If you are looking for a health and wellness boost, step outside!
Simply being out in nature provides a host of mental, physical, and recovery benefits. Even a few minutes a day can improve our mood and our health, leading to reduced stress, better sleep, and less anxiety and depression.
Now, layer in an outdoor workout and you’ve got a real win.
If you’ve been exercising predominantly inside, consider these five benefits of taking your workout outside.
Get Your Vitamin D
Exposing your skin to the sun’s UVB rays is vital for your body to get the Vitamin D it needs. Unlike other nutrients, Vitamin D is not present in large doses in foods so it can be hard to get the recommended daily amount if you are not spending time outside. Vitamin D insufficiency can translate to fatigue, bone pain, muscle pain, infection, obesity, and more.
Get Energized
Combining the endorphin-releasing effect of exercise with the stimulation of nature—a blue sky, trees blowing in the wind and even familiar faces of neighbors and neighborhood dogs—helps to reset and refresh the body and mind.
Get Social
Turn exercise into a social outing by grabbing a friend, neighbor or family member and simply go for a long walk. Or find a great park or open space for some simple exercises. According to the Mayo Clinic, socializing not only staves off feelings of loneliness, but also helps sharpen memory and cognitive skills increase your sense of happiness and well-being, and may even help you live longer.
Get More Green
An outdoor workout could mean eliminating the need to drive to the gym. Put on your tennis shoes and head out the door! Training locations are often closer than you think – especially if you get creative! And using nearby areas not only saves natural resources but it saves you time. If you are near Riverstone Park in Coeur d’Alene, ID, check out Ecosystem for a great workout.
Get Focused
Exercise and movement in an environment with changing weather and terrain force your mind to focus more on the task at hand. Think about walking on a treadmill versus along a rocky trail. The constant changes and shifts under your feet require concentration. Challenging our mind like this for twenty or thirty minutes will not only take it off everyday stresses but gives you a great mental break and refresh.
Time to take your next workout outdoors and start to take advantage of all of nature’s benefits!