i chuckled to myself at the thought of someone asking me how i stay in shape and me telling them, “Oh, well riding a unicycle is a great cardio and leg strength workout. Unicycling just wasn’t cutting it for upper body though, so now i bend nails every night before bed.”
Learn to walk on your hands !
and pull ups
Who’s everyone? I don’t drool over celebrities. Speak for yourself.
PUMP IRON!! Nothing like a nice set of guns to go with those uni legs.
Excell Fitness, McMinnville:
http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=214374
That climbing room is awesome! How much time and $$$ did you put into it?
Oops, I didn’t realize there was more than one page to this thread. I figured I was replying right after this post on the first page.
Steveyo, how much time and $$$ did that climbing room cost you.
6 sheets 3/4 plywood @ $20ish = $120
A bunch of 2X4 studs - maybe $50
A couple boxes of T-nuts @$20 each = $40
A bucket of paint w/sand mixed in $25
Climbing holds probably $300 to $400 but the holds can be added a set at a time. You only need a few sets to make it fun.
Time was a lot since I was a fairly unskilled carpenter to start with.
I had the climbing wall in my garage in our last house, then when we moved I had to cut it up and re-fit it to the new, smaller space.
I can just imagine Shaun laughing as he reads debate on whether he’s famous or not.
Do you mean hopping SIF? If you’re doing it right, just plain riding SIF shouldn’t use any arm strength. Of course it uses tons of strength when you’re learning it…
Unicycling also works the lower back and abs pretty well, but is minimal on the upper body. BC wheeling is even better on the abs and lower back, but probably not so great for the legs.
Juggling is much more interesting than lifting weights or doing various push-ups, but it’s not an even mix of muscles as it’s mostly focused on the same motions over and over. Rowing is supposed to be great for the upper body, but the main muscles of rowing are in your legs. XC skiing should be a great one, if you happen to have snow available.
Gyro’s are a great way to give your arms a workout. A gyro is a ball that you hold in your hand that has another ball inside it. You have to try to keep the inside ball spinning. After about a minute my arm starts hurting so i have to put it in my other hand and after about another minute i switch it back and so forth. It is fun and i can do it while i watch tv. 
I haven’t tried it while riding the unicycle yet but i’ll have to try it.
I think push-ups are boring as well.
Do more than just distance riding (muni, street, trials, etc.) Annd you can pick up Street climb, AKA; Parkour, Free Running, Urban Gymnastics…
if you live near a beach, surf or if you have water near by kayak
Juggling 5 balls is exercise for sure, but like you say, the same motions repeatedly.
Personally I like to do a lot of 3 ball tricks involving body movement, balls behind the back, pirouettes etc. 3 balls I do different movements, it’d be boring as just juggling 3 balls forever otherwise. Plus club juggling, almost all the interesting tricks with clubs are basically doing different movements whilst juggling. Oh and then you do some poi or staff or whatever. More different movements.
I love swimming, but haven’t done it much since last year, as the pool wasn’t so handy. There is something very zen about swimming, when you’re actually trying to improve your efficiency, rather than just pootling up and down the pool without thinking. The ‘art of swimming’, or ‘total immersion’ books are great for this.
Joe
I can’t juggle 3 balls yet, but trying to learn for about 20 minutes with 2-pound exercise balls is a pretty effective workout.
Boxing is fun too. I don’t actually box myself but sometimes I do boxing drills for a workout (ask anyone how jacked I am).Like Kyle (Sugarloafur) said, climbing really is a great complement to unicycling.
Otherwise, just doing bodyweight excersizes like pushups, pullups, planks, supermans, etc. and mixing it up can be fun too. You gotta get creative!
My plan is to rent a canoe at a local state park and row around and around their 255 acre lake. If I like it and go often, I’ll eventually buy a canoe. (I expect it to be fun, because I did it 25 years ago on that same lake.)
This type of rowing has you facing the direction you go, either sitting or kneeling in the boat, using a single paddle which is not attached to the boat. I’ve read about different rowing techniques (for going forward, slowing, turning, turning sharply, backing up, moving the boat sideways, etc). I’m hoping those various techniques can form a complete upper-body workout? Also, it seems that this type of rowing does not use the leg muscles (which is a good thing, meaning I can do it on an “off” day). Does anyone do this? Will it build upper-body strength and overall fitness?
Besides unicycling, this is my main plan for getting fit and losing weight. I’m eagerly awaiting the opening of the boat rental place at the lake, so I haven’t been able to try it yet.
No weight lifting, exersizes, or other sports are going to help unicycling, as much as unicycling a lot.
That could also work with SIB. 
I’m pretty sure he’s interested in better all around fitness by working his upper body, with no connection to unicycling. Unicycling just doesn’t provide that workout.
…and I would argue that some exercises, namely core strength exercises, balance exercises, and cross training would help your unicycling more if you did them and then went unicycling than if you just unicycled.
It’s true.
He’s as jacked as jacked can be!