10 Concept Gyms in Canada to Bust Your Fitness Rut

Bored of the gym? Rather be eating pizza? Jumping off a trampoline into foam cubes? Well, you can. Some of the most popular gyms across the country today are making names for themselves by carving out super-unique niches and offering a creative workout experience for members. Smash your fitness rut with a visit to one of these concept gyms this spring.

Surfset: This workout takes place on a stationary, specially-designed surfboard that mimics the feeling of riding a wave. You’ll be led by an instructor who teaches you how to water walk, carve and shark kick like a surfer. The result? Apparently, one *gnarly* workout.

Planet Fitness: This judgement-free gym operates on the belief that “no one should ever feel Gymtimidated… and that everyone should feel at ease in our gyms, no matter what his or her workout goals are.” It offers super low-cost membership (starting at $10 / month) and perks like free Pizza Mondays and Bagel Tuesdays. What’s not to love?

Tantra Fitness: If you’ve always been curious about the pole dancing trend, Tantra Fitness is a good place to get into it. Check out one of their 120+ classes per week to learn a type of pole dance, lap dance, suspended yoga or aerial hoop classes.

Skyzone Trampoline Park: Sky Zone is an indoor trampoline park where you can literally jump from trampolines into a pit of 10,000 foam cubes (oh hai inner child). There are open jumps and classes like Skyrobics and Saturday night “Skyjam” events.

Monkey Vault: Toronto’s dedicated parkour gym occupies 2 floors of a 10,000 square-foot old abandoned refinery and has been designed to replicate various location in the city and around the world (think: rock walls, big structures, staircases, etc.)

Equinox: “There’s training, and there’s Equinox training,” says the upscale fitness centre’s website. Equinox puts instructors through its own training institute, has it’s own lifestyle magazine and app and built-in spa. If you really want to treat yo’self this spring, here’s the place to do it.

Fit Factory: If you made quick work of your last fitness boot camp and want something more potent, Fit Factory Fitness offers legit military-style fitness training, boot camp and boxing classes led by a former U.S. Marine Corps Drill Instructor with over 22 years experience in the industry. Eat your Wheaties, sister.

Orange Theory Fitness: This gym’s signature Orange 60 Sessions are hour-long workouts where you’ll perform multiple, 12 to 20-minute intervals of training designed to produce an “afterburn” effect, which is an increased metabolic rate for 24 to 36 hours after the workout.

Pound Fit: This is like being at a drum circle with more cardio. Using lightly weighted drumsticks called Ripstix, you’ll “become the music” in a full-body workout that combines cardio, strength training with yoga and pilates-inspired movements.

Afterburn: The GTA’s only indoor dragon boat pool gives paddlers the chance to try out the high-performance sport of dragon boating. This is the go-to facility for teams and trainers who want to improve their paddling performance, but the space is open to anyone looking for a different fitness experience.

Don’t want to commit to a gym? Try out one of these 5 unique fitness workouts instead and dip your toe into a new trend.