5 Outdoor Workouts That Are More Fun Than Hitting The Gym
Getting in a good workout can sometimes be challenging when you have a busy schedule. Many people probably get home from a long day at work and think that exercising is the last thing they want to do.
A great alternative is to get outside and try some different types of physical activity that also make a great workout. Here are some fantastic choices to get you outdoors getting some great exercise.
1. Golf
Most people think of golf as a sport where people ride in electric carts and don’t get much exercise. While riding in a cart will undoubtedly cut down on the amount of exercise you get, you will still do a fair amount of walking even when riding in the cart.
To take your exercise level up a little higher, try walking the course with your bag on a pull cart. A typical 18-hole course is going to be about 6,000 yards long. Even if you were to walk that in a straight line, you are walking around 3.5 miles.
Ask any golfer in the world, and they will tell you that you never walk a course in a straight line but instead spend a lot of time walking from side to side. For an even more challenging workout, do all this while you carry your bag on your back.
2. Roller Hockey
While roller hockey is certainly a sport that you can play indoors or outdoors, there are plenty of places where you can play roller hockey quite easily outdoors. This activity can give you a great workout even if you are simply practising with a pair of skates, a stick, and a ball or a puck.
If you can find local pick-up games or leagues in your area, you will take your workout level up significantly. Trying to skate, turn, and stop while stickhandling a ball or a puck is hard enough. The workout is far more intense when you add other players trying to take the ball or puck from you.
3. Run on the Road
Maybe one of the best cardiovascular exercises you can get is to put on a good pair of running or walking shoes and hit the road. Even walking 1 mile at a moderate pace will get your heart rate up quite a bit.
One of the reasons people love a workout like this is because there is so little equipment involved. The added benefit is that this is the type of activity that you can do practically anywhere out of doors.
4. Pickleball
This incredibly popular sport is sweeping through the sports world with ever-growing popularity. One of the great things about the sport is you don’t really need much more equipment beyond a paddle and a ball.
While there are regulation pickleball courts, this is a sport you could just as easily play at your local tennis court. The amount of running, stopping, and starting you do, plus swinging your paddle makes it an excellent workout for the entire body. The best part is that you do not need to have the best pickleball paddles for beginners to get a great workout playing this sport.
5. Hiking
There are plenty of parts of the world where you can find some great hiking trails near you. Again this is an endeavour where you don’t need much equipment beyond a good set of hiking shoes to get started.
When you are just getting started with hiking, finding flat, winding trails is a great way to enjoy an outdoor experience while getting some great exercise. When you begin adding elevation changes that will have you climbing and descending, you start working muscles you may have never known you had.
One of the things that all of these fantastic outdoor activities have in common is that they require very little equipment to participate in these sports. If you are looking for some variety in your workout routine, try one or all of these fantastic outdoor activities to increase your fitness level and have a lot of fun.