10 October 2011
10 Workouts You Can Do Outside (While You Still Can!)
Here in the Midwest, we’re definitely having a warm spell. I’m not counting on it to last more than another week or so, but as long as it’s so nice out, I’m taking my workouts outside. Here are 10 things you can do to get your sweat on outside:
1. GO FOR A WALK. Seriously, this is my best suggestion for beautiful fall weather. Go with a friend, with a podcast, or with the quiet sounds of an autumn day.
2. Hold an impromptu workout class in your backyard/at a nearby park. Gather a few of your close friends, plug your iPod into some speakers, and take turns calling out moves to do for 20-30 minutes.
3. Look for classes being held at local parks. I just googled “outdoor fitness class [my city]” and a few options popped up.
4. Do some body weight circuits outdoors. Do 3 sets of 15 reps: burpees, crunches, squats, mountain climbers, squat jumps, plank-ups, squat thrusts, jump lunges. I guarantee you’ll be sweating.
5. Try a stadium stair workout. Head to your local high school’s track/football field for drill workouts. I used to do this all the time. Run a few laps around the track as a warm up, and then run the stairs. I used to try to do 10 laps up and down the stairs. Here’s another good stair workout:
- Run up a whole flight of stairs and back down again.
- Run up the stairs by skipping a stair; run back down every stair.
- Go up the stairs by jumping with both feet up every stair; run back down the stairs.
- Go up the stairs by jumping with both feet on every other stair; run back down the stairs.
- Stay at the bottom of the stairs and find a step. Perform Step-Ups, where you put one foot on top of the stair and then drive the opposite knee and toe up, then repeat on the other foot. Do 3 sets of 10 on each foot.
- Box Jumps: 3 sets of 10 (Find a stair with the right height for you and jump with 2 feet up onto the step and repeat. Make sure to keep your toes ups and get your knees up.)
- Lateral Box Jumps: 3 sets of 10 each way (Find a smaller step; with the side of your body facing the step, jump with both feet onto the step. Stay on one side and repeat. Then switch to the other side.)
- Incline Push-Ups: 3 sets of 10 reps (Find a step and with your hands on the bench, perform a push-up.)
6. Do your interval training outdoors. Instead of a walk or jog, alternate 1-2 minutes of high-intensity intervals (all-out effort) with 2-3 minutes of recovery. You could even just go around your block a few times. Repeat 5-6 times for a short, but intense, outdoor workout.
7. Channel your inner kid and do a jungle gym workout. Here’s another park workout that requires less equipment.
8. Hike, swim, bike, play outdoor sports, etc. These are kind of “duh” suggestions, so I combined them. If it’s still warm enough to swim (which it pretty much was where I live over the weekend), count your lucky stars. Otherwise, there’s not a more perfect time for outdoor sports/hobbies (soccer, tennis, trail running/walking, etc.).
9. Practice outdoor yoga (or pilates). Though I’ve never tried it, I can’t imagine anything nicer than doing yoga outside on a gorgeous day. All you need to do is find a flat patch of grass and take your mat outside.
10. Rent a boat. As someone who recently took a 10-year-old paddle boating, you don’t realize how much effort it is until you’re halfway across the lake and the person on the boat with you says they’re “too tired” to paddle. Canoeing and kayaking also require quite a bit of exertion.
