Outside Obstacles to Improve Workouts
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There are plenty of obstacles in our everyday life as well as in our fitness lifestyle. Roadblocks and barriers are lurking around every corner, trying to prevent us from reaching our goals. It may be fast food, sweets, binge-watching shows, or anything else distracting us from what it takes to reach our destination. There are other forms of obstacles that we can use to our advantage in fitness!
Outside of the gym can open a broader spectrum. Think about lakes, rivers, fallen trees, benches, or hills. These can be used as obstacles to increase the intensity of our exercise and help to maximize our workout.
Trees – For those who have spent any time trail running, you know all about nature’s obstacles. If you have not experimented with trail running and are interested in a new take on running outside, be on the lookout for fallen trees throughout your run. These can provide a valuable break up to standard running and allow us to keep a dynamic aspect to our route by exploding up and over fallen trees.
Hills – Using another one of nature’s obstacles, hills, can provide extra resistance and increase the intensity of our training. Hill running can also increase the focus on different aspects of our lower body muscles, some that may get overlooked during a typical leg day. Going from flat to incline, to decline to flat and so on can create a nice interval training session that can help burn a large sum of calories.
Lakes/Rivers – We do not have to be triathlon runners to incorporate bodies of water as obstacles into our exercise. Outside of the apparent change in the environment, the water can change the resistance to increase exercise intensity. Also, incorporating swimming while running will target different muscle groups and create a full-body burn that can produce some serious results.
Using the surroundings can change up your routine!