Exercising outdoors is not only fun but also comes with a number of benefits for health and mood. Even a simple outdoor exercise dramatically improves your bodily health and mental well-being. Engaging with nature and inhaling fresh air do wonders in improving mindfulness, balance, coordination, and energy levels. Along with it, exercising outdoors also plays a big role in relieving stress, anxiety, and depression. According to the Piedmont Healthcare Organization, exercising outdoors produces endorphin hormones in our body which boost mood and create pleasure while suppressing stress and anxiety. When you come out of your comfort zone and participate in the community, you start to enjoy life in real. Through interacting with people in your surroundings, new relationships develop and new connections are built with the people around you. In short, there are countless benefits of exercising outdoors that you will learn here. You will learn about how outdoor exercise benefits your cardiovascular, mental, and physical health. You will also learn its role in improving sleep, burning calories, boosting stamina and creativity, improving lung health, and much more. So, let’s start!
Improved physical health
When we compare indoor exercise to outdoor exercise, the second one has more benefits. Due to more challenging terrain, it helps in burning more calories. According to research by fitness experts, fresh air along with ground and wind helps in burning calories themselves. Varied inclines on the ground as well as elevations burn calories faster than any other physical activity. Through this, you shed your extra body fat and feel more active, smart, and beautiful.
In addition to this, regular exposure to sunlight while exercising outdoors dramatically improves your physical health. According to research published on Healthcare and medically reviewed by Katherine, sunlight is a key role player in the production of vitamin D in our body. Due to a lack of outdoor physical activity, our skin fails to get the necessary sunlight proportion. As a result, our body starts facing vitamin D deficiencies along with other health issues.
On the other hand, exercising outdoors enable our skin to absorb plenty of sunlight to prepare vitamin D. The production of vitamin D through sunlight dramatically boosts the function of our immune system. As a result, it doesn’t only reduce the risk of chronic diseases but also enables us to enjoy physical well-being.
Enhanced mental health
To live a happy, prosperous, and contented life, it is crucial to have good mental health. No matter what the circumstances are, our little efforts can play a significant role in enhancing our mental health. One of these little efforts is to exercise outdoors where you can inhale fresh air and enjoy nature. By doing so even for only a few days, you will notice that your mood is improving day by day. You will feel that you’re the happiest person with improved self-esteem and reduced stress levels. All of these are the wonders of exercising in nature.
The World Health Organization highlights that working out in nature is also the best treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress. Many people start developing anxiety when they bound themselves to their rooms for any reason. In contrast, those people who enjoy a happy state of mind come out daily to enjoy the miracles of nature.
If you are under stress, depression, or anxiety, must plan to come out to look into nature. The morning breeze, green grounds workouts, chirping birds, clouds and sky, plants, flowers, and sceneries would take away all your stress. These beautiful gifts of nature generate feelings of pleasure while aiding in lowering stress hormones production. Through this, you won’t only enjoy improved mental health but also improved overall well-being.
Enhanced lung and cardiovascular health
In the past few decades, a high rate of lung and cardiovascular diseases has been seen that proposes serious risks to life. The main reason behind this is the lack of physical activity or exercise in our lives. If you want to reduce the risk of lung and heart disease in your life, make a commitment to exercise outdoors daily.
By exercising in nature, we help our body in absorbing more oxygen from the fresh air. This increased oxygen is beneficial for our body in countless ways. For example, it helps in improving cardiovascular functions and brings efficiency to them. Similarly, exercising with increased oxygen intake helps in improving our blood circulation which in turn enhances cardiovascular health.
Similarly, exposure to fresh air and natural surroundings greatly improves our lung functions, as stated by American Lung Association. When fresh air enters our lungs, it doesn’t only provide oxygen to our blood but improves its circulation. As a result, the clean oxygenated blood efficiently reaches even the thinnest capillaries and provide mineral to organs. Also, it boosts the lungs functioning capacity and improves our respiratory as well as immune systems. To get all these benefits and to empower your lungs and overall well-being, make it a habit to exercise outdoors daily.
Improved cognitive function and sleep
Along with the above benefits, it helps in improving our cognitive function by increasing our focus and attention. When we perform outdoor activities, an increased level of fresh and highly oxygenated air moves into our lungs. Our blood absorbs this oxygen and reaches the depth of every organ, including the brain. This highly oxygenated blood does wonders in the brain and speeds up its functions and processes. As a result, you notice an increase in your creativity as well as memory. You start enjoying a better focus and retain things for longer in your memory due to its improved functioning.
Research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology by the American Physiological Society proves that exercising in fresh air improves cognitive functioning that further results in improved sleep. When you have improper or inadequate sleep at night, it badly affects your performance for the next day. Many people suffer from sleep problems because they have no physical activities in their lives. To deal with such issues, start exercising outdoors daily. When your body exposes to natural light and fresh air, the production of pleasure-creating hormones speeds up. When this happens, these pleasing-creating hormones suppress the production of stress-causing hormones. As a result, your mind becomes relaxed and the quality of your sleep improves.
