The Advantages Of Exercising Outdoors

The simple act of venturing out into nature can have a rejuvenating effect upon our bodies and minds. There is something within all of us that resonates with the living world and is nourished by it. Fresh air, and the proximity of trees and birds and other living things, calls forth our own innate vitality and wildness. We can utilize this when we exercise, when we push our bodies towards greater and greater accomplishments. As we feel the results of our efforts, this can inspire us to continue. A high percentage of people who enroll in gyms and health clubs cancel their memberships within the first few months. The uniform appearance and routine approach of indoor workouts can't compete with the diversity of experience and challenge that we can encounter outdoors in the natural world.

The inside of a gym can look pretty dull and unimaginative. Although it can be convenient to have all that ready-made resistance right there for your muscles to work against, the truth is that even the most inventive routines can quickly grow stale when you're reliant upon machines. The result, more often than not, is that your mind gets bored and your physical progress reaches a plateau. Our muscles quickly grow accustomed to gym equipment and learn to perform the necessary movements with the least expenditure of energy. In short, they stop being challenged in ways that would force them to grow stronger and more flexible and resilient. The outdoors, on the other hand, offers nearly endless challenges to spur our bodies to ever-higher levels of energy, strength, and endurance.

The variety of terrain that we encounter outdoors keeps our bodies and minds constantly engaged. Moving from level ground to steep upwards and downwards slopes - at any pace from a walk to a brisk run - reaches muscles that we seldom use whilst simultaneously increasing our heart rate and respiration. At the same time, the changing scenery with its multitude of colors, sounds, and scents keeps our thoughts and imagination involved with the activity. This, in turn, can motivate us to keep striving.

The opportunities for exerting ourselves outdoors are so various and ever-changing that our bodies don't have much of a chance to become acclimated and complacent. Our muscles, and our cardio-vascular systems, are constantly called upon to respond to new situations. This is the essence of what increases muscular strength and flexibility as well as lung capacity.

Our culture encourages us to spend an inordinate amount of time inside. One consequence of this sort of lifestyle is that we are denied such simple, essential elements of health as fresh air and sunshine. Making a resolution to exercise outdoors can afford us more of both of these things. The amount of sun exposure we receive impacts not only our physical health but also our emotional and mental well-being. We can literally cultivate a "sunnier disposition" if we get out and catch come rays for at least a half an hour a day.

Getting outdoors to exercise can profoundly impact our overall mood and energy level, and also stimulate our bodies to continue to improve long after we may have hit a plateau with more predictable indoor workouts. At the same time, being outdoors exposes us to all the natural elements that, in and of themselves, contribute to health and a positive mental outlook.