fall · fitness · motivation

Some Spooky Exercises for Halloween 2025

Ok, so they aren’t all that spooky but I thought you might like to try one (or more!) of these themed workouts that I found recently.

You’re going to workout anyway so you might as well maximize your fun, right?

An ink drawing of a skeleton standing on a skateboard
Speaking of maximizing my fun, here’s a drawing of a skeleton on a skateboard that was part of a drawing challenge I’m doing this month.
In this still image from Kate Carmela’s YouTube short she has her arms outstretched and her feet apart while standing on a blue mat. There are some pumpkins, a lantern, and a replica of the ‘Audrey’ plant from Little Shop of Horrors in the background. The instructor is wearing all black, and has black hair that is partially pinned up in buns on the back of her head and she is smiling. Her shirt says ‘If you’ve got it, haunt it’ and her pants are deliberately ripped and shredded from just above her knee down to her ankle. In the upper left is text reading ’60s Dracula Step Out.’
In the still image from “get spooked with this Halloween dance workout“ from Kate Carmella the instructor is standing in the centre wearing black workout clothes and pretending to be scared. The background is purple with orange highlights down at the bottom. There are a variety of plants within the orange highlights kind of casting shadows on the back wall, there are bats and clouds up at the top and there’s an image of a ghostly sort of mask in the upper right hand corner.
The still image for this Halloween/Samhain yoga class for all levels by Nourished Natasha is divided in two parts. The right hand side has an orange background and black sections with the title of the video in white. The left-hand side shows the instructor back on in a black halter top and dark red leggings. She’s leaning to the right with her right hand on a block and her left hand in the air doing what seems to be an adaptation of triangle pose (there are several poses that look similar to this that I get mixed up.) in the background or a variety of esoteric Halloween props that reference tarot, fortunetelling and palmistry.
The still image for this Fun and Easy Beginner Level Chair Exercise video from OT Sara for Seniors features the instructor sitting on a chair in front of a fireplace in the daytime with some plants in the background on either side, a black cat decoration on the floor on her right and a stack of pumpkins decoration on the floor on her left. She is wearing cat ears and a top that seems to be leopard printed and black pants. She’s wearing a headset microphone and she has both of her arms up on the right hand side and I think she’s doing some sort of like cat paw motion with them.

This image from Phoenix Physical Therapy’s Instagram shows a list of activities to do in a circuit. The background is black. There are two green zombie arms reaching into the middle of the image, there were cobwebs in the upper corners and text at the top says Halloween Survival Workout. the list of activities are as follows: Zombies run! 30 seconds fast feet, flying bats – better duck 15 squats, hold very still – 30 second plank, zombies again- 30 seconds fast feet, jump over the graves -10 tuck jumps, stay low to the ground – 10 push-ups, try to sneak by – 10 walking lunges. Oh no here it goes again repeat three times.

fall · fitness · fun · holidays · motivation

Christine Thinks That Sorta Spooky Workouts Are A Fun Idea

Okay, these workouts aren’t spooky at all but since I’m a fan of Halloween, of costumes, and of anything that really leans into a theme, I thought it would be fun to share a few Halloween-inspired workouts.

If you want to celebrate Halloween in a fitness-y sort of way, these YouTube videos and Instagram posts will let you mix some extra fun into your workout.

You could even try working out in costume – but maybe hold off on the facepaint until it’s time to trick or treat, I don’t know if sweaty makeup would be very much fun.

Anyway, here are some ideas for you to try:

This 30 minute video features Ella, the host of Ella’s Wheelchair Workouts, and she’s wearing a witch hat, a cape, and she has a spider drawn on her face. Ella uses a wheelchair and her videos are filmed in her living room.
This Halloween Chair Workout from Chair One Fitness features three people in costume (two in witches hats, fitness clothes, and stripey socks and one in a red wig and fitness clothes) sitting in chairs for their workout.
This Halloween Hits Dance Workout video from MadFit has the instructor in slightly spooky workout clothes – black shorts and a black top with a skeletal rib cage printed on it.
Adriene from Yoga with Adriene posted this ‘Yoga for Lizards’ video earlier this week and seeing her in her lizard costume cracked me up. She also has a Halloween Yoga playlist that’s an interesting way to explore a Halloween theme.

