Running camp, Annecy, France

Want to take up running but can't face schlepping around the park in the drizzle? Head to the rather more invigorating surroundings of the French Alps, where Adventures in the Alps organises training holidays that will get you off on the right foot. Try Running Made Easy if you're a complete beginner, Wellbeing Retreat for all-round fitness, or Fit and Over 50 if you're, well, over 50 and want to get fit. There are more advanced weeks for trail runners, adventure racers and triathletes. Accommodation is in a range of luxury chalets with hot tubs and saunas.
• £1,200, including accommodation, all meals and training, but excluding flights; fitness holidays run from May-September (0845 519 3101, summer.adventures
inthealps.com)

Get into road cycling, Cotswolds

Do you feel like the only one who doesn't spend your weekends in Lycra? Getting into road cycling will change your life for the better: you'll be fitter, thinner, better versed in Britain's backroads, and able to join in those (at first, seemingly tedious) conversations about cadence and cleats. Saddle Skedaddle (0191-265110, skedaddle.co.uk) specialises in all holidays bike, and has a great line in beginners' road biking weekends throughout the UK. The Cotswolds is as good a place to start as any – pretty scenery and villages will take your mind off the thigh burn, and as this is not quite geared towards the super-serious Mamil (Middle-Aged Man in Lycra), you get to stop for the odd pint.
• £255pp for three days (two nights' B&B accommodation), hire of a lightweight road bike £55pp (skedaddle.co.uk)

Freestyle skiing, Switzerland

Know how to ski but still can't land a 180? Time to sort yourself out. The gorgeous resort of Laax in Switzerland opened a new Freestyle Academy last year, where you can learn tricks and jumps in the safety of an indoor training hall filled with trampolines and a large foam pit to land in.
• Laax Freestyle Academy (+41 81 927 7170, laax.com/en/skiing-area/freestyle-academy) charges CHF25 (£17) for a two-hour session. A three-night stay in Laax including B&B accommodation and lift pass but not flights costs from £170pp (+41 81 927 7777, laax.com/nc/en/accommodation/package-deals)

Mountainbiking, Vermont, US

Singletrack Mindfulness – a holiday with as much going on in its name as in its weekends – is a new company offering mountain biking retreats that combine tuition, training, and fun trail riding with yoga and relaxation. Held in remote areas in the Appalachian and Green mountains, the weekends range from women-only retreats to "yoga and mindful mountainbiking".
• +Weekend retreats including meals, accommodation, training and evening activities cost from $615pp, bike rental from $50 per weekend (+1 802 578 3735, singletrackmindfulness.com)

Learn to surf kayak, Devon

Surf kayaking involves catching a wave surfer-style, while sitting in a kayak armed with a paddle. First-time surf kayakers tend to find it a little bit scary, a lot of fun, and very, very tiring. Try it yourself on a coached weekend at Skern Lodge, near Bideford, north Devon. Sessions and workshops on the Saturday will develop your riding skills, then on Sunday you'll ride with the England team, getting tips from some of the world's best surf kayakers.
• Weekend courses cost £90 for two days of coaching, plus £9 for camping or £63 full board at the lodge. Next courses are on 5-6 May and 25-26 August (surfkayakskills.com)

Zumba bootcamp, Woodbridge, Suffolk

A bootcamp doesn't have to mean press-ups at dawn presided over by a bellowing ex-Marine. Now you can dance your way to fitness instead. The New You bootcamp has launched a Zumba-based programme at its country house in Suffolk, where daily dance classes (no experience necessary) are supplemented with life coaching and cookery demonstrations to help you kickstart a whole new approach to health in 2012. It's no walk in the park, though, with 10-12 hours of training every day.
• From £1,180, including accommodation and all meals and training; next bootcamp starts 10 February (0871 223 0066, newyoubootcamp.com)

Retro yoga, near Ryde, Isle of Wight

Britain boasted a women's exercise programme based on yoga as far back as the 1930s, so retro yoga is not such an incongruous activity for an old-fashioned seaside holiday as you might think. On this trip to the Isle of Wight you'll take part in five challenging yoga workshops inspired by the 1930s/40s Women's League of Health & Beauty, and stay in a vintage Airstream (a shiny silver US trailer; think caravan with the cool factor turned up to maximum). Don't forget your bucket and spade for time out on the island.
• £370 (midweek) or £390 (weekend), £25 off for bookings before 30 April, including yoga and most meals; 10-13 July/13-16 July (getbendy.co.uk)

Improve your posture, Lycian Coast, Turkey

If you hunch over a computer all day or frown more than you smile, you could probably benefit from some Method Putkisto training – especially when it's offered at the Dionysius Estate, a luxury hotel perched above the Bay of Kumlubük in Turkey. Finnish wellbeing expert Marja Putkisto believes that elongating short muscles through deep stretching and breathing will leave you looking leaner and lifted, and feeling more energised. It's time to turn that frown upside down!
• From £1,450 for seven nights' half board, including flights and up to 18 hours of sessions; departing 5 and 12 May and 6 October (020-8605 3500, exclusiveescapes.co.uk)