There is nothing quite like a week of sporadic sunshine and tolerable temperatures to get us very excited about the start of Spring and a season ahead of getting fit as we enjoy the glory of the British summer, Right? Who is with me? Great, now we are all in this together, it’s just the small matter of what to do once you’re in the park.
We spoke to Personal Trainer and founder of Bear Fitness, Sarah Ryder to find out exactly how we can get maximum results with minimal equipment in the park. Before we get started, other than to enjoy frolicking in the sunshine, there are actually a number of proven benefits to working out outdoors. Sarah highlighted the mental and physical benefits:
1) You can workout harder. The stressors on the body are fewer when exercising outside; comparing the heart rate of a runner on the treadmill to an outdoor runner the Rate of Percieved Exertion (RPE) is less when exercising outdoors. Thus you are able to exercise for longer and potentially push yourself harder because it feels easier and your physiological systems are able to perform at a higher level as they are less stressed.
2) It’s free! Lets not forget it is free to workout in the park (and weather depending, you can top up your tan).
3) Vitamin D. You can stock up on increasing the elusive but very important Vitamin D, read why vitamin D is important here.
4) It’s fun and easier to rope you pals to join in.
Time to workout. Sarah recommends the following for a 30 minute session…
The moves
1. Bear Crawl (Between two trees)
2. LLS
3. Burpee
4. Lunge Lunge Squat
5. Mountain Climber
6. Press ups
7. Plank up and Down
Bear Crawl
The benefits: A way to really work on how you body moves as a whole. With our current lifestyle of in-active hip flexors and glutes this one move will hit these weaker spots with no trouble. (Plus it's a great name.
LLS (Lunge, Lunge, Squat)
The benefits: This one will get those lower limbs burning and is a great muscle builder for your glutes. Either perform a jump lunge on each leg followed by a squat jump, or if you aren’t a fan of the high impact, simply perform without the jumps.
Plank up and down
The benefits: Position yourself in the normal plank hold (on your forearms with legs outstretched and on your toes) Move up onto your hands and then back down onto your forearms. That’s one rep and one step closer to abs of steel.
Burpee
The benefits: Who doesn’t love reading this word? Full body, high intensity workout which can be done anywhere. Make sure you explode up with the jump at the top of the burpee and focus on keeping your core engaged when closer to the floor.
Tree Sprints
The benefits: chances are there are going to be trees in your local park – find two that are around 20 meters apart, sprint from the first tree to the second tree, jog back to the start and repeat 10 – 20 times.
The workout
Warm up: High knees x 30, Heel kicks x 30, Walk out x 30, Squat jumps x 10, Burpee x 10
Perform the following circuit 3 times - with 20-30 seconds work and 40-30 seconds rest in between each exercise. Rest for 1 minute in between each full circuit.
FINISHER: Tree Sprints x 10
Enjoy the walk home because boy have you earnt it. Stretch on the way or taking some time at home to foam roll.
