Fun Ways to Exercise This Summer
We all know it’s important to exercise so I won’t bore you with the same old song and dance about how good it is for a person’s overall well-being. Instead let’s focus on how to make it more fun when the weather is warm and the sun is shining so that you are excited about exercising. Instead of dragging yourself to a gym that only smells like summer grass, flowers and fresh air if an air freshener has been sprayed, enjoy the sight and smell of the real thing while getting in healthy exercise.
While the “fab four” of outdoor activites (walking, running, biking, swimming) are all great, they can sometimes get a little boring. For example, a daily walk in the same neighborhood can become as dull as walking on a treadmill while staring at a white wall. So here are 28 fun ways to get in some healthy exercise:
1) Walk or run but sign up for a 5K and enjoy it in the company of others and while raising funds for a worthwhile cause.
2) Volunteer at a community garden and channel your inner green thumb while working in the dirt. Or offer to plant a flower garden for your neighbor.
3) Go cherry picking! It’s great exercise. There are ladders to climb because the best cherries are always at the top of the trees. After picking them, eat them and have a cherry pit spitting contest.
4) Take a yoga class that meets in the park or on the beach. Imagine how calming and restful it would be to practice yoga moves and meditation while listening to the water lapping on the shore.
5) Wash and wax your vehicle in your yard using good old fashioned “elbow grease,” using eco friendly products.
6) Get in the water and play water tag or water volleyball.
7) Go water skiing.
8 ) Dig out the squirt guns and water balloons, gather friends and family, and have some wet and wild fun.
9) Go for a long walk but do it on the beach.
10) Grab sidewalk chalk and play hopscotch.
11) Go to a summer festival or fair and walk around and look at everything. Last year I wore my pedometer to the state fair to see how much walking I was doing while enjoying myself and taking in the sights. I put on nearly 10 miles!
Playing Beach Volleyball
12) Play in a volleyball tournament or join a league – running around in sand is a great way to tone your legs – want to stay cool in the hot summer sun? Play in a mud volleyball tournament. (even if you don’t like getting dirty, this is super fun)
13) Turn on the water sprinkler and run around laughing and giggling until you fall into an exhausted heap on the ground. Then roll around in the grass.
14) Ask your personal trainer if you can do your workout outside under the summer sun instead of inside under florescent lights.
15) Grab a basketball and play a game of “horse” or “lightning.”
16) Play tennis but instead of keeping score see how long you can keep the ball in play. It’s great cardio activity.
17) Golf, without a golf cart or a caddy.
18) Play jump rope games with your kids or have an “adults only” session. Can you remember the chants and games you knew by heart as a kid?
19) Go for a hike on hilly nature trail.
20) Go mountain biking.
21) Grab a hula hoop and head outside.
22) Jump around on a pogo stick.
23) Play Frisbee golf (many city parks have great courses that can be used free of charge).
24) Play a game of frozen tag. (it’s fun to act like a kid again)
25) Find a viewing tower or lighthouse and use the reward of the awesome view you’ll see to motivate you to walk up all those steps.
26) Give geocaching a try.
27) Join a softball league.
28) Go whitewater rafting. You’ll get a heck of an upper body workout.
Summer goes by in what seems like a “blink of the eye.” Take advantage of every minute of those warm, balmy sun-kissed days that you can by taking as much of your exercise routine outside as possible.
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