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a variety of images of fitness around the world

Martial arts in Brazil, salsa dancing in Cuba, stone lifting in Iceland, sport climbing in Sardinia, gardening in Okinawa, mace swinging in India: The ways in which people the world over move their bodies are varied, full of health benefits, and pretty darn delightful.

Learning about other cultures often brings unexpected gifts. Whether you travel to far-flung locales or embark on an international journey through a recipe or book, each voyage is an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone, discover hidden skills and interests, and build awareness and empathy, both for yourself and the world around you.

On any trip, there are many cul­tural elements to behold: language, food, art, literature, music, architec­ture, religion, government, and even local perspectives on timeliness, to name just a few. We invite you to join us in considering an oft-­overlooked element of culture — how people move.

These ideas only scratch the surface of the sports and activities that humans engage in. Some may be familiar — and even part of your current fitness regimen. Others might be totally new to you. (Bossaball, anyone?)

If nothing else, we hope these ideas broaden your notion of what counts as exercise and the possibilities for what your body can do, wherever you are.

Your fitness journey awaits.

Up Your NEAT

One of the things that the most active people in the world share is that they typically don’t work out for the sake of working out. Movement is an intrinsic part of their everyday, built into their lives as a mode of transportation, an occupation, a source of joy.

Take Uganda. To most world travelers, the East African nation is famous for nature and wildlife reserves. To healthy-living advocates, though, it’s a country that’s doing a lot right: A recently released survey found that the most physically active people in the world live in this landlocked nation of 49 million. Compared with a whopping 40 percent of Americans, just 5.5 percent of Ugandans are classified as inactive.

These numbers have profound ­implications. The World Health Organi­zation predicts that, in the 2020s, high-income nations, like the United States, will see a 26 percent jump in maladies like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. For emergent ­nations, including Uganda, that number is estimated to be just 5 percent.

Ugandans love sports like boxing, cricket, and soccer, and the country is a hot spot for world-class long-distance runners. But this doesn’t completely explain why this nation outpaces others in measures of physical fitness.

One likely reason is that the gym is almost a redundancy in Uganda. Movement is baked into daily life: Eighty percent of the workforce labors in agriculture, and cars are a less prevalent form of transportation, making walking much more common.

Exercise scientists call such movement NEAT, or nonexercise activity thermogenesis: daily, incidental movement that includes everything from fidgeting at your desk to chopping wood. NEAT can produce many of the effects of exercise even though it doesn’t occur in a gym.

The prevalence of NEAT in Uganda and other emergent nations may help explain their impressively low rates of preventable, noncommunicable diseases.

Indeed, research suggests that staying active throughout your day — rather than only via exercise — may be one of the most important things you can do for your health. (For more on NEAT, visit “3 Fitness Practices to Support Your Metabolism.”)

Uganda isn’t the only place that exemplifies this phenomenon. Daily movement is also foundational to life in the Blue Zones — geographical areas where inhabitants tend to live exceptionally long, vigorous lives. In Sardinia, Italy, and Okinawa, Japan, for example, citizens garden, fish, walk, cook, and perform low-intensity indoor and outdoor chores for hours every day.

“None of [the Blue Zone residents] exercise, at least the way we think of exercise,” says Dan Buettner, researcher and author of the Blue Zones book series. But the centenarians he studied move in other ways: “These hundred-year-old Okinawan women are getting up and down off the ground — they sit on the floor — 30 or 40 times a day. Sardinians live in vertical houses [and move] up and down the stairs. Every trip to the store or to church or to the friend’s house occasions a walk.” (Learn more about the Blue Zones at our podcast with Buttner: “The Blue Zones Habits for Longevity.“)

Fishing on a far-off island or farming on a lush African plain may not be in the cards for some of us, but we can all take steps to get more NEAT into our lives.

Test Your Strength

In 1860, strongman Donald Dinnie discovered a pair of massive granite stones, each with an iron ring attached; they had been used 30 years earlier as counterweights for a maintenance project on the Potarch Bridge in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Combined, they weigh 733 pounds.

Spying a chance to showcase his astonishing strength, Dinnie grabbed the rings, stood up, and walked the width of the bridge — a distance just over 17 feet.

It was perhaps the most iconic moment in the ritual of stone lifting, long a rite of passage for young men from Iceland, Wales, and Scotland who would heft their local clan’s clach cuid fir (Gaelic for “manhood stones”) to prove their worthiness as laborers or warriors.

Many of these stones still exist today, including the Y Garreg Orchest in Northwest Wales and the Húsafell stone in Iceland. The Dinnie Stones are still viewable — and liftable, by an elite few — at the Potarch Café and Restaurant.

Some of these stones are more manageable than others. In Iceland, the lightest of the centuries-old Dritvík stones — a group of four progressively heavier stones once used to determine the lifter’s eligibility for employment on a fishing boat — weighs 50 pounds. But even the small stones can be tough.

“I recently got to try some stone loading in Iceland that was a fishing-village tradition,” says Danny King, a Life Time master trainer who has competed in strongman competitions in which lifting (and carrying and throwing) stones is central. “It was awesome — except I wasn’t very good.”

