The Dubai Fitness Challenge: how to get well fit in Dubai

If you want to get well fit in Dubai – and, after all, why wouldn’t you? – then you are in luck. It’s just about one of the best-catered for cities in the world with regards health, fitness and wellbeing, with plenty of world-class gyms, leisure centres, sporting facilities and classes.

However, what really sets Dubai’s fitness scene apart is the Dubai Fitness Challenge, an annual celebration of fitness set up in 2017. Its aim is to get Dubai up on its feet, getting a little more active and a little healthier.

It is a truly glorious, month-long festival of health, fitness and wellbeing. Included in its program are scores of exciting fitness events, wellness-focused entertainment and guest speakers. Throughout the whole month, an overall buzz descends on the city that should enliven every Dubai resident, enthusing them to get moving.

Everybody involved in the Dubai Fitness Challenge works towards the common goal of maintaining long-term physical and mental health through the establishment of active lifestyles, healthy diets and a focus on wellbeing.

It is a whole festival, spread over multiple sites, with lots of free fitness classes and events so that everybody can get involved. There really is no reason to get to the end of the Dubai Fitness Challenge without having learned a thing or two about active, healthy living.

But why is it called a ‘Challenge’? What more is there to it?

Dubai 30 x 30

The Dubai Fitness Challenge is more than just a showcase of health and training opportunity, however. As the name suggests, it is very much a challenge.

The organisers lay out a challenge to all Dubai residents and, since its inception in 2017, thousands of people have taken up this challenge. Many more look set to in the coming years.

The challenge itself is called the 30 x 30.

Everybody in Dubai is tasked with completing 30 minutes of activity every day for 30 days. This way, the whole month is given over to the mission of moving and celebrating active, healthy lifestyles.

This is actually very well set up. The minimum healthy requirement for any individual is to perform 30 minutes of physical activity per day, most days. The health benefits of doing so are enormous, whilst risks of not doing so are severe, including a heightened risk factor across a plethora of chronic diseases and ailments.

How these 30 minutes look is very much up to the individual. It can be anything from ultra-hardcore HIIT, to swimming, to relaxing yoga, to simply walking. In fact, just 30 minutes of walking per day can put you outside the risk factor of the aforementioned chronic diseases and ailments.

There are some events put on to make it easier to find what you want to do and to stick to it. You really can pick and choose what you want to do and have an instructor-led half hour every day, with well over 13,000 classes and activities that run throughout the course of the festival, all over the city, in a range of disciplines.

In fact, why stick to one thing? Why stick to one session per day? The world is there for the taking – get involved!

Classes on offer include mass yoga gatherings, triathlons, community runs, circuit training and everything in between. History has even been made in previous years, too, with a record 70,000 people running along Sheikh Zayed Road.

There are also plenty of seminars on healthy living. Workshops covering topics like mindfulness and healthy eating are very common. One of my favourites is a course on how to cook dairy free alternatives to many previously unhealthy foods.

Plenty of experts fly into Dubai for the month to give lectures and classes on health, fitness and wellbeing. Past speakers have included the likes of Joe Wicks, who lead the region’s largest ever HIIT class, and WWE star Becky Lynch, who led a fitness session at the Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital.

The Dubai Fitness App

As part of the initiative, the Dubai Fitness app has been enabled to make staying fit and active that much easier and more achievable.

Upwards of 10,000 free classes are made available through the app every year. Gyms and studios across the city get involved, hosting events for the Dubai Fitness Challenge. The offerings they give include 30-minute tailor-made classes in HIIT, Zumba, Pilates, yoga, spin and many more.

The app also helps you to track your progress throughout the month, enabling you to:

• Track your workouts
• Sync with top fitness apps
• Explore classes and fitness events
• See where you stand on the leader board
• Create social fitness groups

The app also includes deals designed to help people take an interest in their own fitness and wellbeing. Offers cover everything from meal plans to health and fitness checks, through to sports equipment and supplements.

Everything you need to get involved in the Dubai Fitness Challenge can be found on one app.

The organisers of the Dubai Fitness Challenge have made it easier than ever to get well fit and put your health and fitness first. They have laid down the challenge – will you accept it, turn a corner, and begin to build up a healthier, fitter version of yourself?