Overview
While we love watching our mates' attempt to grow facial hair (with varying degrees of success) for Movember every year, we especially love that's it's for a good cause: raising funds for mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. And if your inability to grow a mo has stopped you from getting involved yourself, we've got news for you. Move for Movember is a Movember challenge, supported by major partner Lululemon, and there's still time to get involved. Move encourages participants to cover 60 kilometres across the course of a month by either walking or running. That distance was chosen to represent the 60 men that are lost to suicide every single hour across the world.
Let's not beat around the bush(-y moustache) — 60 kilometres is some ground to cover in a month. So, if bushwalks bore you or you don't have the time (or the inclination) to smash out a few multi-day hikes, we've come up with a list of more creative ways to hit you that step count goal this month. And it's super easy to get started. Just register to Move via the Movember website or download the app, start collecting donations from your friends and family, pop your comfiest pair of shoes on and get moving. Oh, and make sure you have a smartwatch or your phone on you to make sure every step is counted.
Wildflower Brewing, Cassandra Hannagan
DO A BREWERY CRAWL
The glorious spring weather already makes a brewery crawl an excellent way to spend a Saturday, but when the crawl counts towards your monthly goal? Even better. The obvious location for your beer hop is the inner west, which boasts over a dozen craft breweries (including six in Marrickville alone). To get you started, we've mapped out a route of some of our favourites, which will total six kilometres of stomping. Just remember the two golden rules. First: pace yourself. This is a marathon, not a sprint. You want to get to the end so those kilometres count towards your goal. And second: despite what your mates at uni used to chant, eating is not cheating. And with the plethora of excellent food trucks and pop-up food stalls that frequent these breweries, you're not going to want to skip a feed anyway.
PLAY A FEW ROUNDS OF GOLF
Some may say golf is a good walk spoiled. But if what you're looking for is a way to break up the monotony of a long walk with short bursts of action and some friendly banter with your mates, then a session on the green is the answer. Across a standard 18-hole course, players will walk an average of nine kilometres, which is a pretty sizeable chunk of your target — and you could clock up even more if your ability to stay on the fairway is, ahem, lacking. Encourage your friends to walk the course with you and donate the money they would've spent on cart hire to your Movember Move challenge instead. And don't worry if you don't know anyone with a club membership. Sydney has plenty of public courses that you can access, stretching from Long Reef in Collaroy to The Coast in Little Bay, both of which offer epic coastal views that'll take the sting out of your last double bogey.
Destination NSW
TURN WORKING INTO WALKING
Have a desk job? You probably already spend way too much time sitting down. And, if you're still working from home, it's even more likely since all the incidental walking you'd normally do throughout the day — commuting, popping out for lunch and heading to meetings — isn't happening as much. Whatever your situation, it can't hurt to inject a little more movement into your working day, so use this month's goal as an excuse. This could mean forgoing public transport and running to the office for the month. We suggest using the app Runhunters, founded by running coach and Lululemon ambassador Matty Abel, to explore suitable run routes, so you're not covering the same ground every day. Another popular option is to implement walking meetings if the conversation doesn't require a laptop, or it could be a simple as standing up and pacing around the room every time you take a phone call.
Skyzone
FILL YOUR WEEKENDS WITH KIDULTING ACTIVITIES
It's not hard to see why kidulting activities have seen such a surge in popularity recently. These days, the line between work and personal life is more blurred than ever, so switching off for an hour, forgetting all responsibilities and just playing like you did as a kid feels like a huge treat — almost as big as the double scoop ice cream your nan would buy you on the sly. Treat your inner child to a trip to Sky Zone in Alexandria, which has more than 100 interconnected trampolines to bounce, flip and tumble between. You can also work up a sweat next door at Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq chasing your frenemies around in a game of laser tag, or, if you're looking for a kidult activity you can do on a more regular basis, check out False Grip. The studio on the northern beaches specialises in adult gymnastic classes, so you can pick your childhood hobby up again (or finally get to try it if you didn't as a kid). With the help of the experienced coaches, including Lululemon ambassador Tori Hand, you'll learn to tumble, do a handstand and even use the rings. You'll be having so much unbridled fun, you won't even notice how quickly those kilometres are ticking over.
Q Station Sculpture by Tania McMurty
COUNT YOUR STEPS WHILE DOING YOUR CULTURAL CHORES
The arts community really came through for us during lockdown with virtual gallery tours and events, as well as releasing archival material. But there's nothing quite like experiencing art IRL, so now that Sydney's art institutions have opened their doors again, you have a lot of catching up to do. It may not get your heart rate up (unless you're really moved by one of the artworks), but we think it's totally acceptable for wandering around an art gallery to count towards your goal. This month, you can explore an outdoor exhibition by the harbour of artworks that were not selected for Sculpture by the Sea, admire the works of Van Gogh at Moore Park's multi-sensory experience, come face-to-face with famous Australians at AGNSW's Archibald Prize exhibition and visit a living exhibition of over 20,000 plants at the Royal Botanic Garden.
There's still time to sign up to Move for Movember, and change the face of men's health. To learn more or register to complete 60 kilometres, visit the website.
Top image: Skyzone