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A person doing push-ups outdoors

Photo: Maskot Bildbyrå AB, Johnér

Categories: Activities

My top outdoor workout routes in Stockholm

Publish date: 10 December 2021

The City of Stockholm puts a lot of effort into encouraging citizens to stay fit and healthy. There are plenty of public sports facilities like swimming pools, tennis courts and football pitches which people can use either for a small entrance fee or for free.

The City even has a website which makes it easy for you to search for different venues spread across the greater region.

I really appreciate all the outdoor gyms you can find across Stockholm. They’re made out of wood which doesn’t just help them to blend more naturally into their surroundings (they’re often in parks or near forests), it’s also really eco-friendly and very practical for various types of training. In fact, I actually pause my regular gym membership for the warmer eight months of the year to enjoy training outside in the beautiful nature Stockholm has to offer.

Two hours, four gyms, eight kilometres

My favourite track is located very near to where I live in Årstadal which is an area just to the southwest of central Stockholm. There’s a route I like to walk which takes me all the way around Årstaviken, a lake spanning from Hornstull to Skanstull on the island of Södermalm. It normally takes me under two hours to walk the route as I make four pit stops at each of the gyms along the way.

There is a smaller outdoor gym right at the beginning of the route just underneath Årstabron (Årsta bridge) and another on the same side of the lake just a few kilometres away. When I’ve crossed Skanstullsbron (Skanstull bridge), I come to Eriksdalsbadet, Stockholm’s biggest swimming centre, where there is a larger gym surrounded by trees with a beautiful view of the quayside.

The final stretch is probably the most scenic, taking me all the way to Hornstull where I make my last stop at Tantolundens Utegym (utegym means ‘outdoor gym’ in Swedish). During the summer, there are normally a lot of people hanging out there and I often bump into a friend or two.

King of the hill

If I don’t cross Skanstullsbron and choose to continue walking or cycling, I would walk past Hammarby Sjöstad and eventually end up at Hammarbybacken, a hill once used for national skiing competitions. The hill is perfect for doing running intervals or just walking to the top to get a good view of the City from the southern side. I normally do eight 100m sprints uphill and end it with a session at the outdoor gym just at the foot of the hill.

There are also some beautiful tracks in the forest nearby to Hammarbybacken which you could start from. Really it’s up to you, but the great thing is there are so many routes and so many different outdoor gyms that you’ll never get bored!

About the author

Innocent is most recently the founder of an EdTech startup called Aline, where he utilizes artificial intelligence to help people validate their learning in the flow of life. He also initiated the communicative platform, Learnability, in early 2019, which is a podcast and community exploring our ability and desire to learn, grow, and adapt. When he's not engaging in entrepreneurship and technology, he can be found riding his bike through Stockholm City, practising boxing at a local club, or yoga in a secluded meadow.

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