8 More Geeky Ways to Stay in Shape
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Article by: Geek Girl Mistress Zelda
Word on the street is that geeks are sexier than ever, and the whole world is starting to realize it. If you want to get healthy while still letting your geek flag fly, I previously gave you 6 cool ways to do so. Turns out there are a ton of options out there, so here are 8 more awesomely geeky opportunities!
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1. Zombie Paintball
Zombie Runs aren’t the only game in town! Anyone who has played paintball before knows what a good workout it is – the combination of running, shooting, ducking, dodging and hiding gives you a great, well-rounded cardio workout. But did you know you can play paintball while also having some totally badass nerd wish-fulfillment? None of us really want the zombie apocalypse to occur, but most of us have wondered how well we’d do on the off-chance it did. Zombie paintball gives you the opportunity to see if your sharpshooting skills and stamina are up to snuff, all while being (mostly) harmless to yourself and others.
There are several zombie paintball locations around the US and abroad – some year round and some only during the Halloween holiday. Don’t be fooled by the ones that drive you around on a tram and let you shoot zombies – no work-out there!
Image Source
Here is a fun zombie paintball game that was put on by Mk3 in Quebec, Canada:
2. Parkour
Admittedly, it is hard to imagine parkour as a geeky activity. People who can pull off freerunning are masters of their bodies, almost inhuman in their athletic ability. Martial artists are seemingly from a world entirely their own – how can the average person ever hope to become a freerunner?
Luckily, largely in part because of the popularity of games like Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, and Tomb Raider, freerunning academies have been popping up in the states. Think they aren’t targeted at geeks? I beg to differ. Out here in California we have 3 Tempest Academies, which teach classes to folks of all ages and skill levels. They are decked out from floor to ceiling in amazing nerdy badassery. Who wouldn’t feel like a video game protagonist flying through these walls?
There are several Mario themed areas,
Some decked out 8bit Minecraft walls,
As well as several less geek-centrically themed areas, everything from airplanes, Italian mountainside villages, to giant pools full of foam blocks. If you want to see the full gym, they have
a really neat virtual tour on their website, and they also released a super fun video a few years back when they opened their flagship location.
3. Mermaiding
It is likely that if you were a child in the past century you have watched Disney movies, which may led to a burning desire to become a mermaid. So lovely, so free, so graceful in the ocean! If water workouts are you thing, there are a ton of aerobic classes that focus on mermaids! Swimmable mermaid tails with a monofin can go from anywhere between $70-$2000 depending on style, materials, and quality. Some spots that teach classes offer rentals if you don’t want to commit to buying one. They are a lot more affordable than they once were, so now anyone can be a mermaid (or merman)! It will require you to have the monofin for the full workout experience – it is great for your core.
Gillykins wrote an article about
her experience with AquaMermaid, and you can also check out one of the videos here:
Image Source: Hotel Del Coronado
4. Geocaching
If there is one thing the world doesn’t have enough of nowadays, its
adventure. Those of us who grew up with movies like The Goonies have dreamed of unearthing a treasure map and ultimately TREASURE! Geocaching takes that idea and makes it possible. It’s exercise with a sense of discovery, mystery and community. Geocaching is geeky because it combines the use of technology with treasure-hunting, DIY and hiking. From the
Geocaching website:
“Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at the location.”
Geocaches can be located anywhere, but they are often found along nature paths and hiking trails, so it’s a great way to get outdoors while still being tethered to your technology device. The only real rule is that you bring something fun and interesting (and small) to put into the cache. You can take something out that was left there by others, only if you leave something fun behind yourself. Honor system! If you go on Youtube, you can see videos of people discovering some really cool items in the geocaches – you never know what people will leave behind.
Here is an overview video if you are interested in learning more:
5. Pokemon Go/Ingress
While most of the hype surrounding Pokemon Go has come and gone, that doesn’t stop it from being a fun excuse to get out of your house and walk around. Do you remember the first person who completed his Pokedex and was flown to Japan and Australia to find the remaining exclusives?
He lost 8 pounds within the first month of playing.
Pokemon not your thing? That’s fine, the company who created the game (Niantic) actually had a similar Augmented Reality mobile-fueled game out several years before, called Ingress.
Ingress is a location-based mobile game that has a sci fi dark future dystopian cyberpunk kind of feel. It’s all about corporate espionage and intrigue, and honestly it has a lot more features than Pokemon Go.
Word on the street is that there is even a Harry Potter themed location-based AR game in the works from the same company, so you know. Get out and walk. And also play games. And catch Pokemon, or hack uplinks, or soon train in wizarding schools.
Here’s a good side by side comparison of the two games:
And here is
literally thousands of people gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House playing Pokemon Go. If you walk around areas in your neighborhood with many Pokestops, you are still pretty likely to run into a large contingent of people playing (which is a fun excuse to meet and talk to likeminded neighbors!)
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6. Asphalt Green/Nerdstrong
If you’re still looking for a traditional gym experience with just a touch of the geekery, themed gyms have begun popping up the last couple years. One of the more interesting is called Asphalt Green in NYC, which combines their workout space with gameified technology, making it look like a yoga class inside an arcade. It’s a super fun concept and I hope it catches on more places (although personally I’d still rather there be a “Nickelodeon in the 90s themed gym because I really want to climb the Aggro Crag and play bungie cord basketball and run an obstacle course that looks like an Aztec village or run a relay that includes a giant nose. Why isn’t that a thing yet? Make it happen, internet).
A video showing some of the features of the gym:
Here in Los Angeles we aren’t quite so tech-heavy, but we do have a location just for us called Nerdstrong Gym. The classes are targeted at nerds, following themes like pop culture, musicals, movies, comics, heroes, and haunted houses.
From
their website:
“Nerdstrong emerges with a dual goal: creating a safe space for nerds looking to be more physically active, and attracking “scruffy-looking nerd herders” to a healthier lifestyle.”
Here is a video of
Geek and Sundry’s visit to Nerdstrong:
7. Luchador/Wrestling
Some people may say that wrestling isn’t a geeky hobby, but those people would be lying to themselves.
Definitely nothing nerdy about wrestling here, no sir.
While wrestling has often been thought of as exclusively a spectator sport, there is no reason you can’t get in on the action too. A quick Google search brings up dozens of wrestling academies where anyone can go and learn the tricks of the trade (so long as you are healthy enough to do so, of course. For as “fake” as wrestling is, the acrobatics certainly are not!) Some of the schools exist as a way to transition into actual professional wrestling (like
Santino Bros out here in SoCal), but they can also be just a fun way to work out. If you are into theatrics, acrobatics, drama, and comedy – you can learn all that at Wrestling School while staying fit. And it may even lead to you becoming a paid performer (backyard wrestling is an option too, though).
If you live in one of the heavily Hispanic parts of the world like I do, you can also opt for masked Luchador wrestling. Oftentimes Luchador the events go hand in hand with other traditionally Hispanic underground subcultures like classic cars, pinup, rockabilly, and burlesque. If you’re in Los Angeles check out
Luchavavoom and ask how you can get involved.
8. Circus and Aerial Training
Another fun, flashy performance style many of us loved growing up is the art of the circus. And with companies like
Ringling Bros closing down their animal acts in 2017, there will be an even greater need for human performers. But even if being in front of an audience isn’t your ultimate goal, you can still learn how to fly on silks, do trapeze, multi-person gymnastics, or even clowning.
Image Source: New York Circus Academy
Aerial silk classes are especially becoming popular, merging many aspects of yoga with flight. And really, who among us has never wanted to fly? Don your superhero costume and get up in those silks.
Here is a cool performance of an aerial silk performer, certainclouds, dressed as Harley Quinn:
I’ve also witnessed some really neat sky-dancers on both silks and poles dressed as Wonder Woman and Catwoman and let me tell you, it’s some of the most impressive acts of nerdery I have ever encountered! It’s graceful, daring, beautiful and empowering (and good fun for anyone of any gender!)
Article by: Geek Girl
Mistress Zelda
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March 14 2017