Physical Activity and The Great Outdoors

Welcome to PMH Moves – a year-long Health Promotion series shared through PMH Communications. Each month, we’ll highlight a different way movement supports health across the lifespan — from boosting mood and focus to strength, walking, healthy aging, and staying active through the seasons.

While the topics will change, the message stays the same: every bit of movement counts — and it all adds up. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

This month’s article highlights how moving outdoors can support both physical and mental health while making activity more enjoyable.

Manitobans are fortunate to live in a province offering a vast, diverse natural landscape with potential for outdoor activity as varied as its seasons. Bored with your activity? Switch the location or the time of year.  The view from the treadmill may never change, but nature is always refreshing itself.

Nature provides sensory stimulation and a changing view, whether it’s fresh air during a walk, feeling the earth sift through our fingers while stretching to plant a garden or hearing bird calls while rowing across the water.

Using our bodies as a mode of transportation allows us to move our bodies while getting where we need to go. Walk, bike, or roll to add movement in your day. Outdoors is easy to access.

Outdoors feature natural inclines, uneven surfaces to challenge our balance skills and engage muscles we may not use while exercising with equipment indoors. Changes in wind add resistance and natural assistance cooling off. While walking outdoors there is a tendency to move further and faster.

Being physically active outdoors provides many health benefits. Our bodies and minds relax outdoors, reducing stress levels and muscle tension while increasing Vitamin D.

Try spending a few minutes every day outdoors – stretching in the sunshine, pushing a lawn mower (or a stroller) or climbing up a hill to watch the sunset.  Small amounts of movement still count – and they all add up!