The winter months are long gone, and we can no longer make excuses. The days of “It’s too cold outside, “I don’t want to drive in this weather” and “I’m not going to wear a bathing suit anyway” drifted away with the cold fronts. Opportunities for activity and fitness abound!Luckily, it seems our motivation increases anyway with warmer weather because we don’t have to do the same type of exercise repetitively. Typically, our appetites decrease with the heat, and we want to get out and do something with our day. Even if it’s just taking a walk or going to the park or visiting a landmark in town, there’s a lot more moving involved.
Summer offers a greater variety of ways to keep fit, instead of snuggling under a warm blanket eating and watching television, essentially sluggish and inactive. Inside exercise like pilates, yoga, or gym training is still an option, but motivation decreases with darker, colder days. Especially in a place like Ohio where I live, getting out of the ice-encrusted driveway is hard enough! Unless the equipment is sitting in a basement corner a set of stairs away, it’s not happening, people. There’s always something “more important” to do.
But the desire to be inside on a windy, sunny day in Ohio with zero humidity comes with great difficulty. The sheer presence of the sun improves the mood and cures that nasty seasonal effective disorder rampant earlier in the year.
However, summer is a time to not only take advantage of exercise opportunities, but to monitor their frequency. Heat, harmful UV rays and dust, pollen or allergy-inducing particles in the air can take a serious toll. Plus, the experiences of exercising outside versus sweating away on a gym treadmill are night and day, almost. Breathing is labored and surfaces are slanted, uneven or covered in pot-holes, unkind to the knees and back, especially. What do you think health professionals have to say about that?
Some doctors can be overly protective and overly cautious sometimes, right? At least in our minds. But they still know much more about how to stay healthy than we do. A physician told me recently that running outside in the summer, especially in a humid, sticky place, is not recommended for anyone at any time of day.
Well, that answers why I almost passed out a couple summers ago jogging around in the muggy middle of Charlotte! I was sucking up all that pollen into my nose from heavy breathing. I thought exercise was supposed to be a release, an ease of tension?
So how do we take advantage of the sunny outdoors and avoid these types of threats?
From my experience, typical methods of physical activity such as running- ones you can do all year round inside- should generally remain inside because they induce heavy breathing that can irritate allergies. Even if you’re not one who’s prone to allergies, I’ve learned new ones can develop unexpectedly and without warning. Five years ago I had zero noticeable reactions, and today quite a few bother me daily.
Not to say you shouldn’t participate in a bike race or a marathon, but focus on other activities you won’t have come fall and winter, ones that work other body muscles and don’t induce heavy breathing. What about water sports? They offer a different type of workout, focusing more on arm strength and overall body control, and often give nasal cavities a break from enduring frequent sprinkles from overhanging trees. Here are just a few examples.
Kayaking: Make arm fat disappear
Not only is kayaking relaxing and reflective, but it eats away at our sagging winter arm fat. Even if you go out for an hour or two of continuous arm movement, you’ll certainly feel it the next day. For you ladies who skip weight training at the gym, this is a great way to make up for it.
Waterskiing: Test upper body strength
This one requires a bit more skill and concentration, but it’s certainly tests your biceps, triceps and shoulders. Waterskiing is a great way to test your upper body strength because the key to staying afloat is keeping your arms locked and out; otherwise, you’re going to topple forward and possibly incur a massive bruise like I did on my leg two summers ago. As you stand there with the wind soaring through your ear cavities, knees slightly bent and quadriceps working, it’s a feeling unlike anything else. Just like your first time up a rock climbing wall, you know if you’re where you want to be arm strength-wise once you try it. If you can’t get yourself up, upper body might be an area you’ll want to work on.
Tubing: work overall body control
Tubing is a unique experience unlike any other; anyone who’s ever experienced it knows. It takes some control drifting between strong waves and currents to keep your body safely situated on a slippery piece of inflatable plastic- interesting custom if you think about it. Of course, tubing still demands the most from your arms, as gripping the handles is the only thing keeping you on.
Swimming: work overall body strength and condition
It’s hard for anyone to refute that swimming is one of the best workouts for your body because it works just about everything. Plus, it keeps you cool. Even though you’re breathing hard in the end whether it’s at the local YMCA or a beautiful lakefront, you finish knowing it wasn’t so bad on your limbs.
Kristin Larmore is a recent graduate of Appalachian State University. She avoids running outside, but takes full advantage of summer waterskiing, tubing and kayaking at her grandmother’s lake house in Michigan. She can’t wait to try whitewater rafting and rock climbing.
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