Why you should exercise outside in the winter
They say that summer bodies are made in winter. And with the whole Winter Arc trend, we are encouraged from all sides to start working on ourselves, to begin with those good intentions, so you have two extra months to prepare for what you want to show in summer. But above all, it’s about becoming the best version of yourself, for your health (both physically and mentally). And it just so happens that exercising outdoors in winter can really help with that…
What difference does it make to your physical health whether you exercise outdoors or indoors?
If you exercise outdoors more often, in the fresh winter air, it has a positive impact on your immune system. Because your body has to work harder to stay warm, your resistance improves, which means you get sick less quickly. Are you really focused on your bikini body for 2025? Then I have even more good news for you, because you also burn more calories when your body has to work harder to stay warm. It’s a bit of a complicated story, but you have different types of fat tissue in your body: white fat and brown fat (this sounds like you’re ordering fries at that one slightly gross snack bar, I know). We need that brown fat because it’s the fat that produces heat in our body. White fat, on the other hand, is the fat we really want to get rid of. Now, it’s the case that if you keep that brown fat active, the white fat is burned much better, and you lose weight faster.
A ‘fresh nose’ is not just nice
There are often some strange smells in the gym. I’m quite sensitive to that, and there’s nothing that can make me dread a workout more than being welcomed in the gym by a mix of sweat and fart. I don’t know, but it seems like everyone who’s on the protein shakes just has to let out gas constantly? Or is it a way of marking territory? Anyway, it’s disgusting. It’s obvious that you don’t have to deal with that outside. But also for people who suffer from allergies, being outside is a safe place; you can simply breathe much better and the air circulation is 100%. Really fresh.
I already mentioned S.A.D. earlier.
As we learned earlier there is such a thing as SAD. Exercising outdoors is a kind of ’two birds with one stone’: it gives you the vitamin D you need (even when it seems like the sun isn’t shining), and you burn those extra calories so you don’t gain as much weight when you treat yourself a few times too many to chocolate-covered gingerbread nuts, and at the end of the day, you sleep like a baby thanks to the melatonin you produced by being active outside. Exercising itself also stimulates the production of endorphins, the ‘happiness hormones’: they can give your mood a significant boost. So it’s not so crazy to give outdoor sports a chance! Find a fun boot camp group for that extra motivation, and make sure you have good sports gloves, then the rest will follow naturally.
Source: Erasmus MC
