The Great Outdoors Workout

Whether you’re just starting out or have been lifting for years, hitting the gym can feel a bit too mundane at times. So why not exercise outdoors?

- Mark Lelinwalla

MATT GREEN keeps his training fresh by taking it outside—and he thinks you should follow suit. The Bay Area–based fitness model and marketer, who was once a special aide to Arnold Schwarzenegger, calls it “the great outdoors workout” and says the changing environments can liven up your routine.

Green believes supplementing your in-gym routine with an outdoor workout once a week can have you feeling reinvigorated. Also, one study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, showed that exercising in an outdoor, natural environment was associated with feelings of revitalization and positive engagement, along with decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and depression. Participants were also shown to want to repeat the activity again. Plus, you’ll be breathing cleaner, fresher air and getting your daily dose of vitamin D.

This outdoor workout focuses on compound movements and the “old-school jobs that inspired them,” Green says. Everything from baling hay, replicated by wall ball throws, to wood chopping (read: sledgehammer slams) is included.

The benefits of using these full-body, compound spins on classic tasks range from “maximum muscle recruitment, which helps your body release more testosterone, to high nervous system activation to more stimulus for growth,” Green says.

That covers the body aspect, but Green believes that the workout he’s crafted also works wonders for your mental health.