Exercise is crucial to living a healthy lifestyle. It really doesn’t matter if you exercise indoors or outdoors. With that being said, there are benefits to moving your exercise routine outdoors. After being cooped up all winter, a change of scenery does everyone a favor. Although the weather in Colorado has a mind of its own, we anticipate spring bringing warmer days. On these days we have a chance to change our routine and get some fresh air! When we walk outdoors our sheer focus isn’t towards the exercise itself. We are taking in the flowers blooming, the birds, the squirrels, or the cars passing by. Walks can put daily stressors on hold while you enjoy your time outdoors.
Outdoor Activity
Activities that are outdoors allow for different opportunities that we may not receive indoors. For example, in the spring we prepare our gardens by pulling weeds, working the ground, or hunting down all your gardening tools. Although it isn’t in your home gym, the constant moving means you are participating in physical activity. When you incorporate the daily task of exercise into enjoyable hobbies, it moves higher up on your to-do list.
Walking
The simplicity of walking outdoors makes it an easy and affordable form of exercise. When we take it from indoors on the treadmill to outside, we are varying the intensity and difficulty level. For instance when walking on a treadmill, it has a perfectly even surface. While walking outdoors provides you with natural increasing and decreasing terrain. Going on a walk around the block or up the county road could be sloped in places giving you an increased intensity level.
When you are scoping new places to walk outdoors take slope and surfaces into consideration.
- Walking on a gravel road with uneven sand and different sized rocks can create a higher difficulty level of walking.
- If you struggle with balance, consider sticking to flat and even surfaces when walking.
- People with weak ankles are often advised to practice walking on uneven surfaces to help strengthen their ankles.
- When uneven terrain is approached cautiously, it can help build stability.
- Another perk of walking on gravel, grass, or other soft surfaces, is that they absorb impact on your joints.
- This is not to say avoid exercising on firm surfaces, but when you have the opportunity to walk on softer surfaces, do so.
- An option that is usually outdoors, which is an even surface and absorbs impact, is a school track!
Benefits
Most importantly, exercise is crucial to living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It strengthens our heart, skeletal muscles, and keeps our bones dense. Outdoor activity helps break up some of the monotony of walking on a treadmill or exercise videos we do all winter. At this time in our life many of us are working from home which makes leaving the house something to look forward to. Therefore, freshening your routine with outdoor physical activity will help keep motivation high, while giving you that dose of fresh air we all need.
