The Top Benefits of Exercising Outdoors

23rd April 2020

The Top Benefits of Exercising Outdoors

Everyone is aware of the importance of regular exercise, but where you do your exercise could have an enormous impact on your health and wellbeing. Exercising outdoors can bring a multitude of benefits because it combines two major health-enhancing— activities – physical activity with being outdoors. Additionally, this does not have to be strenuous activity as even a daily walk can bring many benefits. 

Currently, it is essential that you are abiding by Government movement restrictions but read on to discover why exercising outdoors is so beneficial.

Better Mood & Reduced Depression

Any form of exercise is good for your mental health but performing outdoor exercise has been shown to reduce anger and boost mood, mainly due to the exposure to sunlight which enhances vitamin-D production. Even light exercise outdoors can bring these benefits and this is particularly important in a time where people need to take care of their mental health more than normal.

Low Cost

Gym memberships, competitive sports and even purchasing home workout equipment can be a major cost, but when the world is your gym you do not have to pay a penny which is ideal for those that need to watch their finances. There should be no cost for physical and mental wellbeing and exercising outdoors ensures that this is the case.

The only money you need to invest is towards your running shoes, and even those don’t have to be special. By combining average shoes with good insoles you can cut down the cost to bear minimum. Specialized insoles that provide extra stability and comfort can be easily found on websites like Protalus.

Accessibility

Similarly, exercising outdoors is easy because you can always find somewhere suitable whether this is a local park or even running on the streets. For those that live in the capital, you can easily get a train to the many beautiful parks throughout the city, such as a train travelling to Finsbury Park which is an area that is perfect for exercise.

Improve Self Esteem

The impact that regular exercise has on self-esteem is well documented, but interestingly it seems that exercising outdoors can produce greater results with walking, cycling, fishing, gardening and horseback riding being just a few options for self-esteem enhancing outdoor activities to try. Self-esteem is an issue that many people struggle with so finding the best ways to improve this is always helpful and could make a big difference to your entire life.

These are four major benefits to exercising outdoors but there are many others too. Physical activity and being out in nature can enhance both physical and mental health, plus it is easy and free to exercise outside whether this is a daily walk, running, cycling, playing sport in the park or any other form of exercise.