Greater variety in workout options
To end the boredom and to start living a healthy life, there are endless possibilities for outdoor activities. You can walk, jump, hike on the mountain, run, skip a rope, or start doing cardio workouts. Besides these, there are hundreds of other simple to complex activities that you can perform outdoors to boost your physical activity.
Instead of doing the same thing every day, assure flexibility and creativity in your workouts. Taking part in different activities would also make you stay committed with greater fun and enhanced engagement. Also, it is the best strategy to reduce the risk of boredom.
Replacing indoor exercises with outdoor exercises is an outstanding approach. When we spend time exercising outdoors, we avail more opportunities to explore our surroundings while contributing to a green environment. Outdoor exercises aid in reducing carbon footprints while increasing respect for natural environments. The green grass, beautiful sceneries, cool breeze, and blue sky make us enjoy these blessings of life. All of these combine together to create a sense of happiness that ultimately improves our well-being. A higher level of engagement with nature helps us stay happy, joyful, and physically fit due to improved well-being.
Greater opportunity for socialization
MercyCare Health Organization effectively elaborates the health benefits of socializing outdoors and finding greater opportunities. When you come out of your home to a playground or at any public place for exercise, you meet other people. You get the opportunity to build new connections and new relationships. Socializing with others brings so much happiness in life and helps us grow in several ways. Research shows that sharing outdoor experiences dramatically helps in relieving stress and anxiety. As a result, we become happier people with improved social connections and better well-being.
Similarly, boredom also comes from staying inside the home and cutting down all social connections for longer. All these things give rise to negative emotions that ultimately lead to stress and anxiety. To get rid of all these negative things, let’s find opportunities for adventure in the outdoors. The first step is to make a goal to exercise outdoors daily for at least 15-20 minutes with your nearby people. When you come out in the beautiful nature regularly, more doors of adventure would keep on opening for you. With your friends, look for creative outdoor exercise opportunities such as hiking, rock climbing, skiing, etc. This increased sense of adventure and excitement would make you feel lively, joyful, and full of spark. As a result, your overall well-being will increase and you would enjoy a happier and healthier life.
Improved balance and coordination
Have you ever got the chance to visit a multi-terrain area or a hill station? If you ever go there, you would feel as if your body is losing balance and coordination with the surface. Due to lots of ups and downs, many people develop fatigue and return to poor health mainly due to not exercising outdoors. Research shows that involving in outdoor exercising activities such as jumping rope, running, walking, bike riding, and yoga, etc., fantastically improves balance and coordination.
To avoid suffering from these issues, boost your stamina and improve your balance and bodily coordination through exercise. The best practice for this purpose is to exercise outdoors so that your body builds stamina and strength for it. Then, you would never face any issues visiting the varied terrain and unstable surfaces. Also, engaging yourself in outdoor exercises helps in reducing the risks of falls while enjoying your trip. Also, you encounter new challenges in your surroundings when you exercise outdoors. Dealing with them on your own creates a feeling of accomplishment and a sense of achievement. Upon accomplishing a challenge, your sense of accomplishment increases that further creates happiness and coordination along with improving overall well-being.
Reduced healthcare costs
When you start being lazy and fail to engage yourself in enough physical activities, your body becomes prone to diseases. You would start being sick more frequently and ultimately your healthcare costs would increase. The addition of healthcare costs to already poor health would only cause you more mental stress and more anxiety. All these things ruin the charm of life and lead a person to constant depression. Therefore, it’s crucial to develop the habit of exercising outdoors to lower the risk of chronic diseases. When you become internally strong, your healthcare costs decrease and you enjoy good overall well-being.
A recent research proves the fact that exercising outdoor daily helps seniors save their precious money from spending on health care. Similarly, a study published in the British Medical Journal highlighted that those people who maintain a physically active lifestyle with outdoor exercises for years rarely claim Medicare. They are the ones that save the most money on their healthcare costs and thus enjoy a healthy and financially stable life. There are thousands of other studies and strong research that support the fact that exercising outdoors greatly and positively contributes to a physically fit and healthy life with minimal illnesses.
Conclusion
In fact, exercising outdoors is not only beneficial for enjoying good physical health but it also yields tons of other benefits. Through exercising outdoors, you enjoy good mental health, improved sleep, enhanced mood, good lung functioning, and improved balance and coordination. In addition, it also helps you in getting rid of unwanted calories, unnecessary stress, and cardiovascular issues. Moreover, exercising outdoors opens new opportunities for you to socialize, explore, adventure, and accomplish big goals. Socializing with the community always improves a person’s mental health and creates pleasure and happiness. It leads to an increase in opportunities for participating in local events and activities as well. Also, it gives rise to an increased sense of community involvement that imposes a very good impact on health. On top of everything, exercising outdoors helps you save a large amount of money by cutting down your healthcare costs.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s make outdoor exercise a vital part of your daily routine to enjoy a better state of the happiest life. A life with improved mental health, physical fitness, and a strong connection with the nature and community.
