We, as the human species, have a deep connection to nature. With the newest tech advancements, such as virtual reality, space flights, and smartwatches, we still need natural environments. It could be the sea, forest, meadow, or mountain hills. Those places bring the one-and-only feeling of a being alive and ground our emotions and feelings in reality, here and now. Green spaces calm our overloaded senses; numerous therapy styles use the natural environment as a healing setting.
Speaking from my own perspective, I prefer outdoor workouts than indoor gym workouts. The open sky gives me a boost comparable to caffeine.
Is it only me?
I did a quick search, and I got my answer. In the publication “The great outdoors: how a green exercise environment can benefit all” [1] authors analyzed multiple studies and summarized multiple positive outcomes of green workouts. We can categorize those benefits into three main groups.
- Mental health gains: Outdoor green workouts cause significant revitalization and positive engagement, improve self-esteem, and lower negative moods such as tension, anger, and depression.
- Physical gains: exercise feels less demanding and lower perceived exertion.
- Physiological gains: post-exercise blood pressure returns to baseline values more quickly after exercising in front of rural scenes than in urban settings. Endocrine markers adrenaline, noradrenaline, and the stress hormone cortisol fall after being within nature, suggesting that exposure to nature affects the sympatho-adrenal medullary and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis.
From a scientific perspective and my own experiences, I always feel better doing workouts outdoors. My mind is refreshed after a workout, even if my body is exhausted. I cannot say the same about indoors!
You may check interesting YouTube channel with outdoor workouts HERE. Workouts are performed in calming Finnish forest scenery. Here is the sample movie from the channel:
[1] Gladwell VF, Brown DK, Wood C, Sandercock GR, Barton JL. The great outdoors: how a green exercise environment can benefit all. Extrem Physiol Med. 2013 Jan 3;2(1):3. doi: 10.1186/2046-7648-2-3. PMID: 23849478; PMCID: PMC3710158.
Spending time in nature truly rejuvenates the mind and body. I also find that outdoor workouts give me a unique sense of freedom and clarity. It’s fascinating how green spaces can heal and ground us in such a profound way. I wonder if this connection to nature is something ingrained in all of us. Do you think technology will ever fully replace the need for natural environments?
Not in our lifetime, maybe in the distant future it will be able to trick our bodies and minds. Right now natural environment cannot be replaced by engineered substitutes.