Functional Outdoors: Five Ways to Take Your Workout Outside This Spring
Temperatures are slowly shifting upwards and soft sunshine is starting to filter through the blossom trees. It’s springtime – and no better time to awaken your body, mind and soul in the natural world.
Exercising outdoors comes with a myriad of benefits: you’ll work harder, feel healthier, more playful, lower blood pressure, stimulate cancer-bashing cells, beat stress and allow serotonin to soar. As the weather brightens, so does your mood.
Breathe in the fresh air and watch your body bloom with these five nature-fuelled workout ideas for spring:
1. Hike yourself happy
Head for the hills, make for the mountains: hiking or taking a long walk can do wonders for your health and fitness. A one-hour trek can burn over 500 calories, depending on effort and incline. Bump up the burn by adding weights in a vest or backpack. With the weather so fair and fresh, being in the great outdoors will be an absolute joy – nature and exercise will work its magic on your mental health, too.
2. Take time off the treadmill
Ever wondered why some treadmills have immersive screens that play images of beaches and beautiful country scenes as you sweat? Running outdoors is perceived as less strenuous and more fun than an indoor running session. Lace up those trainers and jog round your local park. Even city-running can be enjoyable in the spring – keep an eye out for dandelions sprouting up around town and make the most of your urban run with these city workout apps and gadgets.
3. Spring into sports
As the bulbs begin to sprout, allow your social life to as well. Winter isn’t an ideal time to make your fitness more friend-orientated, but spring certainly is. Sign up to a local roller derby club, join a football team or take up tennis. There’s always something going on locally – check out what’s happening and dive on in.
4. Pedal to work
Nothing quite sets you up for the day like a refreshing bike ride on a sun-speckled spring morning. Riding a bicycle to work won’t just help you save money and avoid traffic jams: with all that cycling cardio you’ll also get a functional workout without knowing you’re even working out, boost your happy hormones and help torch fat. Read more about the benefits of cycling here.
5. Use the world as your workout space
As humans, we’ve evolved to adapt to our environment – and our fitness should fit just as naturally with whatever space is available. Got a beach on your doorstep? Go pound the sand and embrace the yogi inside of you. Practice dips and pushups on park benches, bang out some step-ups on a rock, do pullups on a tree branch.
EVO replicates the outdoor world in our workout zones, crafting a functional fitness playground that channels the playful and purposeful nature of spring al fresco workouts. If Mother Nature has different plans and decides to lash down with April showers, you can guarantee our sweat-inducing sanctuary will open your mind to fresh ways of working out. Try us for free.
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