Go beyond walking and have a ball | The Honolulu Advertiser

Comment, blog & share photos

Go beyond walking and have a ball | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Thursday, July 30, 2009

Go beyond walking and have a ball

The best way to lose weight is to do some kind of activity every day. The best exercise is walking; however, it's also important to do other activities to help burn even more calories and create an active lifestyle. Here are a few alternative activities and the calories they burn.

HACKY SACK (AKA FOOTBAG) VS. PADDLEBALL VS. KICKBALL

Developed in the 1970s by two Oregonians, a Hacky Sack is a crocheted bag slightly smaller than a tennis ball that weighs about 1 1/2 to 2 ounces. The bag is filled with sand, pebbles, beans or beads. The idea is to use your feet to keep the footbag in the air as long as you can. You can also play with other people simply by standing in a circle and passing the bag around, again trying to keep it in the air. Hacky Sack burns about 281 calories per hour.

Paddleball, similar to handball but played with a paddle, burns about 422 calories per hour. The game is fast-paced and great exercise. (For more information: www.paddleball.org.)

Kickball is pretty easy to play and can be loads of fun. The rules are similar to baseball, and it can be played almost anywhere. It burns about 492 calories per hour of actual play (which doesn't include the waiting-around parts). Check out the World Adult Kickball Association Web site at www.kickball.com for an explanation of the rules and assistance in locating an organized league near you.

TABLE TENNIS (PINGPONG) VS. SQUASH

If you know anything about squash, you'll know it's the clear winner in terms of calorie burn — about 844 calories per hour. Squash is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor court and using several walls. (For more information: www.ussquash.com and www.squashtalk.com.) Unfortunately, finding a squash court is not always easy or free. Your best bet would be to look for a squash club in your area and take lessons — it's not that easy to learn.

Table tennis is a fun, simple way to burn calories. The cost of a pingpong or table tennis table starts at about $250. The table is 9 feet long and 5 feet wide, and you will probably need about 4 to 6 feet on each end and about 3 to 4 feet on each side to actually play the game. Table tennis burns 281 calories per hour. (For more information: www.usatt.org.) Just for the record, regular tennis burns about 562 calories per hour if you're playing singles.

HORSEBACK RIDING

It may look like the horse does all the work, but that's not the case. Horseback riding burns calories and can be hard work. Just sitting on a horse while it's walking can burn about 246 calories per hour; trotting burns 457 calories per hour. There's also a lot more to horses than meets the eye — they're very sensitive animals and will actually "read" your personality type and react. That's probably one of the reasons horses are often used in therapy — it's called equine therapy. Even grooming a horse can help to create emotional growth (and it also burns more than 200 calories per hour).

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos