Stay fit and active in Bangkok’s outdoor fitness scene
Outdoor fitness in Bangkok is a viable option as there are spots of unenclosed areas featuring a variety of exercise apparatuses. They motivate people to lead more active lives and are free to use. Particularly in crowded places like Bangkok, these gyms provide a welcome change of pace from confined indoor gyms.
Staying active outdoors
The health benefits of regular exercise in an outdoor setting
Taking your exercise routine outside provides several health benefits. Fitness enthusiasts often find that exercising in natural settings improves their mood and enhances their mental well-being, aside from the obvious physical health advantages. Exercising regularly outdoors can also increase vitamin D levels, a crucial nutrient for bone health and immune system support.
Outdoor fitness vs home fitness: The advantages and disadvantages
Home gyms can provide you with the pros of having their own convenience and privacy where you can decide the time you want to workout and not worry about the presence of other people. This also holds true where you will also find that no one will be there to take over the equipment that you want to use unless you have others using your home gym by chance.
With that, outdoor fitness can provide a different experience as it takes you away from the more confined perimeter. Furthermore, with the limited equipment or different changes in environment, you will be forced to change up your routine which may benefit you as you reach complacency or hit your plateau. For example, if you have been lifting weights, you may find that a change to some calisthenic movement will be beneficial and vice versa for calisthenic people who can find bars outdoors to use or can go to an outdoor gym to use the weights available there.
The expanse space is also tranquil as the blue sky, warm sun, and fresh greenery are beneficial for your stress and overall health. Furthermore, you can also find community alongside the gym-goers who go outside as well. Some disadvantages you will find are that the weather can affect if you can go outside or not and there might be a bit of travel that you will need to do before you start your workout. At the same time, while most spots will be free, there will be some places where you need to pay in order to use.
Top 3 parks for outdoor fitness
regardless of the cons, outdoor fitness provides you with some of the most rewarding gains. These spots are diverse and will provide you with the best fitness experience. These parks allow you to run that in order to get your cardio in.
Lumphini Park
This park is the gym goers’ dream as there is a callisthenics park that contains a variety of monkey bars and poles that allow the callisthenics practitioner to defy gravity. If callisthenics is not your style and you seek to lift, there is the Lumphini Park Outdoor Gym which is free for the local Thais but a small fee for foreigners. Here there are rusty and improvised weights and machines that will allow you to gain the maximum pump while enjoying the outdoors.
Furthermore, Lumphini Park serves as a nice backdrop for Tai Chi classes to be held and if one is even more extreme, parkour can be done there with a group of young Thais looking to trace alongside the benches, rocks, and the playground.
Chatuchak Park
Chatuchak Park offers great opportunities with its paths as people like to come here to take their walks or run at this park. Counting its neighbouring parks, such as Rot Fai Park and Queen Sirikit Park, there are about 8 kilometres of uninterrupted path which means a lot of scenery change when you are making your runs/walks there. You will also find another outdoor gym as there is the Chatuchak Outdoor gym which provides the equipment that every weightlifter needs to get their pump in.
If you desire to work out in a group, there are Tai Chi and aerobics done there where you are free to just hop in and follow along with the trainer. With that, you will find that there are also opportunities to work out by yourself in one of the many spots along the park. If you happen to be there on the weekends, you can visit the Chatuchak market to grab dinner, shop, or even a drink.
Benchakitti Park
Benchakitti Park offers a 2-kilometre great track that encircles the reservoir in the middle allowing runners to count their laps in. Furthermore, there is more track in the marshland to the west that gives more options to walk through if you prefer that style instead.
This park gives life to the group training sessions that are held there where various trainers with their own groups of gym goers will work out strenuously. It’s nice for community building and motivation as everyone lifts each other up and sets a bar to achieve. If you prefer to go lone wolf, you still have an opportunity to find a space for yourself and work out at your own pace.
Staying active is important and it is essential to remember that even during a discipline testing and arduous activity such as a workout, there are always opportunities to change it up and have fun. Whether you are feeling like a prisoner in a confined space or you want to feel the warmth of the sun and the breeze of fresh air as you are pushing yourself, Bangkok offers many opportunities to you.
If you prefer to keep working out in a conventional gym, you can check out our article here about the top gyms in Bangkok.
