Image: Justin Manzano
For many of us, March is the month where we begin to de-thaw. It’s the end of a long, cold winter spent exercising indoors and trying to stay motivated by dreaming of the warmth and sunshine ahead. As a professional dancer and a fitness club creator, I spend lots of time indoors year round—but like everyone else, I love getting sweaty outdoors when the weather finally breaks!
Take advantage of the first signs of spring and reinvigorate those New Year’s resolutions by transitioning your workouts outside. Here are three ways I recommend you try to make it happen.
Take a look around.
Use your city’s surroundings to your advantage. If you live near the beach, move your ten-minute at-home workout to the sand to make it infinitely harder. Take advantage of a traffic-free rural road that never ends to walk and jog with your favorite podcast without interruption. If you’re lucky enough to live near hills or mountains, find a new path to explore, or jump in the car and trek in that National Park you’ve always meant to checkout. Your hometown can be your personal playground.
Parking is free.
Call me crazy, but I grew up in Minneapolis where we are long on lakes (we have 10,000) but short on mountains. So I found my own incline using parking garages. Think about it: the ground is flat and even, the incline is mild but persistent. Lace up, enjoy the cross breeze and be sure to watch for cars!
Try this running pattern:
- Warm up: walk from the ground floor to the top floor and back down.
- Run to Level 1, return to ground floor
- Run to Level 2, return to ground floor
- Run to Level 3, return to ground floor
- Continue this pattern until you reach the top!
Get benched.
Sometimes you get lucky and find public parks filled with monkey bars, fire poles and swings that double as workout equipment. But that’s relatively rare, so let’s focus on one thing you can count on just about every park having: a bench. Here is a simple full-body workout that you can do on any park bench. For bonus cardio, run to and from the park and home.
Try this park bench workout:
- 15 box jumps
- 15 step-ups (right & left)
- 15 push-ups with hands on bench, 30 dips
- 1-minute plank—hands on the bench, feet on the ground OR kick it up a notch with your hands on the ground and your feet on the bench
(Image: Nikki Dalanzo)
Every change in season is a fresh start, but spring is truly special. Reinvigorate your workout routines by lacing up and taking your workout outdoors. Whether you live in the city or in the country, take advantage of your town’s surroundings to keep it interesting. Call a friend, grab a shelf-stable ONE bar—and I’ll see you outside!
