Outdoor Fitness Ideas

Exercise is better outdoors. Sunshine and fresh air are always a good idea, and when you combine them with sweat, the benefits multiply. Regular outdoor activity is being recommended in health and wellness spaces more and more, and we're in agreement.

Many of us spend too much time sealed in our homes and offices, away from natural air purifiers like wind, rain, UV light, and trees. Have you ever been outside after a good rain, or on a windy Spring day? That is fresh air. And fresh air gives us a higher quality of life. When you breathe fresh air more often, your lungs, heart, and mental health reap the rewards.

Like fresh air, sunshine exposure has many health benefits. It improves sleep quality at night, drives your body to produce Vitamin D, and keeps your immune system in good shape. It improves mood, too.

But you probably already knew fresh air and sunshine are good for you.

And you probably know that outdoor fitness can have some of the biggest positive impacts on your overall health, wellness, and fitness.

We've got some outdoor fitness ideas for mixing sweat, sunshine, and fresh air. Let's check them out...

5 Outdoor Fitness Ideas To Try

Sure, you can go for a jog or bike ride. Or try some yoga in the park. But we've got a couple more ideas you might like to try. We've got lots of experience getting strong, torching calories, and working on our cardio outdoors.

Yes, you'll reap the benefits of fresh air and sunshine. But you'll also be training functional fitness. That's the type of fitness that makes you better at life: lifting things, carrying things, and covering distance on your feet.

We're all about getting better at life. So we love outdoor exercise.

First of all, just walk more

You've heard the 10,000 steps rule popularized when smart devices started tracking our steps. 10,000 steps per day became the standard for us modern people to maintain a base level of health. Rightfully so. A measurable expenditure of energy throughout our days is important. Lots of people sit too much. At work, driving our cars, and in front of the TV before bed. The popular 10,000 steps daily challenge provides one solution to the epidemic of sitting.

So here's our first outdoor fitness idea: walk more. Like a lot more. Make sure you're daily step count is higher than 10,000 steps. And do it mostly outdoors. Walk in the morning to start your day, on your lunch break, and after dinner.

Make walking a cornerstone piece of your daily routine.

Sounds too simple, right? Walking isn't really a fitness activity for many of us. It's not very challenging, after all. Well, there are some ways to level up your walk (like carrying something heavy), but the purpose of walking more is to get you outdoors, more often, moving your body.

No matter your age, fitness level, or access to workout equipment, walking is an easy way to reap the benefits of outdoor movement.

Alright, now let's talk about getting fit outdoors...

1. Rucking

We'd like to nominate rucking as the best outdoor fitness idea. It's our favorite, at least, and has been for over a decade. Rucking is walking with weight on your back (it'll help you get 10,000 daily steps and get strong) using a rucksack.

Just like walking, rucking is for everyone and has tons of benefits, many of which involve fresh air and sunshine. All are welcome, and all should include rucking in their fitness journey.

Rucking burns a lot more calories than walking, and it builds muscle. That's because carrying heavy things is challenging and puts all your muscle groups under tension. In other words, wearing a weighted rucksack requires your legs, shoulders, back, and core to work hard for an extended period of time.

Benefits of rucking

1. Rucking combines cardio and strength into a full body workout.
2. Rucking is strength training without the expensive gym membership.
3. Rucking is customizable to your fitness level. Just starting out? Use less weight. Ready for a big challenge? Add weight to your rucksack and carry a Sand Kettlebell to train your grip strength.

Rucking isn't the only way to haul weight and get your 10,000 steps in. Our weight vests and Ruck Plate Carriers have hundreds of positive reviews from fitness enthusiasts. Many of our customers wear these for walking, hiking, and calisthenics at the local park.

While a rucksack gives you space to carry water and snacks for longer workouts, the Training Weight Vest and Ruck Plate Carrier are great tools for outdoor fitness, too.

2. Sandbag training

If you haven't tried sandbag workouts, you're missing out on an intense outdoor workout program. Indestructible training sandbags can be tossed, dragged, carried, and dropped. They're much safer than free weights and have unlimited versatility.

If you want to do more full body outdoor workouts, a training sandbag (or two) should be in your arsenal.

Get started with sandbag training

Sandbags can make you seriously strong while improving your cardio fitness. In other words, when you take your sandbags outside, you're going to get a serious workout.

First, you need to know the three types of movement you can do with sandbags: push, pull, and carry. Pushing includes overhead presses, squats, and pushups. Pulling exercises include deadlifts, rows, and bicep curls. Carrying heavy sandbags is an excellent way to train your entire body: grip, core, back, shoulders, and legs.