This post from Anderson Town Leisure Centre provides a list of HIIT exercises related to the letters in the word Halloween for us to try for one minute each with one minute rest between rounds. H- High Knees, A- Alternating Lunges, L – Lateral Jumps, L- Leg Raises, O- Overhead Press, W – Wall Sit, E – Elbow Plank, E- Explosive Burpees, N – Narrow Push-ups.
This post from Get Fit with Jess has a Halloween-themed circuit to repeat three times. 1 minute walking lunges, 30 sec tricep dips, 1 minute squats, 30 sec pushups, 1 minute jumping jacks, 30 sec bicycle crunch, 1 minute elbow plank, 30 sec mountain climbers.
This post from Impulse Rehab Wellness has a funny reason for us to do each exercise in their “Halloween Survival Workout – Zombies! Run! – 30 seconds fast feet, Flying bats, better duck! – 15 squats, Hold very still – 30 second plank, Zombies again! – 30 seconds fast feet, Jump over the graves – 10 tuck jumps, Stay low to the ground – 10 push-ups, Try to sneak by – 20 lunges. Oh no here it goes again! – Repeat three times.

I get that you might not want a silly theme for every workout (but I think *I* kinda do) but it could be a good way to shake things up and add a little extra enjoyment to your fitness plans this week.

Enjoy!

fall · fitness · fun

Spooky, Scary Workouts (no, not really!)

Happy Halloween!

To help you celebrate, here are seven Halloween-themed workouts for you to choose from.

Why so many?

It’s like my new favourite T-shirt says ‘Witches Gotta Have Options’

A close up photo of the front of an orange T-shirt that has been place on a flat surface. There are the silhouettes of six brooms of different styles and below the brooms there is black text that reads ‘Witches Gotta Have Options.’​
A close up photo of the front of an orange T-shirt that has been place on a flat surface. There are the silhouettes of six brooms of different styles and below the brooms there is black text that reads ‘Witches Gotta Have Options.’

(If you don’t celebrate Halloween, you might find these fun anyway.)

Bu the way, these videos are NOT about ‘working off your candy’ * they are about maximizing your fun.

So, don’t be scared, just pick whichever one appeals to you and do as much or as little of it as you want.

Here’s a dance workout set to the Addams Family theme from DanceFit. They have a whole playlist of Halloween workouts.

A Halloween workout video with dance choreography set to the Addams Family theme song. The still image is a blonde woman standing on the left side of the image facing to the left with her arms crossed. She’s wearing a black lacy shirt.

Next up, a waking workout to Halloween music from Kyra Pro

A walking workout from Kyra Pro. The still image features the instructor in the center facing forward with her arms held out in front of her in a ‘zombie’ pose. The background is mostly orange with a yellow moon in the centre and black bats all around. The word ‘Halloween’ is written in black at the top.

This is another fun workout from Wheelchair Wellness 4 U . She has a whole Halloween playlist too.

A Zumba dance workout from Wheelchair Wellness 4 U. Still image is the of instructor from the shoulders up, she has long blonde hair and is wearing a tank top that says Zumba in pink letters. The edges of the image are decorated with cartoon Halloween things, spiderwebs and a Haunted House.

And here’s Bride of Plankenspine from Yoga with Adriene – bonus points for a kooky name!

A yoga workout for back pain from Yoga with Adriene. In the still image, she is in yoga clothes doing a side plank and her hair is in ‘bride of Frankenstein’ style – stuck up high on her head with a white streak down one side.

This one is for kids but I like the straightforward set of movements from Pediatric Therapy Essentials

A set of Halloween themed movements from Pediatric Therapy Essentials. still image shows a cartoon image of some kids in costumes (dinosaur, ghost, skeleton, mummy), black cat, and a dog in a ghost costume. There are three cartoon pumpkins in the centre.

