Take Your Workout Outside!

Seeing the lovely views of the park on your jog isn’t the only benefit to exercising outdoors. Working out outside has a 50% greater effect on your mental health than exercising at a gym, according to a 2008 study out of Scotland. Researchers at the University of Glasgow studied 2,000 active people and compared walking, running, and biking outdoors and at a gym. Only the outdoor activities had positive effect on lowering the risk of mental health issues.

The study didn’t look at “serious mental health issues,” as one researcher put it, but more everyday struggles like sleeping troubles, mild depression, stress, and coping issues. While neighborhood streets, backyards, and homes were studied, the biggest effects came from exercising in forest-like areas and parks. Lead researcher Richard Mitchell says that, “[T]hat makes sense with what we thought we knew. That is, the brain likes to be in the natural environment and it reacts to being there by turning down our stress response.” Researchers recommend getting outside to exercise at least once a week.

The Huffington Post reports that other studies have found benefits to being outside as well, like that walking through a park rather than a city street can help children with ADHD to focus, or that sun exposure can increase your vitamin D levels and speed healing from minor injuries.

Just think about how much your stress levels would decrease when you don’t have to worry about racing other gym users to the only empty elliptical machine, or don’t need to fear contracting a wart from the locker room floor. Now that you’re convinced to get outside, here are some exercises to try at a park with a playground.

• Walking, jogging, or running through a park is a top way to lower your stress levels, according to researchers, so get out there at least once a week.
• Each time you come across a bench on your walk or run, stop to do a few tricep dips. Sit on the bench with your hands gripping the edge, about shoulder-width apart. Push your bottom forward off the bench with your legs extended in front of you with your knees bent slightly. Lower your bottom nearly to the ground, then use your arms to push yourself back up. Repeat 5 times
• Do pull-ups on jungle gym bars. Since jungle gyms are made for children, you might not find an ideal height. Parents magazine advises if there’s a bar about 3 or 4 feet off of the ground, hold it underhand and extend your legs forward until your chest is under the bar. With your feet hip-width apart and your hands shoulder-width apart, pull your chest up to the bar, then straighten your arms again. Repeat 5 times.
• Parents also has a great ab-buster to do on a swing set. Sit on a swing, holding the chains, and lean about 45 degrees back. Hold your legs out in front of you in a slight “V” shape and cross one calf over the other, repeating for an abdominal workout.
• Use the rim of a sandbox as a step block. Step up on it with one foot, then the other, then step down with one foot, then the other. Repeat 30 times.