Baseball
A game of summertime baseball is a great way to be active and exercise without that workout feeling.
Baseball can improve your hand-eye coordination and strengthen your upper body (from throwing) and your lower body (from short bursts of sprinting).
Baseball also improves your concentration and mental focus. Play two innings — about 30 minutes — and you’ll burn about 170 calories. Exercise for all nine, and you’ll burn a whopping 765 calories.
Walking
Walking is a great low-impact aerobic exercise that almost anyone can do, Matthews says. It’s one of the best workouts because you can do it just about anywhere, whether you’re on a ‘staycation’ or are renting a place by the beach or a lake.
To make a walking workout seem even less like exercise, take a walk after dinner around the neighborhood with a friend or a family member. Walk together at a brisk pace, about 15 minutes a mile; if you weigh about 150 pounds, you’ll burn about 300 calories an hour.
Martial Arts
Doing martial arts activities can be a wonderful workout that doesn’t feel like you’re working out at all.
According to Matthews, any form of martial arts will have lots of benefits because they all incorporate strength, coordination, and mental discipline. “With martial arts, proper training and equipment to prevent injury are a must,” she says.
A 150-pound person will burn about 340 calories for every 30 minutes of kickboxing, karate, or Aikido.
Gardening
You may not realize it, but gardening is also one of the best workouts, with many types of exercise built-in. A half-hour of gardening, Matthews says, can burn about 150 calories and is an effective form of resistance training.
If you turn over your compost pile, pull weeds by hand, and do some raking, you’ll get an upper-body workout — in the upper arms, shoulders, chest, and back. Hoeing trains your upper arms in particular, while digging is good for your thighs and glutes. Use a push mower and you can get your heart pumping, too.