Chapter 10
Exercising Outdoors
In This Chapter
Walking or running your way to fitness
Bicycling on a mountain bike or road bike
Getting buff with in-line skating
Swimming: A total-body workout
Snowshoeing: Fitness in the great white north
F
resh air: What a concept. With all the hoopla these days about space-age,
indoor exercise contraptions, it’s easy to forget you can get a great work-
out in the great outdoors. You may even get a better workout — burning
more calories per minute — because outdoor activities sometimes involve
more muscles than their indoor counterparts. For example, when you park
yourself on a stationary bicycle, your upper-body muscles basically get a free
ride — you can easily read a magazine as you pedal away. But when you take
your bike out for a spin, your chest, arm, abdominal, and back muscles are all
called up for active duty.In this chapter, we cover some of the most popular and invigorating outdoor
aerobic activities. We discuss what gear you need and how much it costs, and
we offer training strategies and safety tips for rookies and klutzes alike.Walking .........................................................................................................
Can you really get fit by walking? Absolutely — as long as you walk long
enough, hard enough, and often enough. (If you’re asking, “How long?”, “How
hard?”, and “How often?”, check out Chapter 8.) A recent study found that,
among people who are successful in maintaining long-term weight loss,
nearly 80 percent walk as their main physical activity.The beauty of walking is, it’s simply a matter of putting one foot in front of
the other. Sure, walking burns fewer calories per minute than jogging, but
most people last longer on a walk than a run, so you can make up for the
deficit. Plus, compared to runners, walkers enjoy a relatively low injury rate.