Your Physical Health: Outdoor Exercise
Outdoor exercise is heavily underrated and checks multiple “deep health” boxes. Get into it.
Good Morning!
Last week, I talked about what holistic health looks like, and how it’s way more than just serums and supplements. It’s actually stuff like circadian rhythm, mindfulness, and outdoor activity.
This isn’t necessarily new information, either. Anyone who’s played a sport like baseball or soccer recreationally can attest to the idea that outdoor activity is objectively great for you. So why am I telling you about how beneficial it is, when a simple google search could break it down for you?
First, some background: This newsletter was created to be — if nothing else — a reminder to you to engage in some form of self-care, education, or relaxation throughout the week. Your relaxation may even just come from reading the blog itself. So with that being said, I’m well within my right to publish information that’s already out there, just in case you haven’t seen it.
Second, even if outdoor exercise is already a part of your routine now, there are physiological nuances that The Mayo Clinic or Healthline may have missed that I’m here to provide you with. What you learn today might reinforce a routine to become a lifelong habit, rather than something you’re engaging in now but may drop later on.
Outdoor Exercise: An American Priority
After the pandemic kept us inside for nearly 365 days (depending on where you lived), The American Council on Exercise launched a campaign to increase the availability of shared-use spaces like parks, school lots, and other outdoor recreation spaces for outdoor exercise.
Why it took a global viral outbreak to trigger this call to action for so many heavily-underutilized spaces is beyond me. But the closures of our regular business operations forced us to be proactive and, even more important, creative with our exercise.
This article from Polar.com, whose technology is among the leaders in cardiovascular training, cites a multitude of studies that provide deeper context for the benefits of outdoor training.
In Florida, a state with no lack of vitamin D availability, a 2007 study on 300 obese and non-obese individuals found a larger amount of the obese individuals were (surprisingly) deficient in Vitamin D. Controlling for most other variables, the data skewed in favor of outdoor activity — meaning those who spent time outdoors were almost 50% less likely to be deficient.
Vitamin D serves so many roles in your immune system and body that it’s hard to overstate it’s importance. As an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuro-protective agent, it’s partially responsible for supporting immune health, bone and muscle development, and brain function.
Suffice it to say, it’s paramount to have in our diet, whether consumed via the food we eat or by soaking up sun.
Your Body is Literally Asking For Outdoor Exercise
What’s more — our psyche is geared toward enjoying outdoor exercise, and even handling it, more than indoor exercise.
A study at a Sydney, Australia boys’ school found that outdoor exercises (compared to indoors) in their PE program yielded better results in strength, endurance, and body composition. In each outdoor workout, the speed of each exercise, heart rate, and blood lactate levels (or indicators of fatigue) were superior compared to the indoor results.
This small study provided some proof that exercise outdoor essentially seems less difficult, too, even if it’s virtually the same workload.
The mental health aspect of an outdoor workout also comes into play when you consider the dopamine rush from exercise combining with a visually pleasing landscape around you.
It’s no wonder Central Park in New York City is filled with runners, cyclists, outdoor HIIT classes, and softball games this time of year (although I see some year-round exercise-freaks in the park doing their thing, too).
The availability of verdant, open space could be the most beneficial thing any city looking to improve their population’s well-being. It’s why ACE’s program mentioned above is so important — if people understand that easy-access exercise is readily available to them, they can be more inclined to exercise on their own without feeling forced to do it.
Indeed, our perception of nature and how we feel while exercising in it appears to have a notable effect on physical health. A 5-year follow-up cohort study of older people in Japan (Takano et al. 2002) found that those who perceived that they had access to walkable green spaces were more likely to live longer, even after taking age, socioeconomic status, gender, and marital status into account. So, even simply thinking that we can go for a walk outside in nature can emphasize our physical wellbeing.
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