Ten free or low-cost ways to get active in Canberra

Want to move more without spending more?

Here are 10 ideas for increasing your activity levels while spending little to no extra money.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better city for running. Canberra boasts beautiful scenery and plenty of footpaths weaving through the city.

No matter which side of the lake you live on, there’s a beautiful route near you.

Yerrabi Pond and Lake Ginninderra are popular running spots for northsiders. Point Hut Pond and Lake Tuggeranong are great options if you live on southside.

Hiking/bushwalking

All the above routes are excellent for walking, as are mountains including Mount Ainslie, Mount Taylor and Mount Majura.

To really make the most of the outdoors, why not visit one of the ACT’s 90 parks? They range from urban parks to the great Namadgi National Park and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

Outdoor fitness stations

There is free fitness equipment available across Canberra.

You’ll find most of them in public parks. Locations include:

• John Knight Memorial Park
• Theodore Neighbourhood Oval
• Eddison District Park
• Lake Ginninderra District Park
• Haig Park
• Lennox Gardens
• Crace Community Recreation Park
• Franklin Community Recreation Park
• Moncrieff Community Recreation Park.

Our bike-friendly city offers an excellent network of shared paths and on-road bike lanes.

Incorporating bike riding into your daily commute is an environmentally friendly, affordable and easy way to increase your fitness.

Over 90 per cent of Transport Canberra buses have bike racks. There are also four bike racks in each light rail vehicle, so you can easily combine cycling with other transport methods.

You may have spotted the elevated metal baskets in parks across Canberra. These are part of a disc golf course and are available for public use.

Disc golf is like a cross between frisbee and golf using a flying discs.

There are courses in Belconnen’s John Knight Memorial Park, Eddison Park in Woden, Weston Park in Yarralumla and Athllon Park in Tuggeranong.

Skateboarding

Whether you’re skating through the streets or doing tricks at a skatepark, skateboarding is a fun hobby that will keep you active.

There are seven major skate parks across Canberra suitable for all levels:

• Belconnen
• Canberra City
• Eddison Park
• Weston
• Tuggeranong
• Erindale
• Yerrabi District Park.

A competition standard half-pipe is now available at the skatepark along Emu Bank in Belconnen.

Visit the City Services website to locate a skatepark near you.

There are an additional 12 parks that offer skate features, so you’ll never be short of locations to practice.

If you like the idea of skating but aren’t quite ready to invest in a skateboard, you can drop into a free Learn to Skateboard session.

These are hosted by the Canberra Skateboarding Association with the help of local volunteer skateboarders.

Helmets and boards are provided, and all ages and experience levels are welcome.

Your local library might not be the first place you consider for trying out yoga, but perhaps it should be.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of yoga books available to borrow from Libraries ACT.

With this large collection, you can find a type of yoga to meet your needs, including:

• Yoga for arthritis
• Yoga for people over 40
• Yoga for pregnancy
• Yoga for beginners
• Yoga for children
• Yoga for the inflexible male.

There are also e-books, audio books and DVDs available to borrow.

Many of Canberra’s tennis clubs are private and require a fee. However, some of Canberra’s parks do have tennis courts and tennis practice walls.

You can find tennis facilities at:

• Crace Community Recreation Park
• Franklin Community Recreation Park
• Kambah District Park
• Moncrieff Community Recreation Park.

Game On is a program run by the Physical Activity Foundation and supported by the ACT Government.

The initiative is run in suburbs across the ACT to get as many Canberrans participating as possible.

It is free and family-friendly, and includes activities like walking, ball skills, bike skills, navigation and athletics.

Dog walking

If you’re someone who needs a friend to keep you accountable to your exercise goals, there is no one better for the job than a dog.

If you don’t already have a dog but you’re ready to add a four-legged personal trainer to your family, you could always adopt from Domestic Animal Services.

There are lots of loving and energetic dogs searching for a forever home and one of them could be your future best friend.

Check out the variety of dogs available for rehoming at Domestic Animal Service – they can’t wait to meet you!

Bonus entry: find a sport

Archery, pickleball, boxing, jujitsu… there are so many sporting groups in the ACT.

Canberra’s sporting community is large, inclusive and always looking for new members.

Many sporting organisations host ‘come and try’ days or similar programs where you can get a taste of the sport before committing to a season.

It also includes a list of specific sports/organisations for people with a disability.

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