Sandbags really can do it all. They're the perfect home gym that can be taken anywhere. Outdoor sandbag workouts are an excellent path toward a better you.

Types of sandbags

While we're talking about training with sandbags, let's look at the different types of sandbags and what they're best for. Maybe you can picture a classic training sandbag: a black duffle with a few handles filled with sand. Yep. That's one kind. But because we really like outdoor sandbag workouts, we built a few other kinds...

1. Sandbags 2.0 are the classic reinforced training sandbag with 12 handles for perfect versatility. Choose from 20 LBS - 80 LBS. Useful for all types of workouts. Your new home gym in one piece of equipment. Simple Training Sandbags are a bit more streamlined if you don't need so many handles.
2. Sand Kettlebells are great for single arm presses, Turkish getups, and farmer's carries. If you want to try a 30 day kettlebell swing challenge, Sand Kettlebells are indestructible and safe (you can drop them on concrete or your floor with no consequences).
3. Sand Medicine Balls are most popular for core exercises (like American Twists--see the video above), but they're great for carrying, tossing, and slamming. Explosive outdoor workouts can be centered on a Sand Med Ball. Check out Sand Medicine Ball workouts right here, perfect for outdoor fitness programs.
4. Sand Tombstones are best used outdoors. They're heavy, they can be dropped (you probably will drop them), and they'll make you strong as an ox. For people that like to work hard and want to take their outdoor workouts to another level.
5. Sand Jerry Cans are as versatile as Sand Kettlebells, but they're heavier. Built for swings, presses, and carries, Sand Jerry Cans also fit inside the Rucker to increase the weight in your rucksack.

3. Find a local track

You know what makes running more fun? Bringing your Sandbags or Sand Tombstone and getting a strength and cardio workout. Even if you're not a runner, there's something special about carrying weight around a track and performing calisthenics (like squats, lunges, or pushups at intervals). By something special we mean very challenging.

But tracks are great for performing measurable outdoor workouts. Every lap is 1/4 mile. Get creative. Your rucksack, sandbags, and running shoes are all you need. Ruck, carry, press, pull, swing, run, and toss. Not necessarily in that order.

We're all about people working hard together, so invite a friend for these workouts. Someone to carry the Sand Med Ball around the track while you do burpees.

4. Hiking with weight

Hiking doesn't always feel like a workout. If you're accustomed to training with weights or running, it might take some serious mountains to slow you down. But when you hike with a weighted rucksack, any short hike turns into a serious workout--surrounded by nature.

Spending time in the woods amplifies the positive effects of sunshine exposure and breathing fresh air. Green surroundings, beautiful views, and dirt trails have massive positive effects on mental health. If you want to smile more, sleep better, and keep yourself in shape, hike with weight.

Build yourself up to hiking heavy, too. Like covering miles with a 45 LBS Ruck Plate on your back. That kind of weight is a serious test of endurance, strength, and cardio.

 

Hiking doesn't have to be an easy stroll in nature. If you're looking for new outdoor fitness ideas, try loading up a rucksack and hitting the trails. Just make sure you're wearing good hiking shoes.

5. Use your tax dollars

If you live in an urban or suburban area, you might have fitness zones scattered throughout your city. Many college campuses have them, too. We're talking about designated fitness equipment (pullup bars, plank handles, dip stations) that looks similar to a playground. You'll be able to tell them apart, though. There won't be slides and swings at these.

There is a very satisfying feeling to getting a workout at a community fitness feature and saying "I paid for this." That's your tax dollars at work.

If your city is big enough, choose a few of your favorite workout stations and visit a different one each day you're working out. Bring a rucksack and a sandbag, too, and customize your workouts for the different stations available.

Most fitness stations/zones are in city parks, along walking paths, or near college campuses. Take your rucksack for a walk and see if you can find some outdoor workout spaces.

Our Outdoor Fitness Ideas, Your Fitness Journey

Whether you're doing 75 Hard (and need to complete an outdoor workout each day) or just looking to add fresh air to your fitness program, the ideas listed in this article are meant to make you a stronger, better human. We're all capable of living well, and a huge part of living well is how we move our bodies.

We recommend moving your body outdoors with some weight attached (rucksacks or sandbags, preferably). Train functionally by carrying things, lifting things, and pressing things. Get your heartrate up, break a sweat, and spend more time outdoors.

That's our idea of a good life.