Dance Along Gal has a fun seated Chair Yoga Dance workout:

This video from Dance Along Gal is a seated workout to Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett. Still image shows the blonde instructor seated on a chair surrounded with cartoon Halloween images of pumpkins and bats.

Yo-yo’s Halloween Freeze Dance for kids is pretty cool, too.


Halloween Freeze Dance from Yoyo. Still image shows her in front of a Halloween image of a full moon and a spooky house and in the foreground there are a variety of goofy cartoon monsters.

I hope you had fun with these.

Gertie the ghost is offering you this gold star in celebration of your efforts:

A cartoonish drawing of a happy ghost holding a gold star with a speech balling above their head that reads ‘Go you!’​
A cartoonish drawing of a happy ghost holding a gold star with a speech balling above their head that reads ‘Go you!’

*Check out Sam’s post from yesterday about how irritating the ‘work off your candy’ mindset is.

fitness · fun · holiday fitness

Why not have more fun? Try a Halloween workout!

With Halloween just 7 days away, I thought it would be fun to post a few themed workouts in case you wanted to get in the ‘spirit’ of things. (ooooooh, so scary!)

A dog wearing a pumpkin hat
Khalee’s idea of a themed workout is to wear her pumpkin hat for approximately 90 seconds of her walk. Image description: Khalee, a light haired dog, is wearing a pumpkin hat and looking toward the camera with a doggie ‘smile.’ She is standing on the dark laminate flooring in my kitchen.

I haven’t watched or completed all of these, I just picked the ones that seemed fun and weren’t obviously problematic. Please take good care of yourself if you choose to do these – don’t do anything that doesn’t work for your body and turn the video right off if they seem to be buying into any diet-culture crap.

A Halloween Dance Party HIIT workout from Emkfit. I really like how she is goofing around here. Video still shows the title of the video in green and white text and there are two images of the host in dark green leggings and a sports bra exercising while making funny faces.
A 25 minute Halloween Dance Workout from Kyra Pro – the theme is pretty much just in the music but that’s still pretty cool. The still image shows the name of the video in ‘Halloween-style’ lettering and includes a photo of the host, in black workout clothes, with their hands in the air, shaped like monster claws.
A Halloween Walking Workout from Brand Fitness, I love how casual and friendly she is and she really seems like she is having a great time. . Still image shows the words ‘ 2500 Steps Halloween Walk’ in ‘Halloween-style’ text with cartoonish bats and spiderwebs in the background. The host is featured on the right hand side, wearing a witch costume with striped tights.
A 20 Minutes Halloween HIIT Workout from GrowingAnnanas – she does this whole workout in facepaint – I don’t know how it didn’t melt right off! Still images shows the video name in block letters with some white background and some red background. The red background has an added ‘blood drip’ in the bottom corner. The host is in black workout gear with face paint that looks like old fashioned mime or clown make-up – triangles pointed up from their eyebrows and down below their eyes, a black dot on their nose, and their lips are outlined in black.
A Halloween Zumba workout from Zumba Sulu. Another video done in full face make-up plus a costume and he has some spooky props in the background – very fun! Still image shows text reading ‘Halloween Special Dance Workout’ and shows the instructor in skull makeup and Halloween clothing making a ‘scary hands’ gesture toward the camera.
Yoga for ZOMBIES! by Yoga with Adriene. This one may not be as much of a Halloween theme as the previous videos but it’s close enough. And even Zombies need to be limber, right? Still image shows the video title in block letters, the word zombies is in red. Host is wearing a black shirt and red leggings and there is a background image of a black and white graveyard with leafless trees surrounded by mist.
A seated Halloween dance workout from Chair Yoga with Barbara. This video is pretty low-key but the host seems very friendly and the movements are straightforward. Still image shows the video title in Halloween-style text with a clip art ghost and spiderweb next to the text. The host is shown on the left side, wearing black shorts and an orange shirt with a Jack-o-Lantern face in black on the front.

