We know that having regular physical activity helps to maintain your cardiovascular health. However, the benefit is even greater if you practice sport outdoors, in contact with nature. Nature is known for calming the nerves of a person; the fresh air inhaled always has a way of cleaning the system of a person. That’s why contact with nature at its peak is always advisable.

This is the conclusion of a 2009 study in which researchers compared the forest and city walking effects.

The blood pressure and cardiac rhythm of the participants were quieter among the group who visited the forest. A lower cortisol rate, the stress hormone, explains the difference between the two groups again.

Walking in a polluted and noisy urban environment is, quite logically, more stressful for the body than walking in nature.

The altitude is another important factor: staying and hiking in the mountains is particularly beneficial for the frail people of the heart, provided of course to walk at its own pace.

At altitude, the oxygen becomes scarce, and the heart contracts more, which has the effect of muscle. In addition, the body adapts to the altitude by making more red blood cells: for this mechanism to be put in place, it is necessary to provide a stay in the mountains of more than one week. We must also start with easy little steps down to the valley before tackling the peaks.

The outdoor workout is becoming an increasingly inviting playground for physical activity. Would it be more efficient than the gym? Here are the pros and cons.

Play Outside

If you are one of those who likes to move outside more often than inside, maybe you do it to get off every day and get away? Or would it be a way to achieve higher intensity more easily? Or, perhaps, do you prefer the variety of stimuli found there or the practicality of simply having to go outside to get moving? In fact, even if it is intuitive to grant more benefits to the outdoors, there is no evidence so far that training of several weeks is more effective outside than inside, as much for the health of the body than of the mind.

For a Healthy Mind

To answer this question, a scientific study was conducted where the two exercise environments were compared with sedentary women for a period of three months. Good news for those who prefer to play outside: outdoor exercise clearly outweighs its inner congener in terms of training satisfaction. It generates vitality, pleasure, positive engagement and tranquillity much more pronounced than indoor exercise. Those who experienced the outdoors also had significantly higher training attendance rates compared to participants doing the same indoor training. The study wants to replicate the atmosphere of a group class in a healthy body.

Until then, nothing counter-intuitive as results. The outdoors, we must admit, brings a lot of serenity. Surprisingly, however, the indoor participants engaged in more intense training generally during sessions between 4 walls. These more pronounced repetitive efforts had the effect of improving more physiologically certain physiological parameters at the end of the 12 weeks of training, such as body composition, maximum oxygen consumption and waist circumference.

A Supplement That Lasts

Thus, it seems advantageous to combine the two practices in your training routine. If you get the desire for a higher intensity session, you might be more efficient indoors.

Otherwise, if you intend to exercise comfortably and appreciate the moment, the outdoors is the ingredient of choice. In the end, the results of the study are clear: outdoor training is more anchored in pleasure, satisfaction, and regularity. And science is just as categorical: the more the environment contains natural elements, the more these benefits will be pronounced.

After all, it’s worth its weight in gold, knowing that a valued routine is a routine maintained over time. Outdoor sports always has a way of making one gets entwined with their innermost self which helps them do more for themselves. It is clearly advised that people do more of outdoor sports for the sake of the body and mind well being.