Although most sports are usually considered as leisure activities, almost all of them can be used as a form of exercise. This is more so true for outdoor sports, which in many instances, let you do more tasks and in the process, your body gets to work on a lot of muscles. Additionally, these sports are fun to engage in and with this in mind; I suggest these as the 5 best outdoor sports that you can engage in.
Cycling is one of the most popular outdoor sports because it is fun and offers a great workout. It usually starts out on training wheels as kids for most people, then turns into a means of getting to work early.
I recommend cycling because you can take your bike on the trails when you head out for camping, or ride on pavements along the streets. Regardless of how or where you ride, you can burn as much as 400 calories on fast pace or 200 calories on a slow pace per hour.
Other cycling benefits include:
(Source: https://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/logout/sport/cycling.htm)
Paintball players often have too much fun to realize that they are actually exercising their bodies. This is because as a player, you coordinate all your body muscles, just like when you carry out day to day activities and this is why you may not feel the work our effect.
Below are the ways that this outdoor sport benefits your different body parts:
I recommend fishing as a good outdoor sports activity because it is quite beneficial health wise. Well, if you are the type of person that sits around with a beer cooler waiting for your fishing lure to catch, you might actually be gaining more calories from the beer than losing from this sport.
However, if you paddle around to look for different fishing spots, this makes you burn a lot of calories. Combined with the battle that you have to endure in order to pull out fish from the water, you can burn as much as 200 calories per hour while also building your full body strength.
Other benefits of fishing include:
Horse riding is not all about sitting on the back of a horse and going with the flow. It actually takes a lot of courage because you are riding a very powerful animal with a mind of its own.
Therefore, as you get to enjoy this outdoor sport, you will be improving your coordination and quick thinking. This is because there are many things that you need to do simultaneously in order to guide the horse.
It is important to take some horse-riding lessons first so as to get a good balance and maintain a proper body posture. The back, chest and core body muscles get engaged in this process and thus, you will get a proper workout.
(Source: http://cramerquarterhorses.com/2018/06/21/10-health-benefits-of-horseback-riding/)
If there is one thing that skateboarding does, is to improve your body balance. It does so at a much higher level as compared to cycling and thus, you get to greatly develop your core body muscles.
Apart from this, the skateboarding tricks and stunts that you perfect in time work on a number of other muscles while also giving you a healthy metabolism. These stunts also help you show off your skills and this makes you feel confident and good about yourself. In terms of weight loss, Harvard Medical school discovered that 125, 155- and 185-pound persons can lose up to 300, 372 and 444 calories per hour of skateboarding. This means that it is a very rewarding outdoor sport if you want to lose some fat.
(sources: https://thrillspire.com/benefits-of-skateboarding, https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Calories-burned-in-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities.htm)
As you can see, these outdoor sports are not just fun to do; they also have immense health benefits. For the best experience, I recommend that you sample out each one of the 5 best outdoor sports described above so that you can get a little bit of everything in terms of fun and body exercise.
1. Cycling
Cycling is one of the most popular outdoor sports because it is fun and offers a great workout. It usually starts out on training wheels as kids for most people, then turns into a means of getting to work early. I recommend cycling because you can take your bike on the trails when you head out for camping, or ride on pavements along the streets. Regardless of how or where you ride, you can burn as much as 400 calories on fast pace or 200 calories on a slow pace per hour.
Other cycling benefits include:
- An increase in lower body strength.
- Cardiovascular fitness.
- Improving balance and coordination.
(Source: https://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/logout/sport/cycling.htm)
2. Paintball
Paintball players often have too much fun to realize that they are actually exercising their bodies. This is because as a player, you coordinate all your body muscles, just like when you carry out day to day activities and this is why you may not feel the work our effect. Below are the ways that this outdoor sport benefits your different body parts:
- Legs: as you evade your opponents, you get to run a lot, squat, crawl or even crouch. In the process, your hamstrings, calves and other leg muscles get to work and grow stronger.
- Arm: Holding up your paintball gun when aiming at your target works almost all arm muscles such as biceps and triceps increase their strength.
- Heart: Paintball raises your adrenaline levels and gets your pump working at max speed because of your fear of getting hit. This keeps your heart in very good condition.
3. Fishing
I recommend fishing as a good outdoor sports activity because it is quite beneficial health wise. Well, if you are the type of person that sits around with a beer cooler waiting for your fishing lure to catch, you might actually be gaining more calories from the beer than losing from this sport. However, if you paddle around to look for different fishing spots, this makes you burn a lot of calories. Combined with the battle that you have to endure in order to pull out fish from the water, you can burn as much as 200 calories per hour while also building your full body strength.
Other benefits of fishing include:
- Relaxation.
- Developing patience.
- Improves balance (especially if you use small vessels such as canoes).
4. Horse Riding
Horse riding is not all about sitting on the back of a horse and going with the flow. It actually takes a lot of courage because you are riding a very powerful animal with a mind of its own. Therefore, as you get to enjoy this outdoor sport, you will be improving your coordination and quick thinking. This is because there are many things that you need to do simultaneously in order to guide the horse.
It is important to take some horse-riding lessons first so as to get a good balance and maintain a proper body posture. The back, chest and core body muscles get engaged in this process and thus, you will get a proper workout.
(Source: http://cramerquarterhorses.com/2018/06/21/10-health-benefits-of-horseback-riding/)
5. Skateboarding
If there is one thing that skateboarding does, is to improve your body balance. It does so at a much higher level as compared to cycling and thus, you get to greatly develop your core body muscles. Apart from this, the skateboarding tricks and stunts that you perfect in time work on a number of other muscles while also giving you a healthy metabolism. These stunts also help you show off your skills and this makes you feel confident and good about yourself. In terms of weight loss, Harvard Medical school discovered that 125, 155- and 185-pound persons can lose up to 300, 372 and 444 calories per hour of skateboarding. This means that it is a very rewarding outdoor sport if you want to lose some fat.
(sources: https://thrillspire.com/benefits-of-skateboarding, https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Calories-burned-in-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities.htm)
Conclusion
As you can see, these outdoor sports are not just fun to do; they also have immense health benefits. For the best experience, I recommend that you sample out each one of the 5 best outdoor sports described above so that you can get a little bit of everything in terms of fun and body exercise.