IT’S traditional among health pages throughout the world of magazines and newspapers to offer advice on how to detoxify your body, come January, following the festive season.

Before the turkey is even cold enough to make your Boxing Day sandwiches, publications will be rife with advice on how to purge your battered system with gentle exercise and a concoction of leafy-green vegetables and putty-coloured legumes.

I have decided to get in early and give you a little food for thought over Christmas. Why not set yourself a bit more of a challenge in 2011? Forget those half-baked New Year's resolutions; you know you will be bored with them within a week and, as we have said before on these pages, who wants to deprive themselves of their only vices in what is traditionally the coldest, bleakest most depressing month of the whole year?

So we have picked three very different activities we think you might like to take up in 2011 – all offering a tough but achievable challenge, all easy on the pocket to get into and all offering a good social scene. See what you think:


Run a marathon

Now we are not talking about a 5K fun run or even a half marathon – we want you to set your sights on the 26 miles and 385 yards of the London Marathon in April, or why not make it New York and have a holiday?

Think you are too old or too unfit? We spoke to 74-year-old Jean Snelling who ran her first full marathon when she was well in to her sixties, and is still going strong.

“I didn't start running until I was 62,” she said. “I just thought running was stupid. I played squash but was playing less often and a friend asked me why don't I try running? I went down to the Knavesmire Harriers running club and some of them were training to do the Great North Run. I couldn't even do a furlong. But they asked me if I would come again next week and I said yes.”

Jean gradually built up her stamina and strength with the support of her new friends at the club and ran her first marathon in 2000.

“You need encouragement so it’s great to run with a club,” she said.

“The first time I did the London Marathon with my friends we were elated when we finished but we said we were never going to run one again. Within half an hour we were talking about doing our next one.

“Health wise, I feel a lot better. My doctor said running is great for keeping osteoporosis at bay.”

Jean said joining a running club was the best way to achieve your marathon goal because of the encouragement from other members and said the sense of achievement of completing a marathon is fantastic.

To contact the Knavesmire Harriers, go to www.yorkknavesmireharriers.co.uk


Learn the art of Kendo

Dress up like Darth Vader and fight each with big sticks – what's not to like?

Actually the art of Kendo is a noble Japanese form of fencing and comes with its own rules and etiquette system.

To the beginner, it may look terrifying but Nik Stanbury, 53, who runs the York Kendo and Iai Club, says it is a great way to keep fit and that age or size is no barrier to reaching perfection.

“There is no male/female divide; it’s all equal,” he explained. “I have seen healthy fit young men talking on men of 72 and it has been no contest. It's one of the few martial arts where you get better as you get older. You just get stronger and fitter.

“Our philosophy here is to be the best YOU can be – not be the best.”

Nik also said that the beginner always gets priority at each class and newcomers will be welcomed and not sidelined while the experts show off their skills.

“In terms of health it’s remarkably good for the body because it's a fantastic aerobic and anaerobic exercise,” he said.

And if you think kendo may look a little dangerous, Nik said it is one of the safest martial arts.

“I started training when I was six and I have never ever had an accident or an injury,” he said. “You might get a few minor bruises, but it is one of the safest martial arts.”

For information on beginner's classes and to find training times, visit www.yorkkendo.co.uk/kendo.htm


Climb a mountain

Well okay, not a mountain, but there is somewhere in York where you can make a perfect start.

The Energise leisure centre recently unveiled its climbing wall, which includes shorter climbs for the novice, but also features a challenging 13-metre wall once you have gained some confidence.

Community climbing officer, Jonathan Richardson said: “You are going to use muscles you have never used before. A lot of people go to gyms using equipment which is very stable which train very specific muscles but when you go climbing you use all the core muscles as well.

“It’s definitely a good aerobic exercise. You might go to the climbing wall and be there for a couple of hours.”

Jonathan also explained that the risk of falling, although you are always held up by a rope, is good for getting the adrenalin pumping.

“You are totally safe,” he said. “But while you are up there a slip of just a few centimetres can still be a bit of a heart-stopping moment.”

Jonathan said the hardest part of the about the climbing wall can be getting people to have a go and said there always be one or two who try it and find it’s not for them. But he said many come back for more and make good friends – eventually joining mountaineering clubs and going outdoors to try out rock climbing.

For more information or to see about booking lessons visit www.york.gov.uk/leisure/sports/Sports_facilities/energise/climbing/