It’s not just the weight of the stones that makes lifting them difficult. “Grip is probably the hardest part of the lift,” explains pro strongman Matt Mills, CSCS. (See “How to Improve Your Grip Strength” for six grip building exercises.)

That’s what makes stone lifting such a fun challenge. Visiting these towns and marveling at their famous stones (an extensive list of which can be found at LiftingStones.org) can be a great way to connect with a vivid slice of lifting history, and inspiration to heft a few nearby stones yourself.

If a trip abroad isn’t in the cards, take heart: Strongperson training (this style of workout isn’t limited to strong men) is becoming more commonplace in U.S. gyms and fitness centers. Some clubs even boast atlas stones of various sizes for training and competition. (For a strongperson-inspired workout, visit “Old-Time Strength Training.”)

Feel the Beat

Dance is a celebrated cultural tradition around the world, with styles originating on every continent except Antarctica. Classical and folk dances, in particular, capture the stories of a people while also promoting community and connection.

Dancing is also a workout for the body and mind. It can improve heart and lung function; enhance balance, agility, and coordination; and build muscle and bone strength.

It induces your body to release serotonin and other feel-good hormones. And multiple studies have found that dance provides cognitive, antiaging, and social boons as well.

Dancing doesn’t have to be simply about working out; practicing could help you connect to your own heritage or family history. Among myriad dances worldwide, there’s step dance in Ireland. Salsa in Cuba. Tango in Argentina. Samba in Brazil. Raqs sharqi in Egypt. Zeybek in Turkey. Bhangra in Pakistan and India. Hopak in Ukraine. Hasapiko in Greece. Dabke in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon. Buchaechum in Korea. Dragon and lion dances in China. Apsara in Cambodia. Halparke in Kurdistan.

While you can sign up for dance classes or attend a local dance club during your travels, you don’t need to go abroad to learn. Styles like Irish step, salsa, belly dance, and bhangra have become popular in the United States; many American cities have dance studios devoted to culture-based forms.

And thanks to Zoom, TikTok, and YouTube, it’s easier than ever to find virtual teachers. (Learn more about the benefits of dance and find tips on getting started at “The Health Benefits of Dancing.”)

Strike a Pose

There are dozens of martial-art styles worldwide. While the physical practices may differ in form and intensity, most martial arts emphasize discipline of the body and mind.

One example is the practice of tai chi, originally developed hundreds of years ago in China as a martial-arts practice that harnesses internal energy. It emphasizes slow, deliberate movements, deep breathing, postural alignment, and the integration of mind and body.

Often described as “meditation in motion,” tai chi offers a host of benefits for mind, body, and soul: better balance, lower blood pressure, stronger joints, reduced stress, and possibly even a stronger immune system and improved moods. The smooth, simple movements make it especially attractive to those with fitness barriers, such as older people and those with orthopedic or neurological conditions.

Often described as “meditation in motion,” tai chi offers a host of benefits for mind, body, and soul: better balance, lower blood pressure, stronger joints, and reduced stress.

Tai chi consists of sequences of moves known as forms — requiring presence of mind and attention to the body. Timing, breath, and placement of the limbs, hands, and feet are all practiced in coordination. And not all the moves are slow and easy: “Originally, the Chen tai chi style consisted of both fast and slow movements — jumping, kicking, and so forth,” says tai chi teacher Paul Lam, MBBS.

Physically and mentally, tai chi is engaging, but the meditative calm the moves elicit is palpable — and almost immediate. Over time, says Lam, “the practice integrates the internal and external” — the body and mind, the spirit, and the breath.

This singularity of purpose ­appears to have measurable health benefits as well: “There have been [hundreds of] medical studies showing tai chi is really effective for almost every aspect of health,” he says.

While there is value in a solo practice, practicing the art in a group has even more benefits. “Humans are made to communicate with one another,” Lam explains. “Sharing of energy is very much a part of tai chi.” (Learn more about tai chi’s benefits at “How the Ancient Practice of Tai Chi Enhances Your Health.”)

Other forms of martial arts are more dynamic. Take the Afro-­Brazilian art of capoeira, which combines the striking power and athleticism of martial arts, the beauty and expressiveness of dance, and the rigor, precision, and intensity of calisthenics.

Conceived in the 16th century by Africans enslaved by Portuguese sugar traders in Brazil, capoeira was simultaneously a means of developing combat skills, refining fitness, strengthening spiritual faith, and reinforcing communal bonds. Its tribal roots remain strong in modern studios, where classes take on the feel of a break-dancing jam set to the twanging sounds of the berimbau.

Surrounded by a ring of mentors and other students who sing, hoot, and play musical instruments, capoeristas engage, two at a time, in a unique form of “fighting” that starts from a low crouch and evolves into kicks, inversions, all-fours scurrying, and, at advanced levels, handstands, flips, and handsprings.

Classes have a do-what-you-can feel, with advanced students practicing eye-popping leaps, twists, and spins, and beginners working on fundamental kicks, simple ground movements, and strikes.

