A2K Running Club

The Benefits of Exercising Outdoors

While the allure of the gym — climate-controlled, convenient and predictable — is obvious,
especially in winter, emerging science suggests there are benefits to exercising outdoors that
can’t be replicated on a treadmill, a recumbent bicycle or a track.

You stride differently when running outdoors, for one thing. Generally, studies find, people
flex their ankles more when they run outside. They also, at least occasionally, run downhill,
a movement that isn’t easily done on a treadmill and that stresses muscles differently than
running on flat or uphill terrain. Outdoor exercise tends, too, to be more strenuous than the
indoor version. In studies comparing the exertion of running on a treadmill and the exertion
of running outside, treadmill runners expended less energy to cover the same distance as those
striding across the ground outside, primarily because indoor exercisers face no wind resistance
or changes in terrain, no matter how subtle.

My choir is singing the national anthem at a Harlem Globetrotters' game; two tenors can't come, so they need me to fill in.