Parks and Reps: The best places for outdoor exercise in Dubai
Dubai’s best outdoor fitness facilities for an alfresco flex in the city…
The Dubai Fitness Challenge (DFC) may now be behind us for another year, but wellness is for life not just the 30 x 30. The month-long calendar of fitness events did come with some useful reminders though, of how to make exercise great again. Not least amongst them, the joy of training outdoors. Swapping beach runs for treadmills, punch bags for outdoor boxing drills and standard yoga for moonlit namaste thrills. And if, whilst the weather allows, you’d like to keep the alfresco gains coming, these are some of the best places in Dubai to stay fit with outdoor kit.
Kite Beach
This shoreline community hub is positively brimming with big leisure attractions. You can activate feast mode at the many restaurants and food trucks; switch to ‘doing-the-least’ mode for a spot of body bronzing on the pristine sandy beach; but it’s the opportunities for beast mode that really set this coastal enclave apart from its peers. Not far from the water’s edge you’ll find an 8km (with some change) long rubber-topped running track; a cycle path; volleyball and padel courts; an XPark skate and bike drome with parkour course; elevated obstacle course; and watersport equipment rental services.
Breasy DXB
As we know, betting is forbidden in Dubai, but if you were to enter into a gentlemanly stake-free wager on any hotel in Dubai providing a home for an outdoor flex palace, Five Palm Jumeirah would probably be it. Welcome to Breasy DXB – a fully equipped alfresco beachfront gym, perfect for sweat-glisten circuits and talking loudly about how many reps you’re on. Resistance HIIT sessions offer an exciting alternative to raise heart rates and curl weights. After you’ve got your sweat on, it’s off for an ice plunge and restorative recovery. At Dhs240, it’s spicier on the pocket than the average circuit class – but you can’t put a price on those views.
Barsha Pond Park
Found, unsurprisingly, in Barsha (opposite Barsha Mall) and staged, equally unsurprisingly, around a giant pond, Barsha Pond Park would be my pick for putting together a Rocky-style training montage in Dubai. It’s free to access, and in addition to the running track, cycle path, and courts for tennis, basketball and padel – has a whole load of open green space for Tai Chi, yoga, and jumper-goalpost five-a-side. That’s not all. There’s gym equipment dotted around the running loops too – bodyweight elliptical machines, pull-up bars, and a callisthenics area. It’s a true cornucopia of calorie culling
Mushrif Park
Long time top pick for picnics, Dubai’s Mushrif Park is all about wide open spaces and ghaf tree-shaded places. The Park offers a 20km cycling loop, and a 10km hike that wends through leafy canopy tunnels, striking sculptures and a finish line reward of Al Khawaneej Walk, a leisure space with Last Exit food trucks and shiny shopping detours. Aventura offers opportunities to scramble like a spider monkey, dangle from zip lines, and work your way around challenging rope courses (from Dhs165). Far enough removed from city lights, Mushrif is well known for its population of Indigenous wildlife that make the perfect eye candy for I-spying ramblers.
Hatta
Few places take the philosophy of ‘the world is your gym’ quite as seriously as Hatta. Within its mountainous folds, hides an Olympian contingent of active pursuits. On the water you can wade into kayaking, stand-up paddle boards and pedalos. There are mountain bike trails at Hatta Wadi Hub; 35km of hiking trails through the Hajar hills; an aerial adventure park (packages from Dhs199); water slides and paraglides (from Dhs95); rock climbing (from Dhs50), trampolining (from Dhs15), net-walking (from Dhs15), gel ball (a high energy, low-impact version of paintball from Dhs85), zorb football (from Dhs35), ziplining (from Dhs110), slingshot canons and there’s more on the way.
Al Ittihad Park
Found on the trunk of Palm Jumeirah, along the Golden Mile – Al Ittihad Park, is a leafy leisure oasis filled with ways to help you chase down your fitness goals. The running track takes you on a loop that passes monorail stations and two separate shopping malls (Nakheel Mall and Golden Mile Galleria). Along the way, you’ll find gym equipment to help you mix up up your workout with some cross-training variety. If you want to go the extra Golden Mile, the Palm West boardwalk is just over the road.
Images: Getty/What’s On Archive
