Make outside your new gym of choice this season!
Now that the weather is nice once again, it’s time to get outdoors and get into shape. There are many ways that physical activity and outdoor environments go hand-in-hand. Providing you with a rugged landscape to explore and traverse, you’ll find working out among nature exciting, challenging, and invigorating. After all, you’re not able to spend a lot of time outdoors in extreme weather conditions, right? If you live in a part of the country subjected to four seasons, a cold winter keeps you indoors.
Give Your Body an Energizing Boost This Season
Here are ten ways to get outdoors and get into shape this spring:
- Get a pet. If you’re not able to adopt, foster. If you can’t foster, volunteer. The main idea is to find a pet who needs a walk and take them out so they get exercise. Not only does it benefit the dog, but it also benefits you. You’ll look forward to the time you spend helping your local animal shelter or being with your four-legged best friend. The dogs will love the attention, and you’ll be raising awareness about the importance of adopting pets.
- Join a group who runs or cycles. Meeting up with your two-legged best friends is also advisable. It allows you to socialize and exercise at the same time. It’s a great way to pass time, breathe in the fresh air, and get familiar with your surroundings. If you’re new to town, this is a great way to meet people with similar interests. You’ll work on your health and fitness as well as your social life.
- Go rock climbing. It allows you to work all of your muscles and improve your hand-eye coordination. You don’t need to scale cliffs or mountains to get good use out of this activity. There are rock climbing walls around the country that you can be a part of. Find one and get acquainted with it. See how fast you can scale it and try to beat your best time. You are your own best competition, by the way.
- Explore the surrounding area by hiking. There are trails all over the country with various types of terrain. Change up your normal exercise routine by finding a trail to explore. Put on sunblock, a hat, and make sure to carry plenty of water with you. If you’ve never tried the trail before, go with a friend or group of friends first until you’ve become familiar with it.
- Do yoga or tai chi in the park. You’ll find plenty of group exercise opportunities in big cities. Go to the park and get lost in the motions of the group leader. A free yoga or tai chi session can be very grounded. It helps you feel better after a long, stressful day. It’s also a great reminder of all the beautiful nature that goes unappreciated when you spend so much time indoors. You can get in a good workout, enjoy a breath of fresh air, and still relate to your peers in a fun and meaningful way.
- Sign up for and train for a marathon. It’s one thing you can check off your bucket list. It also conditions your body to be in the best shape of its life. Running a marathon gives you something to spend months training for. It’s an achievement that many people never get a chance to experience.
- Take the kids geocaching. If hunting down caches using GPS coordinates sounds like fun to you, you’ll love taking your kids out and doing this activity together as a family. Geocaching is an international pastime with people participating in even the smallest towns. Finding caches can be physically demanding which makes it a great form of exercise. You’ll be climbing, squatting, reaching, grabbing, and scouring each time you go out looking for Geocaches.
- Volunteer to clean up the landscape. Help a group or organization clean up a park, highway, trail or stream. You’ll be getting a good workout in and helping make the planet a better place. The people you’ll meet while volunteering will change your life, too. You’ll create lifelong friendships, be responsible for cleaning up your community, and get a lot of physical activity in. A deep level of satisfaction is achieved when you’re doing something good to help the planet and its people.
- Go rowing, kayaking or surfing. Spend time on the water. It’s a great way to get a good workout in and have a lot of fun doing it. If you’re fortunate enough to live by a body of water, use it to your advantage. Row, kayak or surf to your heart’s content. It won’t feel like work if you love what you’re doing!
- Create a strictly outdoor workout routine. Coming up with your own way to exercise outdoors can be a lot of fun. It may take some trial and error getting used to it but there are many ways to condition and strengthen your body outside of the gym. You just need a healthy dose of creativity, and you’ll be able to come up with challenging workouts that you can do outside.
Now that the weather has improved significantly since winter, you’ll be more compelled to spend time outdoors in the sunshine. There are many activities you can participate in to get into better shape physically. The challenge is deciding which benefit your body the most. Choosing multiple options from the list allows you to beat boredom, work your body, and meet new people throughout your community.
Soak Up the Sun and Have Fun While You’re At It
You’ve got a wealth of options that fit your needs for vitamin D. The more time you spend outdoors, soaking up the sun, the more your body benefits from it. That is, of course, after putting on sunscreen and wearing ample protection against harmful UVA and UVB rays. The planet is your gym, and now that you know how to use it that way, you’ll probably want to spend as much time as you can between work and appointments working out outdoors.