainly want a lie down after vacuuming under the sofa and swiping a cloth along the skirting boards. 

Monkey around

Think like a kid and you’ll find fun, free exercise ideas right on your doorstep. Head to your nearest park or outdoor gym and jump on the monkey bars, pull some chin-ups on the bars, use the incline bars for tricep dips or balance work, and then stretch everything out with a jog around the perimeter to finish off. 

Trampolining

Remember that expensive bouncy thing you put in the garden a few years ago that sporadically attracts the attention of the smalls? It’s calling you now. Trampolines are a quick, easy and free route to exercising more muscles than you thought – especially if you’ve been through childbirth!

Board games for the body

Spice up your weekend nights in with an active approach to entertaining. Warm up with a round or two of excessively animated charades and put your core to the test with a bout or three of Twister. Water is the recommended drink of choice for exercise, but we understand if, on this occasion, you opt for something stronger!

Homeschool sports day

Why not? We’re pretty sure you’ve got eggs, spoons, black sacks, and some rope. Fun, free exercises with kids might stretch to wheelbarrow races and the long jump. Throw in some welly wanging for an upper body workout too.

Fun, free exercise ideas for all

We’ve tried to inject some fun into this list to demonstrate that movement doesn’t have to mean sweating buckets and braving the February freeze. What’s important is that everyone just keeps on moving, in body and mind. We hope these fun, free exercises bring some delight round your way. 

Share what you get up with us on the FitFest Oxford social channels – you might inspire us to try something new too: Facebook – Instagram – Twitter.

Enjoyed reading this? Share with others to have some fun too: