Now Trending: Everybody is talking about…the weather. So this winter, beat the blues by heading outdoors to exercise.
Spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the status quo continues to shift and change, and one emergent trend that shows no sign of disappearing is the migration from the gym to the outdoors. While it’s not a new concept, the considerable surge in outdoor fitness — otherwise known as green exercise — that began during the pandemic has continued to alter how and where we work out.
Green exercise is exactly what it sounds like — any form of physical activity executed outdoors, with a group, or individually, while taking in the surroundings. It wasn’t until the 20th century that athletic clubs and gyms moved traditional outdoor recreation indoors, so it’s simply the pendulum swinging back to a time when we crave a return to a natural setting.
The amazing thing about green exercise is that it couples the health benefits of working out and with enriching advantages from being around nature, improving both physical and mental health. And it can be intentional, incidental or indirect. Whether you’re riding your bike through your neighborhood, walking to the store or doing stretches with a view through your window, you’re benefiting from some level of green exercise.
One of the most advantageous aspects of exercising outdoors is the vast exposure to sunlight. Regular exposure provides our bodies with serotonin and Vitamin D, both of which are especially crucial during the winter. Beyond sunlight, the benefits of outdoor exercise include boosting your mental health, relieving stress, increasing our workout time, burning calories and more. And when you partake in green exercise with a friend or group, you have the added advantage of the joy of socializing.
There are plenty of creative ways to implement green exercise into your workout plan, from heading to a local “open-air” studio to trying yoga in city park, but you can also easily pick up any recreational activity that will bring you outdoors — swimming, golfing, tennis, pickleball and hiking make for excellent green exercise choices.
As the world continues to transform around us, green exercise is reemerging as one of the most advantageous fitness methods. So, whether or not you make the move from the gym to the grass or gravel path, get outside, soak up the sunlight, take a breath of fresh air and enrich yourself in the outdoors.