Let’s Get Outside For A Warm Weather Workout
It’s fair to say that most of us don’t want to be stuck inside a gym on a beautiful sunny day. Yes, even the regulars! Taking your workout outdoors allows you to soak up the sun and add variety to your workout routine. With the right routine and strategy, you can optimize your warm-weather workouts and stay fit all season long.
The warmer weather makes it easier to be active outdoors. You can use your backyard, a local park, a community recreation center, a beach, or even a lake.
- Here are a few ways to actively enjoy the outdoors:
- Walk with a friend or co-worker on your lunch break
- Go swimming at a community pool or beach
- Take up tennis
- Ride your bicycle
- Try canoeing or kayaking
- Take an outdoor boot camp class
- Join a beach volleyball league
- Do a sunrise yoga class
- Work with a personal trainer that’s willing to take your workouts outdoors
- Take a day trip to a nearby hiking spot
- Add in squats, lunges, and push-ups while walking along the lake
There are many reasons why outdoor training can be better than a gym workout. Whether you power up and down a set of bleachers in your favorite park or mountain bike along a remote wooded trail, the distractions of your surroundings take your mind off the work of working out. In addition, studies have shown that physical activity outdoors lowers a person’s blood pressure and heart rate. It also reduces stress, helps with insomnia, and allows you to get some much-needed vitamin D.
Get Creative
The next time you are at your local park, do a quick survey of what’s around. There will often be pull-up bars and parallel bars. There are so many exercises you can do with both, including pull-ups, triceps dips, and l-sit variations. If all you have is a regular park or playground, you’ll need to get a little more creative. Look for a bench or stairs. These can be used for all sorts of plyometric exercises, including box jumps, step-ups, push-ups, and more. Is there a big grassy area? This is perfect for exercises requiring a bit more space like sprints, long jumps, walking lunges, and others. Search for any type of bars that will work for pull-ups, bodyweight rows, and even dips. Find a level concrete area. This is perfect for jump roping, one of the best outdoor and minimal equipment workouts you can do. Try Out
Workout Bands
Squat jumps using bands for extra resistance
If you’re into calisthenics, here are some exercises you can make either more or less add some variety to your outdoor workouts, one of the very best ways to do so is to add in workout bands to various exercises. Bands can make exercises either more or less difficult, depending on what kind of challenge you’re looking for and they’re an awesome way to work on cool calisthenics and bodyweight skills.
Here are some full-body exercise ideas using bands:
- Squat and band press
- Side lunges with a band shoulder press
- Bodyweight rows using bands
- Squat jumps using bands for extra resistance
- Squat jumps using bands for extra resistance
If you’re into calisthenics, here are some exercises you can make either more or less difficult using bands:
- Push-ups
- Triceps dips
- Pull-ups
- Muscle-ups
- Handstand push-ups
Schedule It
When you schedule your workouts, they become part of a routine. This is really important for your long-term success. Remember, if it’s important to you, you will make the time.
Enjoy Your Workout
Take the time to find a warm-weather activity that you will actually enjoy. If you look forward to your workouts and enjoy what you are doing you are more likely to stick with it.
Don’t Skip It
Skipping a planned workout will get you nowhere! The more you allow yourself to make excuses, or skip a trip to the gym the more likely you are to slip back into old patterns. Don’t make it more difficult than it has to be. You don’t need to spend hours in the gym to get a full-body workout. In fact, you can get a full-body workout in as little as twenty minutes.
Stay Hydrated
Make sure you are staying hydrated. Overall, your body is about 65 percent water, so it makes sense that staying hydrated impacts everything from your body temperature to your mood. Dehydration can also impair performance and your health.
Recommended water intake depends on many factors including your age, activity level, and outdoor heat levels. The U.S. National Research Council recommends 8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses a day. Alternately, you can divide your body weight in half and drink that many ounces. (If you weigh 150 pounds, that would be 75 ounces of water daily.)
Listen to your body! Cramping, fatigue, and other symptoms when you sweat hard during an outdoor workout might mean you are depleting electrolytes. While they do provide some electrolytes, most commercial sports drinks contain sugar, artificial sweeteners, and other unhealthy ingredients.
Heat-Related Problems with Outdoor
Workouts Heat-related illnesses can create symptoms including fatigue, cramps, and edema. Without intervention, they can progress to heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Athletes are especially susceptible to heat exhaustion. Some of the signs of heat-related problems include:
- Fast, weak pulse
- Nausea
- Cramping
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Weakness
- Heavy panting
If you feel any of these symptoms, refrain from physical activity, rest, and seek medical attention if necessary. “Pushing through” these obstacles while you’re working out during summer heat can quickly become an invitation for injury or worse.
In Conclusion
It’s hard to justify training in a dark gym when the sun is still shining outside. So, don’t! It’s time to turn the outdoors into your personal gym. It’s free of charge and gives you a chance to add variety to your workout.
When is the best time to work out? Whenever you can. That’s the best time. Find something that you enjoy doing, but also challenges you. Rather than have it feel like work, find the pleasure in working out! Good luck to you.
