Outdoor Exercises That Are Great For You

When the weather outside is wonderful, who wants to spend any time in a stuffy gym? Instead, gather the family and invite your friends to join you out-of-doors for a calorie-blasting good time. These activities make it easy to enjoy the season—and still lose weight, stay motivated, and stay fit!

Some of them are pretty basic, you’ll see.

Walking
Walking is actually one of the best lifetime sports. It’s easy on the joints, you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment, and you can burn calories, even though it’s a more modest amount compared to some other activities. Brisk walking for 30 minutes, most days in a week is recommended.

Also, did you know that your risk of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure go down as a response to just increasing your level of physical activity? Beyond that, if you’re trying to lose weight, you should shoot for 60 minutes of walking most days of the week. To keep weight off, get 60-90 minutes of walking most days.

The trick is to incorporate walking into your daily life such as walking the kids to school or the bus stop in the morning or taking a stroll after dinner each evening. Good athletic shoes are all you need!

Explosive Pull-Up
I found this exercise on Fitness Magazine, and I’d sure love to try it… that’s when I can Lol! This exercise is great for your biceps, shoulders, and back.

Find a branch or horizontal pole that’s high above your head. Jump to reach it, exploding from the ground and thrusting up. Use your arms to lift your head above the pole or branch, then ease yourself back down. Do as many as you can in 60 seconds.

Tennis
Grab a pal and start practicing your serve. This sport helps you loose lots of calories, once you know how to play it very well. It’s also very enjoyable and can be done with the entire family… just like the Oreniyi’s did on a recent Episode of Make Me Fabulous.

Beach Volleyball
If you live in Lagos, then you’ll have no excuse about playing this sport. There are beaches in the city!

Spike your fat burn and soak up some rays at the same time while losing some calories. Every serve and spike helps tone your arms, abs, legs, and chest.

Jogging/Running
Jogging is terrific for your heart and lungs, and it improves your stamina. If you’re trying to lose weight, it can burn calories more quickly than walking. It’s important to get a good pair of running shoes, and, for women, a quality sports bra.

A note of warning, running does put more stress on the joints — the knees, ankles, and hips so the key is to start slowly and increase your time or distance gradually.

Cycling
Not only is bicycling an excellent cardiovascular exercise, but you can really explore your community by cycling to different neighborhoods. Many people cycle to work and school.

Cycling uses the quadriceps (the muscles on the front of the thighs) more thereby exercising those muscles properly.

It’s important to make sure your bike is fitted properly to your body; otherwise, you’ll put too much stress on your back or knees.

I hope this helps. What sort of outdoor exercise do you love doing?

Photo Credit: Fitnessmagazine.com, Getty Images