Doctors, health advocates and physical education programs champion the importance of exercising in fresh air. Fresh air exercise reduces stress and invigorates. New York City's Diabetes Wellness Center advises taking walks in the fresh air to reduce stress. Physical and emotional stress trigger hormones that increase blood sugar levels. During exercise, you take in more oxygen, breathe more deeply, and the larger proportion of fresh air reaching the lung's alveoli increase gas exchange.
Reducing Stress
Getting outdoors and connecting with nature helps to alleviate worries and refresh the mind in a way that exercising indoors can't match. Fresh air provides an important component to body-mind practices such as Gi Gong, Tai Chi and Yoga. Practicing in the fresh air invigorates body and mind. Sports and fitness activities such as bicycling, roller blading, surfing, cross-country skiing, hiking and running offer the benefits of outdoor exercise and increased energy from breathing fresh air as you fill your lungs deeply during your activity.
Staying Well
Exercising in fresh air helps to reduce your vulnerability to infections, colds and flu by reducing stress and strengthening your immune system. Outdoor exercise provides vitamin D. Your body requires sunlight to produce vitamin D, so when you spend your exercise time outdoors, you improve your levels of this important vitamin. It's important to get at least 20 minutes of sun exposure three times per week to keep up vitamin D levels for your health.
Increasing Outdoor Activity
Americans, including children, have become increasingly obese, and lack outdoor exercise. A lifestyle of spending hours a day using electronic devices and sitting in front of the television assures an increase in body fat. Exercising in fresh air increases your physical activity. Fresh air activity helps counteract the negative physical and mental health impact of a sedentary, indoor lifestyle. Researchers at Harvard studied 37,918 men aged 40 to 75 and found at a 10-year follow-up in 1996 that men who watched the most TV were nearly three times more likely to develop diabetes.
Breathing
Regular exercise helps to increase lung capacity and respiratory efficiency. Exercising in fresh air provides cleaner air for your lungs. The feeling of breathing fresh air offers more of a lift -- an experience that indoor exercise can't compare to. Increasing your outdoor exercise sessions provides your body with necessary oxygen. As you lung capacity increases, your body doesn't have to work as hard to fill you lungs.
References
- New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation: Diabetes Wellness Center: Control Stress
- James Madison University College of Mathematics and Science: Pulmonary Function and Respiratory Regulation
- University of California San Francisco:: Tips on How to Prevent colds and Flu
- Harvard Medical School: Leisure Time Exercise
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