“Is it a martial art? A ritual? A dance?” asks Michael Gonçalves Davis (who goes by Contramestre ­Guatambu), owner of United Capoeira Association Los Angeles and a 20-plus-year veteran of the art. “You can’t really answer that. It’s all those things and more.”

Capoeira’s effects on the body, however, are clear: “You miss out on nothing,” says Guatambu. “You’ll build agility, flexibility, strength, explosiveness, cardiovascular fitness. You’re always in motion.”

At the same time, he adds, “you learn how to play musical instruments and develop yourself as a human being on many levels at once. It’s a one-stop shop analog solution to a digital lifestyle.”

If you’re interested in a fighting style that’s even more martial, Krav Maga may be a good fit. What would eventually become Krav Maga began in then Czechoslovakia in the 1930s as a way for Jewish people to defend themselves against invading Nazis. The discipline was adopted by the Israel Defense Forces in the late 1940s and spread to the United States 40 years later. You won’t see a lot of bowing, ritual, music, or incense: The focus is on self-defense through real-life training scenarios.

Krav Maga’s self-defense strategies are based on the body’s natural reactions under stress. Students are trained to avoid conflict as much as possible, and to end confrontation quickly with fast, simple strikes and kicks. (For tips on choosing the right martial-arts style for you, visit “Which Style of Martial Arts Is Right for You?“)

Find Inspiration in the Ancient

If swinging makes you think of Russian kettlebells, meet two other implements made to be swung: the Indian mace, or gada, and Indian club.

The gada is an ancient weapon used over 2,000 years ago by Hindu warriors (and, according to legend, Hindu gods). The gada was used both on and off the battlefield as a weapon and training tool. The club, meanwhile, features a tapered shape like a bowling pin.

(It’s worth noting that similar tools were developed in other parts of the world: The mace has roots in Europe, too. Samurai warriors in Japan used a mace-like weapon called a kanabo-. The Persian meel, or club, remains a popular training tool in the varzesh-e bastani athletic tradition in Iran and among men and women in the Iranian diaspora.)

Both the Indian mace and club are still common training implements for Pehlwani wrestlers in northern India — and are seeing a worldwide renaissance in full-body, functional-fitness training circles. Steel clubs and maces are available for home and gym use and can be purchased in a range of weight options for pullover and swing movements.

While not interchangeable, both the mace and club can build rotational power and improve core and shoulder stability, as well as enhance balance and coordination. Lighter, smaller steel clubs are a good choice for prehab and rehab. It’s common to train with two clubs at once, moving them in unison or in alternating patterns.

Maces are longer, often heavier, and have a more awkward, offset weight distribution, making them especially useful for multiplanar movements and conditioning work.

Start with light weights and seek out a coach — either in person or virtual — who can show you the ropes.

Play a Game

One of the most underrated aspects of fitness is play. As we grow older, we often avoid “childish” games that can produce moments of unencumbered joy. If you fall into this camp, let us introduce you to Bossaball.

The love child of volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, and capoeira, Bossaball was created in Spain by former tennis pro Filip Eyckmans in 2005. As in volleyball, two teams face off across a net, knocking the ball back and forth until one of them misses it. The wrinkle: The field of play is inflatable — think of a bouncy house for adults — and at the center of each team’s playing area is a trampoline, the better to gain height for dramatic spikes and kicks.

In addition to keeping score and issuing penalties, the referee also serves as DJ, blasting bossa nova music to give tournaments a beach-party vibe.

“Bossaball is about being able to follow a bit of fantasy. I want people to feel free, use their body, and with the music we put on, have a dance when they score. It’s a mind–body game.”

“Bossaball is about being able to follow a bit of fantasy,” says ­Eyckmans. “I want people to feel free, use their body, and with the music we put on, have a dance when they score. It’s a mind–body game.”

At present, you can find Bossaball in Europe, South America, and the Middle East; interested Americans will need to travel in search of a game.

That said, play and its myriad benefits are accessible anywhere, even in your own backyard.


Sign Up for a Competition

Take your fitness — and your world travels — to the next level by entering a competition.

Whether you choose to run a marathon in Dubai, thru-hike in Peru, pursue a personal best at a powerlifting meet in Malaysia, or sign up for a multipart fitness event like HYROX (which was born in Germany and holds events throughout Europe and the United States), combining your passions for movement and travel can bolster both experiences.

“It’s a great way to find new spots and create really cool memories,” says Life Time master trainer Danny King, who offers up a critical piece of advice: Plan wisely.

“Schedule the event for early enough in the travel so that you aren’t too worried about being on your feet sightseeing too much or eating incorrectly for the event,” he says. But don’t arrange to compete as soon as you arrive, either. You’ll want to leave room for travel delays and an acclimation period, particularly if you’re dealing with jet lag or a change in climate or altitude.

King also suggests deciding in advance if you’re competing “for performance or if it’s about the experience.”

Andrew
Andrew Heffernan

Andrew Heffernan, CSCS, is an Experience Life contributing editor.

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