Exercise is always a good idea, whether you are working out at home, the gym, or outside, but there is something to be said about exercising in nature. Being outside is something most of us can do these days. We can get anything we can dream of delivered right to our door at the touch of a button. We can also work in front of a screen for long hours without getting out of our pajamas, so it’s safe to say that most of us don’t get as much time as we used to outdoors.
You might think that there is nothing wrong with this, that your life is perfectly efficient and working like clockwork, but nature can help you physically, mentally, and emotionally in more ways than one. The following are five significant reasons why you should consider working out in nature more often.
Live at a slower, calmer pace
There’s a famous quote by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson that everyone should come across at least once in their life. Emerson writes how we should “adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
More than any other generation, we live in a world that’s so fast, it’s exhausting to keep up with, and yet, most of us do. We must address work issues at any time of day, even during dinner. International items must be at our door by the next day, and we must reply to emails this second. What’s worse is that when something isn’t as quick as we expect it to be, we feel frustrated and impatient.
Exercising in nature can remind you that living at a slower, calmer pace is critical. Otherwise, you are merely living for the next step in your life and never enjoying the present moment. Gym workouts have their advantage, and if you take steroids such as those by trusted syn pharma, then your activities are often highly intense. So without giving up your high-intensity gym workouts, why not incorporate gentler exercises in nature, where your body can recover, as well as your mental health?
Welcome everything as it is
The home and the gym provide a controlled environment for your workout where things shouldn’t go wrong unless the machine breaks down or an annoying gym rat ruins your workout session.
Exercising in nature goes a little differently. You are in an environment where there isn’t a clear path. There are bent trees, flowers grow erratically, and wildlife has a say about where you can trespass. These are essential qualities that you need to experience to remind yourself that life is unexpected. No matter how much you plan, there will always be something you haven’t planned for, and nature reminds you to welcome everything as it is.
A time to be an observer
Much like a hamster on a wheel, it’s easy to fall into a cyclical pattern when working out at the gym, where you get on your machine and watch others with judgment. Although you can fall into the same trap when working out outside, nature is an excellent example of a place where entities practice stillness and observance. Look at a tree or a flower. Observe their stillness, regardless of the weather or the people passing them by.
Consider taking a note from them and become more of an observer. Start with observing your thoughts while you are walking or running. Are you too hard on yourself? Is your harsh inner critic ruining your day? Can you watch what your inner critic is saying without reacting or giving it too much attention? Such meditative practice could be a way of becoming a less anxious and more present human being.
Enjoy organic movement
Rather than having a machine or a video dictate how you should move, your body is the one doing the dictating in nature. Your body goes through enough commands in the day. It has to get out of bed even when it doesn’t want to sit at a desk for hours with muscle tension building and become worse with every passing hour. In nature, you can allow your body to move organically. Maybe there’s a rocky path that looks intriguing or a tree you hope to climb.
Take advantage of the natural light
We’ve heard the sermons about how bad the sun is for the skin, but some of us might have taken these sermons way too seriously. Although we need to protect our skin from the sun, our bones require a good dose of vitamin D, and we can get this from the sun. Besides the vitamin advantage, working out in nature is a way of experiencing more natural light. Especially if you’re looking at a screen all day and working in an environment mostly made up of artificial lighting.
Technology has made the world an easier and safer place in some ways, but it will never substitute the incredible advantages of being out in nature. The natural world is where we can find ourselves again. It’s a place where we can take a break from the noise of the world and allow the body and the mind to experience life in a more organic way.
