Fitness
You could go to the gym (again!), but why not do something much less boring for your fitness hit?
While Scotland’s biggest city was already famous for shopping, ship building and the legendary Red Bull Neptune Steps, many say it was the Commonwealth Games in 2014 that gave Glasgow its now top-ranking status.
Check out more Glasgow-related stories at RedBull.co.uk/keystoyourcityglasgow
So it should be no surprise, then, that Glasgow is home to an amazing range of quirky sports venues that promise to replace repetition with thrills, and views of brick walls with stunning urban vistas. And who better to pick the best than resident and sporting all-rounder Fiona Russell, AKA Fiona Outdoors?
1. Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails
Top mountain bikers raved about the courses that were built at Cathkin Braes, on the south-east edge of Glasgow, for the 2014 Games.
The network of trails was subsequently opened to the public, featuring black, red and blue-graded routes, a skills loop and a new mega-sized Velosolutions pump track.
The trails centre sits at 200m above sea level with panoramic views over the city and towards the Kilpatrick and Campsie hill ranges.
2. Glasgow Wake Park
Glasgow Wake Park is located at the heart of the city, on the Forth & Clyde Canal, and is Scotland’s first urban wakeboarding park.
The sport is easy to pick up, especially with dry-side coaching, and riders can progress all the way to obstacles and tricks.
If kickflips and shuvits are more your thing, try them on water with a wakeskating session. It’s like wakeboarding but without being bound to the board. Challenging? Yes! Fun? Definitely!
3. Pinkston Paddlesports Centre
The Pinkston Paddlesports Centre, an impressive £2.5m Glasgow landmark, boasts Scotland's only artificial fast-flowing whitewater course.
Formerly an old power station, its brightly-coloured tower and storage units are made out of refurbished shipping containers.
It's the perfect place to try your hand at kayaking, river bugging and river boarding. Plus, the flat-water basin is ideal for learning to kayak or for open-water swimming.
4. Skatepark Seven
There are no less than seven skateparks within the city limits.
For concrete parks, head to Kelvingrove and Drumchapel, while for metal ones, Glasgow’s southside has parks at Rouken Glen, Mount Vernon, Cardonald, Queen’s Park and Kilmur, near Darnley.
Innes Cameron, a keen skateboarder, says: “Kelvingrove is the best because it's outside, a good size, clean and, like every good skatepark, full of friendly, encouraging skaters.”
If you push the geographic boundaries a little, the leafy northern suburb of Milngavie boasts a revamped skatepark in Lennox Park, with a designated area for newbies, and Zone 74 is a new indoor wooden skate park in East Kilbride.
5. Snow Factor – urban ice climbing
Believe it or not, one of the world’s biggest urban ice climbing facilities is found in Glasgow, tucked into an icy corner of Snow Factor at Soar INTU Braehead retail and leisure outlet, on King's Inch Road.
The walls are built and run by the Ice Factor Group with slabs, steeps, arêtes, gullies and corners offering a chilled playground for climbers of all abilities.
Take a taster lesson or advance onto the 120-degree overhanging wall and dry tooling sections, including a log climb called The Beast Maker.
6. Snow Factor – indoor skiing
The Snow Factor is also home to a real snow indoor ski and snowboard centre and hosts the joint longest indoor real snow slope in the UK.
There is a main ski slope, instruction slope and tow-bar lifts, just like the ones you ride at the ski resorts. Freestyle coaching is also an option, or, for something a little milder but no less fun, there is a sledging slope.
Apres-ski is well worth staying for, as well, with slope-side Bar Varia and Baltic Ice Bar offering views of the slope while you relax.
7. Glasgow Ski and Snowboard Centre
They say that if you can ski or snowboard on an artificial slope, you will take to the slopes of your chosen holiday resort like a pro.
Dry slope skiing is even easier – and the big advantage is that you can ski all-year-round.
Glasgow’s Ski and Snowboard Centre is found in Bellahouston Park on the city’s southside, while the West of Scotland Snowsports centre is located in a northern suburb, and is home to Bearsden Ski & Board Club.
8. Flip Out, Glasgow
Trampolining is not just for the kids, and Glasgow's trampoline centres prove this with plenty of grown-up fun to be had.
At Flip Out Glasgow, Rutherglen, the world’s biggest trampoline arena, there’s a parkour area, dodgeball, adult flip street and classes in Flip Fit.
Glasgow Air Space is proud to be the city’s original trampoline park, also offering dodgeball, alongside a super-sprung penalty shootout goal, a large freejumping arena and a performance wall.
And the “best in the west”, or so they say, is Ryze Glasgow at Kinning Park. There’s a trampoline field with angle-walled trampolines to try, or perhaps a game of Xtreme Dodgeball in a cage? Whatever ticks your box.
9. Western Titans BMX Track
Not strictly inside the city limits but worth the short trip to the north-west, Western Titans Glasgow BMX track is located at Clydebank. A starter hill, plenty of bumps, table-tops and berms provide a circuit that is as challenging or as flowing as you want. It also plays host to the annual Scottish Championships. A wee gem of a BMX track is also found in the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden, hidden amid a sprawling housing estate.
No time to exercise? Red Bull is encouraging employees to Get Active When On Lunch this May. Watch the video below to see how easy it is to get active at lunch in Glasgow.