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Ditch the machines and walk outside
August 30, 2007

Yesterday evening I took my daughter to our neighborhood YMCA for her very first swimming lesson. At 5pm, the gym was jam-packed with health-minded people, on treadmills, StairMasters, elliptic machines, stationary bikes, rowing machines, and other interesting looking contraptions, all powered by electricity of course. It was 75 degrees outside, sunny, with a light breeze, a perfect northern California evening. And this particular YMCA is situated on the edge of a beautiful park, with walking/jogging paths weaving through shady trees. Yet, there were far more people running and walking inside than outside. Are we afraid of fresh air?

Yes, I am being presumptuous. People with physical injuries may have to exercise on specific machines; people living in sweltering heat may be advised to stay indoors; people in big cities may prefer not to directly breathe in automobile exhaust from the streets. But please, it was 75 degrees, beautiful out there! I really wanted to put big banners on all their windows – “get free exercise outside!” But surely someone in the YMCA facility would drag my daughter out of the swimming pool and warn us never to get close to the premise again.

So I am posting banners on my blog on why people can benefit from exercising outside, at least some of the time:

• In open air you are not exposed to germs circulating in an enclosed room
• You don’t have to clean the machines (remember the squirting bottles next to machines?) or sit in other people’s sweat puddles
• You get to know your neighborhood a little more while walking. I love to check out people’s gardens and which house is on the market
• You get to know your area better while biking and feeling the real breeze on your face
• Walk with a friend to catch up on each other’s lives
• Enjoy nature if you are near a park or an open space. I love running outside at dawn, near sunset or after a downpour
• Walk or bike along your errand route – get two things done at once
• Your muscles maybe better trained on outdoor terrains than on a treadmill
• Save all the energy that would otherwise power the gym and its equipment (a treadmill uses an average of 1,300 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, not to mention the energy air-conditioner demands)

Surely there are many other surprising benefits of exercising outside that are not mentioned above. There is still some summer left. And the cool and crisp fall is arriving soon. Halt the gym membership until October and enjoy the outside.

CindyW at Organicpicks

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