Between free outside gyms, stadiums, associations and gym clubs, Medellin offers all kinds of ways to stay fit.
In order for you to break the routine while keeping a healthy life in your new city, VICO made a list of the best workout places in the neighborhood Laureles in Medellín.
- The city has multiple free spaces to practice sports and workout.
- Medellín is a pioneer city of fitness in Colombia and it has a lot of internationally recognized athletes.
- The INDER is the entity in charge of most of the recreative and sports facilities in the city.
- The biggest sports facility of the city is the Atanasio Girardot stadium and sports complex.
Since you arrived to the city, you certainly have had the opportunity to spend an incredible time getting to know the city, its surroundings, partying and trying a variety of new food.
But now that you are trying to fully integrate yourself, you might want to add to your routine some exercise to keep yourself in a good shape. Well, this is a topic where Medellín is up to date. Your new home actually has a huge variety of free gyms and sports facilities to workout. So after reading this article you won’t have any excuse left to skip the gym!
INDER – Responsible Institution
Most of the sports facilities in the city are part of the INDER institution. It is the Instituto de Deportes y Recreación (Sports and Recreation Institute) of the city of Medellín. For some sports and specific activities, you need to be registered and this process can be done through its official page. Once you are signed up, you can reserve sports facilities like soccer fields, beach volleyball courts or use the pool for free. Furthermore, you can also check the offers per location. If you have additional questions, the main INDER office is located at the stadium, so it is really easy to get in touch with them.
Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot
The Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot is the biggest sports complex in the city. It is located near the Estadio metro station and over the carrera 70. In addition to being well located, it includes 25 sports utilities recognized nationally and internationally. The special thing about this place is that it is not only the house of the competitive sport and high performance. It also hosts different sports, recreation and physical activity programs coordinated by the INDER for all the community. Some of the options are:
- Outdoor gyms
- Soccer fields
- Beach Volleyball Courts
- Pool
- Running tracks
One of the most popular activities is to skate or jog around the stadium. Of course, it is possible only when no matches are scheduled.
UPB’s Sports facilities and Gym
The university has different utilities to practice sports. For example, they have soccer fields, tennis courts, a pool and a gym. The students of the UPB get full access to all of those but you can still enjoy the gym and its group classes for an additional fee if you are not part of the university.
The monthly price for the gym is $85.500 COP for UPB students and $104.000 COP for the others (when there are no special offers). If you want to take a look at the different profiles and prices, you can click here. To book the other utilities, you just need to go to the Sports office to check the available slots.
SmartFit Gym – Unicentro
If you prefer to workout indoors, one of your options other than the universities are those located inside the shopping malls. Newly opened, SmartFit is a chain of gym clubs for which the monthly subscriptions start at $59.900 COP. The clubs are fully equipped and well located in different malls in Medellín. The one of Laureles is located in the Unicentro.
For more information regarding plans and payment methods, you can take a look at the frequently asked questions on their website or go directly to the gym.
El Club – Gym
Maybe you haven’t heard about this fully equipped gym yet. Located a block away of the Unicentro mall, El Club proposes personal coaches to help you reaching your goals. However, this is not the only advantage in favor of this gym. What makes it particularly interesting is their subscription offers. They indeed make it possible for you to share a $70.000 COP subscription with another person, leaving you with only $35.000 COP to pay. This is probably one of the most affordable options to workout indoor in Medellín.
Unidad Deportiva de Belén Andrés Escobar
Despite being properly located in the Belén neighborhood, we want to include it in this list because it is still really close to Laureles. Also administered by the INDER, this sport complex you counts multiple sports facilities to enjoy. It provides outdoor gym zone, a running track and even free activities such as yoga or aerobics.
For more information about the activities and sports available, the best is to go there and ask for information. The complex is open from 6a.m. to 10:45p.m. daily.
We hope this article helped you finding some useful information and motivation to start working out. But because Medellín is not just about going to the gym, we invite you to discover our suggestions of the best parks, museums and places to party in the city.
