The Front Row

A SIMPLER APPROACH TO EXERCISE STARTS WITH SETTING FOOT OUTDOORS.

- Marcia DeSanctis

Occasionally I hanker for a new workout. The spin studio starts to seem awfully dark and dank; at the gym my headphones fail to block out the chatter and chaos; yoga bores me senseless. And last year new research began to reveal the many benefits of outdoor, rather than indoor, exercise, for both our physical and mental health. Four recent studies have shown that getting out of the gym and into the wild—so-called “green exercise”—may improve sleep, energy, and mood and reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. This move back to nature follows other trends, such as the paleo diet and the rise of the gentleman farmer, that urge us to make like our ancestors and simplify.

I live in a gorgeous swath of rural New England. There’s no Drybar, but we do have thousands of pristine acres of freshwater. For years I played chauffeur and spectator as my daughter learned to row on the Housatonic River. With each passing race I was more soothed by the sight of shells gliding across the horizon until, suddenly, I felt a need to be on one myself.

Rowing, however, is far more difficult than it appears from the shore; it involves many fraction-of-a-second moves that must be timed perfectly. When I first showed up at the Litchfield Hills Rowing Club, on Bantam Lake in Connecticut, for Learn to Row class, I ran into some women I hadn’t seen for years. They had changed almost beyond recognition into crew jocks, hoisting eight-person Vespoli shells onto ultra-buff shoulders. I had some catching up to do.