talkhealth Blog

There is more to health than eating right and exercising. To be truly healthy you should have feelings of wellbeing, positivity and happiness with your life. If you have read my blog you will know how often I exhort getting outside for a walk to get some cardiovascular exercise, well now a research team from Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry has found that most trials that compare outdoor exercise to indoor exercise showed an improvement in mental well-being. In addition to this it states:

“exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. Participants also reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and stated that they were more likely to repeat the activity at a later date.”

So getting outside is good for the cardiovascular system, good for mental wellbeing and also good for vitamin D levels (vitamin D deficiency is an established risk factor for osteoporosis and thus fractures.). As we age vitamin D levels decrease but it has been found that older people who get outside daily have the same vitamin D levels as younger people.

This quick post was inspired by an excellent blog post by Jackie Stewart
5 Ways to Find Happiness in Nature

So why don’t you take a step outside and go for a walk?

Before starting any new exercise program please check with your doctor and clear any exercise changes with them.

I hope you have found this article informative. If you have any questions on this article, or any questions about exercise please post a comment.

This article has been previously published here: Whole Life Fitness

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Helen

Having worked in IT in London for 15 years I was made redundant in 2009. I had trained as a gym instructor whilst working and decided I would rather spend the rest of my career doing something I loved than look for another job in IT. I furthered my qualifications with a Certificate in Advanced Personal Training from the highly regarded Premier Training. Many personal trainers are generalists covering all areas of fitness but I took the decision to specialise in the over-50s and therefore went on to do a CYQ Award in Functional Training for the Independent Older Adult Level 3. My focus is on overall health rather than fitness. I believe that making small changes can have a long term positive effect on health and well-being.