Don't Go To The Gym, Try Recreational Sports

Jessica
4243 days ago.

Let me get straight to the point. I don’t like working out. I don’t do stairmasters, ellipticals or weight lifting. In fact, I don’t particularly care for climbing the stairs to my second floor apartment every day. But I do like to be active and I am a little competitive and St. Louis happens to have a fantastic selection of recreational sports.

I don’t know if this is a well-known fact but in the world of St. Louis rec sports, there’s literally something to do year-round. And not just downtown, but all over St. Louis. A friend of mine, at one point last year was playing kickball out in Jefferson Barracks Park on Thursdays and Sundays, sand volleyball at Wave Taco on Wednesdays and bowling at downtown’s Flamingo Bowl on Tuesdays. Who needs to hit the gym when you have a sports schedule like that?

She got me involved in the world of recreational sports and I am now in my 4th season of sand volleyball at Wave Taco. The fun thing about recreational sports is: you don’t have to be good. Sure, no one likes to suck so you try hard, which gets you the workout, but you also get to drink a beer and goof around with friends and enjoy yourself. It helps me because I don’t like exercising alone, and when I play volleyball I have five other people to talk and laugh with while jumping, diving and getting all sweaty and sandy. And there are different skill levels, so you can play against teams based on your skill level, which I love!

And you don’t necessarily have to have a whole team. The leagues join people up, which I might add, is a great way to meet new people. So if you have one or two other friends interested in playing a sport, you can find a team who needs some extras and join it or make your own team and put in a classified ad on the league’s website to find more players.

So far I’ve only been involved in cornhole and sand volleyball, but I love to bowl and am thinking about starting a bowling team.  Anyone interested?

If volleyball and bowling aren’t your thing, there are so many other leagues to choose from: Softball, kickball, tennis, bowling, basketball, hockey, dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, soccer, football, and that’s just what I know, there could be more!

Here are some places to go to get started:

Sports Monster St. Louis: Leagues for a variety of sports, plus locations throughout St. Louis and in the Metro East area (Carbondale, Belleville, etc)

STL Volleyball: Locations at Wave Taco downtown, The Pavilion in West County, Stratford in Fenton, C4 in Creve Coeur, and Overland and Chesterfield

Budweiser Sports League: Slow pitch softball, flag football, football and outdoor soccer in Creve Coeur Park

St. Louis Sports and Social Club: Seamus McDaniel’s hosts cornhole (aka bags) leagues. Ok, not exactly what you think of when you think sports, but still a great way to meet people and to dip your toe into the world of rec sports before joining their “hardcore” sports like kickball and bowling. And to prove it can be fun even if you’re not the best, here’s my team proudly displaying our Golden Toilet trophy for ‘Best of the Rest’ Cornhole team.

Your local YMCA: My friend just started playing softball at the South County YMCA. They also have racquetball, volleyball, basketball and martial arts leagues.

There are a plethora of reasons why St. Louis is such a cool city and this is just another one to add to the list.

 

Brought to you by Mills Properties
Photo courtesy of acavolleyball.blogspot.com

Jessica

Doesn’t know how to cook and survives pretty much on macaroni and cheese and pizza, so naturally, loves to eat out at restaurants. However, one day when she is married and has a family to cook for, she would love to take cooking classes and learn awesome skills like the chefs on Iron Chef America...as long as she doesn't have to clean the dishes afterwards.

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