Get Healthy, Get Outside

Staying in shape is important for a good health and a long life, but if you don’t stay motivated you will soon stop exercising and the flab will start coming back. There are a lot of different ways to maintain motivational levels such as mixed workouts and exercising with a buddy, but one of the best ways to keep your workouts more interesting is to simply take them outdoors.

While there might be a lot of eye-candy in the gym, there’s not much else to look at except machines and the same TV shows you’ve already seen a hundred times. But when you step outside you never know what you are going to see or experience. But being outside does more for your workout than just increasing your motivation, it can also enhance your workout.

First off, if you are runner, then running out of doors has a ton of benefits over treadmill running. The most important of these is the varying terrain. Unless you are exercising in a dry lake bed, your outdoor route is bound to be full of varying levels of elevation and surface types. Running up and down hills and across gravel, grass, and asphalt all cause your legs to have to exercise different muscles or part of muscles that just wont get used while on a treadmill. It won’t make you into a marathon runner overnight of course, but it is more beneficial and more interesting than running on a rubber belt.

Second, there’s the sunshine. When the Ultraviolet light from the sun hits your skin, your body produces Vitamin D, an incredibly important nutrient. Vitamin D can also be found in foods such as red meat and fortified milk, but the natural production from sunlight is better (and free). In addition, the exposure to the sun will help you develop a decent base tan which will help you fight off sunburns.

Finally, there’s the air you breathe. In an enclosed space like your gym, the air is stagnant and possibly full of airborne microbes. Most likely you won’t get the plague from the air in your gym, but in most cases the outside air will be much cleaner. When you are working out, your body needs as much oxygen as it can get, and there will be more available oxygen outside than inside.

So next time you workout, whether it’s running or simple stretching and light weights, take it outdoors. Enjoy the sunshine and the clean air while your body produces Vitamin D and soaks up the sun. You’ll feel better, get a better workout, and enjoy the whole process a lot more.