6 Outdoor Activities for Active Seniors

Seniors need to stay active to maintain their health. While many of them would prefer staying indoors, others find it more beneficial to explore the outdoors. Leisure walks and outdoor activities are effective in making older adults feel alive. Plus, they are great for keeping them motivated to focus on their health and well-being. These outdoor exercises can be an alternative for indoor workouts, such as the Zercher squats and deadlifts, which are typically done indoors or in a gym. Here are some outdoor activities that seniors can try:

Do Agility Drills

You can swap your usual walks around your neighborhood with a more engaging workout that would test your balance and endurance. Agility drills will help your body maintain its equilibrium. To do this, head to your neighborhood park and do a variety of exercises, including side shuffles, A-skips, lunges, high-knees, and sprints. 

Explore National Parks

If you’re getting tired of the usual view in your community, a great option that seniors would enjoy would be exploring national parks. They can do several activities, such as running, jogging, hiking, biking, and even horseback riding. Bring a friend to explore the great outdoors. Not only will it be good for your physical health, but it will also help you stay emotionally healthy as you connect with old friends and meet new acquaintances. 

Try Backyard Gardening

If you’re not up for exploring the great outdoors yet, then one activity that you may try is backyard gardening. If you have a space in your backyard, gardening would be a great way to maintain flexibility and strength. Just make sure that you apply sunscreen or wear a wide-brimmed hat before going out to minimize the risk for sunburn or skin cancer. 

Explore High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

One of the great things about high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is that it’s so versatile that you can do them wherever and whenever you feel like it since it will only need your body weight. HIIT workouts can be done in as little as 10 minutes to about an hour, depending on your limit. Before you do any HIIT workout, make sure that you do a dynamic warm-up to prepare your muscles for the intense workout. 

Some of the movements you can do are mountain climbers, push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, and lunges. Try to do each exercise as fast as possible. Install a timer and time movements for 20 seconds and take a 10-second break in between movements. The key to an impactful HIIT workout is to maintain good form throughout the exercise. 

Discover Paddle Boarding

Paddleboarding is a great exercise to strengthen your shoulders, knees, and quadriceps as you propel your paddleboard forward. When doing the standing-up paddleboard, you’re also engaging your core muscles as you keep your balance, making it an exercise that helps build up your body strength. It requires endurance and the coordination of your entire body to pull the board weight successfully. Paddleboarding is also great for burning calories. Even casual paddling for an hour can burn as much as 430 calories. 

Immerse in Yoga

Outdoor activities can help you relax your mind and body and appreciate the present moment. Doing yoga outdoors will help you enter a genuinely meditative space as you try to dampen all the noise, let go of the stress, and enter a state of mindfulness. Yoga is also great for strengthening your body and improving your posture. When doing yoga, it’s better to start off with the basics before proceeding to do more complex movements. If at all possible, try to attend classes so you can get guidance from yogis with extensive experience on yoga. 

Try to change up your scenery when doing your workouts, and you’ll see that they’re great for motivating you to work harder. Learning new exercises and exploring new areas will also help you challenge your body and inspire you to be healthier. Remember, the unavailability of a gym is no longer an excuse to skip on your workouts. Take at least an hour a day for your workout. If you have any pre-existing conditions, it’s also best if you can consult your doctor first to see if the activity is best for you.

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