5 Reasons Why You Need to Exercise Outside

With all of this focus on getting to the gym to run on a treadmill or do pull-ups on a bar, many people have lost focus of one of the best places to exercise: outside. It’s free, it’s easy, and it hosts a number of great benefits. Let’s take a look at the 5 reasons why you should be getting out of the gym and into your local park for a great workout.

5. Change of Scenery

Do you really enjoy walking into the same crowded gym at the same time every day to stare at the same set of machines? Getting outside provides you with a much needed change of scenery. You won’t be packed into the gym, bumping shoulders with the other gym goers. What’s more, you won’t have to wait your turn for machines. It’s time to ditch the overplayed pop songs and crowded gym floor for the greens and blues of being outside.

4. Fresh Air

Fresh air alone is reason enough to take your workouts outdoors. Going into a gym, you’re surrounded by stuffy air. What’s more, if someone is sick in the gym, there’s a good chance that you’ll be getting sick soon after. Why suffer through breathing in that stale air when you could be enjoying fresh air outside?

3. More Challenges

Treadmills are preset and predictable. Weight machines force you to stay in line and limit how much you can do. Exercising outside provides you with a long list of challenges. If you’re a runner, take your workouts to a park with hills. If you’re a weightlifter, find a fitness path that has sprints in between each obstacle. Compared to the gym, you’re offered more intense challenges, which means you’re likely to burn more calories as well.

2. Peaceful Mind & Better Mood

Being outside just puts you in a better mood. The exception would be if you’re standing outside in a downpour. Studies show that having a connection to the outside world helps to improve your mood and mindset. You take yourself out of the hustle bustle of the busy city life and suddenly you’re surrounded by the sounds of nature. Best of all, you’re exercising, which means your body is releasing feel good chemicals. Pair nature with those same feel food chemicals and it’s amazing how great you’ll feel once you unplug.

1. Sunshine & Vitamin D

What’s goes best with fresh air, a change of scenery, and a better mood? Sunshine.

Getting some sun will help to increase your Vitamin D production. Vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients as it plays a critical role in dozens of processes in the body. Most notably, it supports heart health, balances hormone levels, boosts your immune system, and guards against depression. Just be sure to put sunblock on. You’ll still get the same benefits. The sun is strongest midday so if you want to avoid sunburn then exercise in the morning or evening before sunset.

Tell Us What You Think!

Do you exercise outside?

What are the benefits you get from your outdoors workout?

Let us know in the comments below!