If you are a member of a gym, that’s fine, you still need to do your resistance workout at least twice a week to keep your muscles and bones healthy and strong, but I am a strong believer in outdoor activities. You can get and stay in excellent shape without a gym membership. You can get in shape while doing your workout outside and have more fun with it. It is great to do any kind of cardio-exercise in the gym, I almost never do my cardio-workout inside.

My favorite outdoor activities :

• Running out of my house to the closest park - do few sets of chin ups on a bar or tree branch, push ups, leg lifts for your abs and run back

• Swimming - in an outdoors swim club, lake, ocean

• Rowing - It is great to row on the lake for an hour in the summer and jump in the lake for a short swim after. When I was in a rowing team, I was in the best shape of my life

• Kayaking - you can buy your own kayak and a kayak rack for your car and get out on the weekend to the lake or ocean and get your great cardio-workout done and have lots of fun with it. You can do double kayaking with a fried or wife, husband or just make it a great date

• Surfing - If you live close to the ocean, become a surfer. Pick easy, safe spot and start surfing. I am a surfer and these is my favorite outdoor activity. It is a great cardio-workout and you practice your balance too.

• Playing - soccer, tennis, beach volleyball, beach soccer - you need to pick games where you run a lot, so it is intensive, while you have fun with your friends. I love beach and ocean, and it can be the best place to play volleyball or soccer.

• Hiking, or more challenging - Summiting, which means, climbing the hills in your area is a great cardio-exercise

• Biking - Bike to work if you can and connect your workout with commuting

• Walking - If you are looking for more relaxing outdoor activity, walking is fantastic mind relaxing thing to do. There is a huge difference between walking on the treadmill in the gym and walking in a beautiful park or your neighborhood

• Cross country skiing - the best endurance-exercise

Benefits of working out outside:

• Great feeling
• Fresh air
• Healthy moderate sun exposure (you really need some)
• Increased immunity system - You don’t get sick that often
• Relaxed mind

When you are out there on the beach, in the woods, in the park, don’t forget to pick up a piece of trash - plastic bag, or piece of garbage, on your way out to keep the nature beautiful.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 8:0 1 and is filed under Active lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.