Why You Need to Exercise Outdoors: Part 2
In the last episode, you learned about the problems with pollution in gyms—problems that are often beyond the scope of your control. But don’t despair, because in this episode you’re going to learn about how you can use nature to heal your body, and the best ways to exercise outdoors.
Ben Greenfield
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Why You Need to Exercise Outdoors: Part 2
The Therapy & Benefits Of Outdoors Exercise
In my podcast episode, “Forest Bathing, Sleep Hacking, Cell Phones & Water: The Underground Guide To Lowering Cortisol When Nothing Else Seems To Be Working,” my guest Evan Brand and I discuss the amazing research that shows that something as simple as spending time in the trees, walking in forests, exercising on nature trails, and hiking outdoors exposes you to tiny particles and phytochemicals that plants release, and this in turn helps decrease salivary cortisol, depression, and anger.
Also, in the episode How To Use Cold Weather To Lose Weight, you learn that stepping outside the constant comfort of air conditioning and heaters, and instead getting frequent exposure to temperature fluctuations such as cold air, snow, rain, sun, heat, and other environmental variables can increase stress resilience, burn more calories, increase cardiovascular performance, and get you more fit quickly.
Now, a new article, “Natural environments, ancestral diets, and microbial ecology: is there a modern “paleo-deficit disorder”?” highlights research from as early as the 1960s, which shows that early-life experience with microbiota and other bacteria found in outdoor situations, along with environmental stress, can actually positively influence longevity and health outcomes. The author recognized the co-evolutionary relationship between microbiota and the human host. The article points out the fact that there is lower health, more anxiety and depression, and increased incidence of immune-related disease in developed nations that have become too sanitized—specifically too sanitized with respect to not being outside around dirt, trees, animals, and other natural areas of “microbial ecology” (which, by the way, is far different than manmade bacteria and synthetic toxins and chemicals in gyms.
In a 2010 Japanese study of shinrin-yoku (defined as “taking in the forest atmosphere, or forest bathing”), researchers found that elements of the environment, such as the odor of wood, the sound of running stream water, and the scenery of the forest, can provide relaxation and reduce stress, and those taking part in the study experienced lower levels of cortisol, a lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure.
This should all really come as no surprise. Scientists have long known that sunlight can lower depression, especially depression from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). A 2007 study from the University of Essex found that something as simple as a walk in the countryside reduces depression in 71% of participants. These same researchers found that nature therapy, also known as “ecotherapy,” and spending as little as five minutes in a natural setting, whether walking in a park or gardening in the backyard, can improve mood, self-esteem, and motivation.
Other health care professionals are also finding that being in a natural environment has numerous benefits for kids, and can combat the obesity, anxiety, depression, and other health issues that arise with “nature-deficit disorder.” In an article at WebMD, nurse Stacy Bosch of the Clark County School District in Nevada is cited as seeing many students who are overweight or have type-2 diabetes, and she notes that, more often than not, these kids spend very little time outside. To get the kids and their parents away from the TV or computer and increase their physical activity can help control weight and blood sugar, Bosch writes a prescription for the entire family to go to one into nature areas and simply take a walk.
How to Exercise Outdoors
So now that you know that constantly being indoors in a gym may not be the best thing for your health, and that being outdoors in nature provides you with a myriad of benefits, what are some ways you can start exercising outdoors? Here are a five Quick And Dirty Tips:
1. Walk More
Consider walking the kids to school or the bus stop in the morning, hoofing it to pick up a bag of groceries or run errands at lunchtime, and walking the dog or taking a stroll after dinner each evening. Want to step it up a notch? Grab a kettlebell, dumbbell, sandbag, heavy backpack, or other weight and challenge yourself to walk 1, 2, or 3 miles.
2. Find A Park
Anytime I’m traveling, I use Google maps “find nearby” function to find the nearest local park where I can go do dips and push-ups on park benches, jog or run on the park trails, do yoga in a quiet grassy area, or even do skips, hops, bounds, and sprints on a wide open section of grass.
3. Build A Backyard Gym
In my “Strongman Workouts for Fat Loss, Muscle Gain, and Performance,” I give you plenty of backyard and outdoor gym ideas, including:
Make A Sandbag: I made my sandbag in about 30 minutes by purchasing a couple military duffel bags off Amazon, then putting pea gravel into plastic contractor bags, and putting the gravel-filled plastic bags into the duffel bags. Here are some good sandbag instructions.
Get A Tire: I pulled into my local tire store and asked them if they had any old heavy tires they didn’t need anymore. They gave me four of them for free, and even offered to help toss them into the back of the pickup truck for me! Afterwards, I realized that a true Strongman probably would have put the tires into the truck himself.
Hunt Down A Tree: Whenever I go on a hike, I make it a goal to find at least one log and carry it for a little while, either overhead or clutched in my arms or on my shoulders. But the past couple times, I’ve taken the heavy logs home so that I have them in my garage for easy access.
Find A Rock: My nearby river has some nice big rocks that I also took home to my yard. These kind-of-big river rocks are smooth and don’t give you as many scrapes and cuts as some of the rougher varieties.
Push A Car: Have a manual car or truck, and a driveway or access to a big empty parking lot? Simply put your vehicle into neutral and get ready for the workout of your life.
Want even more? Check out my Cropfit newsletter, in which I talk about how a nineteenth-century farmer would be pushing, pulling, lifting, hoisting, bending, twisting, and moving all day long. While you may not have a farm, and you may not have a desire to build a giant wooden barn, you can certainly inject a little extra fitness in your daily routine with activities such as:
Going to your local hardware store, buying a rope, attaching it to a tire or cinder block, and practicing dragging an object in your driveway or backyard
Planting a small patio garden and going outside (moving!) to water, pick, plant, and care for your plants,
Going to a park that has a safe and sturdy wooden fence and climbing over fences, under fences, or even balancing on top of fences
Finding a heavy river rock and carrying it up or down a hill, or (more practically) building a wall, firepit, gardening area, etc. in your backyard with large rocks
4. Hike
Hiking is also a great sport to do with friends or family, since it generally allows you to talk and explore while you’re doing it. With a little research about your local area, you can often find short hikes that offer good scenery without too much difficulty or special equipment. More difficult hikes with weight packs, boulder scaling and even stops to carry heavy rocks or logs can provide you with an extreme fitness challenge that’s just as tough as any hard class you might take at a gym.
5. Find Water
From swimming to kayaking and canoeing to paddleboarding, swimming in rivers, lakes, or the ocean gives you the benefits of cold thermogenesis, a non-weight bearing form of exercise, and exposure to even more elements of nature—without all the chlorine and mold issues I talked about in the last episode. Beach workouts that involve sprints, burpees, push-ups, mountain climbers, lunges, and squats can easily be combined with forays into the water for freestyle and underwater swimming.
I’ll bet you have plenty more ideas about how you can exercise outdoors, so I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have more questions about why you need to exercise outdoors, or your own outdoor workout ideas to add, then leave your thoughts over at the Facebook GetFitGuy page!
Runner image courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.