Outdoor Workouts to Burn Fat and Build Muscle
Now that we are all cooped up in our homes, you may find yourself wanting to get in a few outdoor workouts. Outdoor workouts allow you to reap the benefits of emerging yourself in nature while providing the means for particularly challenging workouts.
Try out these seven outdoor workouts to burn fat and build muscle.
1. Hill sprints
Hill sprints are similar to HIIT sessions in that they will burn a significant amount of calories in a short amount of time. On top of being an aerobic activity, running up a hill is also considered functional strength training because your body weight is constantly working against gravity, which provides you with a full-body workout. Hill sprints will also improve your speed, endurance, and running technique, all while burning fat.
2. Sand sprints
Your feet sink into the ground, your calves are aching and your chest is pounding, these feelings may be familiar to you if you have ran in the sand before. The sand sinks under your foot as you push off of it, absorbing most of your energy, requiring you to push off a little harder. When you train in sand, the contact time of your foot is longer, impact shock is lower, and your energy expenditure is higher.
3. Stair sprints
Similar to hill sprints, stairs provide you with an equipment-free outdoor workout and can typically be found at your local high school, college, hiking trail, or anywhere with a large hill people walk up.
Stairs burn more calories per minute than jogging, for example, a 150-pound person will burn about 544 calories just from walking up stairs for an hour. It also enhances your cardiovascular fitness, builds your muscles, and challenges both your aerobic and anaerobic systems.
4. Jumping rope
Jumping rope is not just for kids doing a Jump Rope for Heart challenge or playing double dutch at their elementary school. A jump rope is a very inexpensive tool you can do just about anywhere outside.
Jumping rope is such an effective cardiovascular workout that just 120 revolutions per minute for 10 minutes burns more calories than 30 minutes of jogging.
5. Park/Playground Workout
Head to your local park and while your kids play, squeeze in a quick workout. Use the picnic tables or benches for bench jumps, monkey bars for pull-ups, the parallel bars for inverted rows, etc. Both you and your child will be worn out by the end.
6. Rock climbing
Rock climbing is definitely an intense workout, but it is easy to forget when all you are focused on is grasping the next hold and reaching the top of the wall or cliff. Using your legs to push yourself up to the next hold and your arms to hold on is a great way to torch calories. Rock climbing is also a full-body workout, torching calories while toning your entire arms, shoulders, legs, butt, and abs.
7. Hiking
What better way to burn calories than immersing yourself in the great outdoors? On top of being a great workout that counts as both cardio and resistance (if you are climbing over rocks or trees), there is evidence that being around nature like plants and trees – especially decaying trees – can help reduce anxiety. Nature reduces anxiety because these plants emit chemicals that slow down the process of their decay which, in turn, appear to slow us down as well. A 2009 study published in Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine found those who took a 20-minute walk in the woods had lower stress levels than those who took the same walk in the city. Another 2016 study found that when young adults went on a 50-minute nature walk they felt less anxious and had improved memory function.