April showers bring May flowers. We love the transitioning from Winter to Spring but love the warmer weather even more for a few reasons. One is outdoor workouts and outdoor exercise!
Not only is exercising outside great because of the environment, but it also has great benefits for the body and the mind, just like exercising outside in the winter. Though exercising outdoors does not always lead to increased adherence or facilitate enjoyment, it instead could produce larger health gains by encouraging positive behaviours.
Exercising outdoors has a strong extrinsic motivation factor. Extrinsic motivation is the motivation that arises from an external factor, like seeing nature or receiving praise for completing a task. The opposite, intrinsic motivation, is the motivation that arises internally from the person, like the reward of satisfaction of completing the task. Exercising outdoors allows for escapism and increases enjoyment in everyday life, which are other extrinsically motivating factors.
Have you ever tried a workout within a gym and then do it outside and it felt incredibly easier? Well, the colour green does that to you. Research is showing that the green leaves, grass, and plants that we see when we are exercising outside decrease our rate of perceived exertion (how hard we feel like we are working) and lower any disruption in our mood.
Outdoor exercise does not only keep your mood up, but it also helps your self-esteem. Many reading this are probably familiar with the research showing the correlation between exercise and self-esteem. Exercising outdoor, even in small bouts of 5 minutes, on a tree-lined street is enough to start causing increases in self-esteem and other mental health indicators. Studies are finding that even something as simple as that causes increases in enjoyment and self-belief in one’s abilities and overall opinion of oneself.
Research is also showing that somatic anxiety, the physical manifestation of anxiety symptoms, is significantly decreased with outdoor exercise. More research is being done on this correlation, but we think that this has to do with fewer people being around or the feeling of being in a small space where people could easily see you. With the sky being the limit to outdoor exercise, it highlights that the physical environment that one exercise in is just as important as what the person is doing while they are exercising.
With exams ending this week, we hope you all start taking advantage of the beautiful weather we should be expecting over the next five months and feel the benefits of outdoor exercise!
Resources:
Gladwell VF, Brown DK, Wood C, Sandercock GR, Barton JL. The great outdoors: how a green exercise environment can benefit all. Extrem Physiol Med. 2013;2(1):3. Published 2013 Jan 3. doi:10.1186/2046-7648-2-3
Hug SM, Hartig T, Hansmann R, Seeland K, Hornung R. Restorative qualities of indoor and outdoor exercise settings as predictors of exercise frequency. Health Place. 2009;15(4):971–980.
Adam Akers, Jo Barton, Rachel Cossey, Patrick Gainsford, Murray Griffin, and Dominic Micklewright
Environmental Science & Technology 2012 46 (16), 8661-8666
DOI: 10.1021/es301685g
Lahart I, Darcy P, Gidlow C, Calogiuri G. The effects of green exercise on physical and mental wellbeing: a systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Published 2019 Apr 15. Doi:10.3390/ijerph16081352
Lawton E, Brymer E, Clough P, Denovan A. The Relationship between the Physical Activity Environment, Nature Relatedness, Anxiety, and the Psychological Well-being Benefits of Regular Exercisers. Front Psychol. 2017;8:1058. Published 2017 Jun 26. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01058