I was only going to share 7 workouts but then I found this short chair yoga workout to ‘Monster Mash’ that is just so charming that I have add it to my list. I can’t figure out why it won’t embed like the others did but it is worth the click over to YouTube to view it.

I hope you found some fun workouts in this collection.

Do you have any other Halloween workout links you could share?

fitness · holidays

Happy Halloween!

I like most of the moods of exercise, from the sometimes somewhat serious business of team training and racing to the very silly world of holiday themed workouts.

Here’s two I did this Halloween season:

  1. Zwift Halloween costume rides with pace partners: See photos above. We all gradually acquired costumes as we rode along with the special guest pace partners. It was a nice easy recovery ride with lots of laughs along the way. See HALLOWEEN HIJINKS HAVE BEGUN! UNLOCK COSTUMES WITH NEW PACE PARTNERS: “ZwiftHQ likes to have a little fun on certain holidays – especially Halloween, Christmas, and April Fools’. (With Halloween just around the corner, Zwifters may remember that we earned dino costumes in 2019rode bone bikes and swapped heads in 2018, and looked like witches and monsters in 2017.) Last night some new Pace Partners went live as part of a little Halloween game. Carlin Cosmic, Darwin Dino, Delta Daring have arrived, and they’re handing out Halloween costumes!”

2. I also did Yoga with Adriene’s spooky Yoga for When You Feel Dead Inside which I enjoyed from the moments of silliness at the start to the actual practice itself.

How about you? Are you doing any Halloween themed workouts? Let us know in the comments below.

cycling

Going bananas on a bike: Halloween Bike Ride 2014

Halloween is not just for kids anymore. Halloween bike rides are apparently sweeping the continent.

photo1

 

And they are fun fun fun. This year I did my second Halloween bike ride in Boston—just a casual, easy ride around town at night with 750+ of my closest cycling friends. I’ve compiled a 6-question FAQ for anyone interested in more info.

1. How did you know the route?

It was published on this website  and this one. Also, we were led by someone in arguably the best costume there: a low-wattage fluorescent lightbulb.

photo2

Plus, a group this big takes up a lot of space—we took up a lot of space on major Boston roads.

photo3

 

Motorists were mostly amused and indulgent of the rather looooong bike parade.

2. What was the best costume?

Oh, that’s really hard to say. The best bike costume was this guy, who rode a yellow submarine.

photo4

 

And then these folks were beautifully attired.

photo5

Of course, I’m partial to my costume (shared by at least 10 folks on the ride): A bike-riding banana. Here I am with Rachel as banana, plus Steph as Cruella Deville.

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3. How long was the ride?

In terms of mileage, about 10 miles (16 km). In terms of time, a couple of hours—we were really slow, with stoppages at bottlenecks and stoplights. But the time flew by—there was so much to see, other costumed riders to chat with, and music was provided by several folks towing big speakers on trailers (some of them festively attired themselves).

photo7

 

4. What bike is best for this ride?

I saw every type of bike on the ride—road bikes, commuters, fat bikes, mountain bikes, BMX bikes, Hubway bike-share bikes, and even a Chinese-made cruiser with 32-inch wheels, ridden by a guy dressed in Dr. Seuss regalia (sorry, no picture here). But here is the most unusual bike we saw:

 

photo8

5. Didn’t the police get upset about all those riders on major roads?

Actually, no. These events are well-publicized and orderly, and organizations that sponsor them are committed to keeping them that way. That means no riding on sidewalks, blocking intersections, going the wrong way down one-way streets, etc.

6. Would you do it again?

Absolutely! I’m currently plotting my next year’s costume (TBA). I leave y’all with the obligatory post-ride selfie with Janet, me, Steph and Rachel.

photo9

I encourage all of you to check out a festive bike ride in your town—it’s the best slow-motion fun to be had on two wheels.