Outdoors vs. indoors making exercise work

Outdoor workouts versus indoor workouts

If you can do these activities nothing beats running, walking, biking outdoors. It seems a lot easier to do these activities for longer periods of time outside. If you are doing them with a friend or mate it hands a social element to it. If these activities are vigorous you can get a runners high with them. Everyday there is something new about it. Outdoor programs help us to get our daily vitamin D from the sun that help our bones. There is support that we get a lot more out of outdoor exercising.

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Strength training outside I find workout bands and TRX exercises really adaptable. I haven't found too many exercise stations for the outdoors, I believe that they would be great. Using a bench is great for push-ups, and squats. Nice area of grass works well as a mat for various body resistance training.

After a walk working on flexibility is easy to do.

Having cerebral palsy I haven't gotten much out of a treadmill. But with the very programs and virtual trips that you can do with it treadmills work for a lot of people. I have had a lot of experience indoor walking with trainers like Leslie Sansone. I've had better success with the walk programs then the running programs. There are couple of advantages to this. First of all I've never fallen with indoor walking. As my knees have continued to heal this is a big plus. In-home walking has the same ability to make adjustments as you do with your outdoor programs. You can slow the pace or ease the movement to fit where you are at. When I am getting back at it I don't do as large of the movements and even go a little slower when I need to. There are different programs for older walkers as well. 

I have also found success with my incumbent bike. I have done spin classes with it as well as virtual biking on trails where are they change the resista

nce throughout the bike ride. Sometimes listening to an audio book I close my eyes and pretend I am jogging. With the incumbent bike it is easy to do 30 minutes to an hour of biking.

I have different programs downstairs and equipment that I could use. But for strength training I use the stairs, my countertop, my bed, different pieces of furniture for adaptive body resistance. I use different resistance bands and my TRX exercises. Besides strength I have also helped with my arthritis and I've been able to rehabilitate from different injuries. 

Indoor workouts have help me not to fall. They are also very good for safety and bad weather. 

So what's right for you? Probably both. One thing that we need to do in retirement is find ways to increase our strength and flexibility as well as keep our heart healthy with aerobic exercise. Probably nobody is telling you is how often you have to rehab your body after health issues. We all have different health problems that set us back. As we age there will be times when we have to start over. The overall goal's to improve our health so that daily we live a little better and we keep our independence. 

Exercises one of those things that we do and is part of our new job. For many we can actually improve our strength, flexibility, and aerobic ability. People talk about in decline as we age but there is also a sense making things better.

I think everything I mentioned in this article is inexpensive. I have not bought a treadmill. But my incumbent bike was under $200. 

I haven't talked about swimming, In my experience swimming indoors seems to have an advantage. Whatever you do, do it as you get older, keep walking.