Street Workout: Get Fit In The Open

Do you want to get fit, but in a modern and urban way? Would you like healthy competition and self-growth, without paying for a gym membership? Street Workout is more than a sport. It's a lifestyle based on healthy living and positive peer support. We wanted to find out more, and spoke to a young guy from the Balkans who has been involved with Street Workout for a few years now.

What Is Street Workout?

"Street Workout is a sport that's practiced exclusively outdoors, in the open air. It consists of elements of athletics, calisthenics, and parkour. Street Workout promotes a healthy lifestyle and mental growth. Steroids and other enhancements aren't welcome. The only tool we use is healthy nutrition," Traki told us. 

Traki is an 18-year old from Belgrade, Serbia. Outdoor gyms have been emerging like mushrooms all across the Balkans in the last few years, but don't despair if you're interested in working out in the open and you're not from Eastern Europe. There's still a good chance that teams of athletes are working out daily at a park near you. Street Workout has swept the globe, and teams in the United States, South American countries, Africa, Asia, and Europe are all busy developing muscles and stamina.

"I started coming to the park to work out in the fresh air two years ago," Traki explains. "It was terrible at the beginning, and I felt like I was dying. Then I saw a group of people working out together and having fun. I met them again when I returned to the outdoor gym the next day. One was doing front lever pull-ups, while another did handstands. I asked them what they were doing. One guy explained they were training for a Street Workout competition — an event that takes place every fourth month, in a new location every time."

That's how Traki started working out regularly, and he joined up with the BarmanZ Street Workout team. Some of the "toughest workouts of his life" were about to hit him. His trainer, a tough guy who used to be in the French Foreign Legion, helped him come out in one piece, with more muscles. "The training was grueling, I admit, but Alek was such a good trainer that I never became demotivated."

What Are Athletics, Calisthenics And Parkour?

When we talk about athletics, we usually talk about competitive jumping, running, walking and throwing. In Street Workout slang, athletics seems to mean — as Wikipedia explains it — "a system of exercises with various levels of exertion provided for health strengthening, development of strength and stamina, as well as, for shaping an athletic constitution". Street Work Out athletics are meant to get you strong, fit, and able to go on for a long time.

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Calisthenics can be described as rhythmical, gymnastics-like movements that are usually performed without any equipment. That description doesn't do any justice to what Street Workout guys actually do, though. We're talking about awesome and honestly crazy-looking stuff, like performing one-handed handstands on metal fencing. It looks incredibly exciting and dynamic and is probably what attracts so many people to Street Workout in the first place.

Parkour is a unique discipline that came from military obstacle training. While some people practice parkour as a stand-alone sport, it's easy to see why Street Workout teams incorporated it into their daily routines. Parkour requires an incredible amount of stamina and looks really neat.

Why Choose Street Workout?

Like many teens, Traki went through a rough period during which he felt immensely aggressive. Hormones, his parents, and school all seemed to be working against him. He could have chosen to escape into school fights, video games and alcohol or drugs, but he didn't. Instead, he chose to take to the streets to get health.

He explains that the healthy, natural lifestyle is what he likes best about Street Workout. Peer influence can't be underestimated either. "Young people enjoy positive socializing with peers, and older, more experienced people who help them master any workout they'd like to work on," Traki says, giving handstand, pull plance, front-lever pull-ups, and Maltese as examples. 

That comment just about sums up why Street Workout is so popular. So, what does Traki have to say to other people who want to get fit? "I warmly recommend that you just get outside and start training. It doesn't matter if you don't know what you're doing. Just get training, and let others with more experience show you exercises you're interested in." Though Traki's group is mostly made up of young guys like himself, the team welcomes girls and older people as well. "As long as you're willing to work out, you can join us." 

How often do you have to work out? Traki told us that he works out two days and has a break on the third. He works on each of his disciplines for an hour on the days he trains. The great thing about Street Workout is that your "gym" never closes, so you can do as little or as much as you are able to.

Spreading The Word

Traki proudly shares that Street Workout has become one of the most popular sports in his country. There are now over 20 different Street Workout groups in Serbia. His group gave a demonstration at the local shopping mall and showed his country what Street Workout is all about at the "Urban Fest" event as well. Serbia became third at the Russian Street Workout competition in 2013, and the sport has given plenty of young people the chance to travel abroad.

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If you're interested in finding out more, the internet is a great place to start looking: Traki and his mates have been promoting their sport through YouTube videos and Facebook, venues that are also home to other Street Workout videos from all over the world. That's not enough for everyone. "Street Workout has already been recognized as an official sport in Russia, and people who practice it would like it if it could become part of the Olympic Games."