10 fun sports to get in shape for the start of the school year!

The benefits of regular sports practice have a direct – positive – impact on your health: cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular fitness, better bone condition, reduced risk of illness and depression(1).

But if running or the traditional office football team bores you, you still need to find an activity that matches your physical condition, your personality and your desires. Between combat sports developed by the Israeli army and the Harry Potter fan game of running with a broom between your legs, here is a selection of 10 sports funoriginal and excellent for the form!

Sports fun – #1 le Yoga paddle

The yoga paddle, you paddle board yoga is a mix of surfing and yoga. Balancing on a board you must perform several postures from yoga. While maintaining the physiological benefits of yoga, particularly in terms of tone, paddle yoga allows you to focus on balance. Standing, sitting, or lying down, the simple fact of being on the board will work all of your muscles in an imperceptible way.

The environment for practicing the yoga paddle is enjoyable since it takes place in a swimming pool in winter, or on bodies of water. However, bring a swimsuit or suitable clothing, because during the lessons, there is a good chance that you will fall into the water at least once!

Note that the practice is not recommended for people with back or hip problems.

Sports fun – #2 le Pound

Indoor sport, the Pound is becoming the fitness star across Europe ! Mixing music and movements, Pound is practiced with sticks called ” ripstix ” Originating from the United States, this sport promises 45 minutes of effort to the rhythm of wild music.

If the use of sticks brings a very playful side, reminiscent of drums, each session allows you to work the muscles in isometry, and as for Pilates with several angles. Zumba fans will appreciate this new feature!

Apart from the benefits on your coordination, this will allow you to burn up to 500 calories per hour.

Sports fun – #3 le Skwalball

The Skwalball is a team sport inspired by handball, but also football and volleyball.

Two teams of six compete on a handball court to score against a goalkeeper. The ball is the same as used in beach volleyball, but to make things more complicated, points must be scored only by hitting the ball on the volley with the hand, head or feet.(2).

Strategy is therefore essential!

Sports funs – #4 le Body combat

Body-combat comes to us from New Zealand, a choreographed fitness class combining boxing, karate and capoeira. After a warm-up, the body-combat session alternates between cardiovascular work and combat simulation sequences. A class generally ends with core and muscle strengthening exercises.

Sport of high intensitybody-combat helps to strengthen speed and agility while channeling stress.

Sports fun – #5 le Kinball

Team sport very dynamic and spectacularin full development, Kin-ball pits 3 teams of 4 players against each other on a square field 20 meters on each side, who compete for an enormous ball 1.22 m in diameter weighing barely a kilo. The principle: serve the ball and name the team with the most points on the scoreboard, so that it cannot receive it before it touches the ground.

If the target team does not recover the ball, the other two teams each score a point. Otherwise, the dynamics of the game continue and the team that received the ball serves it again, making sure to call one of the other two teams.

A cooperative sport, it requires each team of 4 players to be constantly activeboth in attack and defense. The appeal: the ball strikes, the tactical and technical aspect, the slides during defensive receptions, the speed of execution and the reaction speed.

Accessible to all, from 8 years old, Kin-ball was created in 1986 in Quebec. It is played today in Canada, France, Belgium, Switzerland, but also in Japan, China…

Sports fun – #6 la Slackline

Until recently, walking in balance on a tightrope was thought to be reserved for circus tightrope walkers. Today, this difficult exercise, which requires concentration and great self-controlreinforcing the gainage muscles, is rapidly gaining popularity. Especially thanks to the film Flight of the Frenchiespresented in the video above, which features French fans of slack jumpinga spectacular derivative.

Basically, the slackline is a strip stretched between two points, which we will try to cross by walking in balance. The slack jumpingit’s the same thing, except that we parachute jump of the line. If this derivative is not for beginners, the slackline is accessible to everyone and requires only patience and a minimum of caution to prevent dangerous falls.

Sports fun – #7 le Krav maga

Practicing a martial art or self-defense to stay in shape, nothing revolutionary, you might think. However, with the Krav Magahand-to-hand combat takes on a much more efficient look. And so some will worry: do I really want to do a combat sport, which is also effective, to be in shape?

First consideration: The method, originally developed by Imi Sde-Or (Lichtenfeld) for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other national security services, has since been suitable for the needs of civilian use. So it’s not about turning yourself into a security agent ready to neutralize your enemies.

Moreover, the method has been designed in such a way that everyone, young or old, man or woman, can use it regardless of their physical abilities.

Furthermore, Krav Maga is a self defense system characterized by its simplicity. Its system is logical, and therefore easy to learn and memorize. If it will allow you to better prevent stressful situations, to use common objects to defend yourself (pen, newspaper, umbrella, etc.) and to defend yourself against an attack with bare hands or with armed hands, it will also be, like any art martiala great way to get in shape, develop your flexibility and coordination.

Sports fun – #8 Lacrosse

This sport, widely practiced in North America – it is called Lacrosse in English – but little in Europe, is a direct heritage of Native Americanswhich they practiced in the Great Lakes and northeastern United States regions since the 11th century.

The principle is simple: players use a crosse – a small net at the end of a stick a little shorter than a stick hockey – to put a ball into the opponent’s goal, on a field equivalent to an ice hockey field. Again recent in France or Belgiumthe sport is very popular in the United States and Canada.

The merits: The Crosse requires a very high speed of movementa large dexterity in the handling of the stick, and, for those who like sports of contactlike hockey, a contact that is frank to say the least. Those who have never attended a Lacrosse game will be surprised to see the opponents hitting each other on the shoulders or the head. But the blows do not hurt: the players are very well protected! The goal is to dislodge the ball from the opponent’s net, and to recover it.

So a dynamic, fun and technical team sport!

Sports fun – #9 Quidditch moldu

Do you remember the Harry Potter saga, and the wild matches of Quidditchthat sport in which two teams, flying on their magic brooms, compete for an equally magical ball, the Golden Snitch? Well, now you can play it too!

Muggle Quidditch, or quidditch au solan adaptation by North American students for non-magicians of the game invented by JK Rowling, opposes two teams of 7 players who must pass a ball through one of the three rings located at the end of the field, before another ball, symbolizing the Golden Snitch, is caught. Special feature: Players run with a broom – or a simple stick – between their legs !

Harry Potter fans, players both on the field and in spirit will be attracted by the playful nature of this game, which is developing, with international competitions having already been organized, under the aegis of the very official International Quidditch Association.

Sports fun – #10 Ultimate

Frisbee, a beach sport for children? Think again! With Ultimate, you will run… Identical to rugby in principle: two teams of 7 players (but it can also be played 5 against 5) pass the frisbee around until they reach the end zone at the other end of the field. The player in possession of the disc may throw it in any direction he chooses, but he must pass it to a member of his team within ten seconds. Once he has possession of the ball, he must not walk again.

Coordination, cardio, strategyet very little equipment required apart from a good frisbee: this sport can be practiced anywhere and easily.

For those who don’t like contact sports like Lacrosse, no physical contact is allowed here. And fair play is required: like all disc games, Ultimate is played without referee.

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