Climbing has gone from niche sport to worldwide sensation. What is its dizzying appeal?

In the past few years, people of all ages have taken up indoor climbing, and new centres are springing up across the UK. Why do so many people, young and old, want to spend their free time hanging off a wall?

A short guide to becoming seriously strong – by the woman who just lifted 332.5kg boulders

Leigh Holland-Keen has become only the second woman to lift Scotland’s legendary Dinnie Stones. Here’s how you can follow in her footsteps

Fit in my 40s: ‘Everyone wants a go on the bike desk’

People are drawn towards you as if you’re flogging ice-cream on a hot day

Squat party: how the gym became the new nightclub

Millennials are giving up pubs for fitness studios, meeting friends at ‘party workouts’ and ‘sweat crawls’. Is this the end of the boozy night out?

Fit in my 40s: ‘My thoughts slide through my brain like melting cheese’

Barry’s Bootcamp started us on a ‘jog’ that is as fast as I would normally run, working up to a run that is faster than I have ever considered

Fit in my 40s: ‘I’ve been to tons of lidos, but I’d never swum in one’

There’s a bit of a hippy undertow about the body communing with the water. But to find all this out, you have to get in

Strokes of genius: the beauty and calm of wild swimming

From tranquility in the Lake District and Brecon Beacons to lovely lochs in the Cairngorms, six enthusiasts reveal their top spots for a wild swim

Why Harry Kane is an inspiration for chubby children everywhere

As an overweight kid, a role model like Kane would have helped me shrug off taunts and kick a ball

Fit in my 40s: ‘The first rule of self-defence? If you can, run away’

I’m not taking Krav Maga seriously. I wouldn’t engage in a cross word with an assailant, let alone punch him in the nads

Britain needs to get fit. But warnings and advice alone aren’t enough

It’s taken an integrated strategy to reduce smoking. We need a similar policy to change the way we look at fitness, says public health academic Mike Kelly