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Summer is here and getting outdoors to enjoy it is on all our minds. But when it comes to exercising outdoors, summer can sometimes turn up the heat too much on an already heated training session, leaving us feeling drained, hot and fried – instead of the desired outcome of feeling alive and energetic. What you need are the top 5 heat-kicking summer workout ideas so you can stay cool and keep fit and active!
Taking your training to the beach will give you a cool ocean breeze to keep your temperature down during exercise, cool water to jump into as soon as you’re finished and some added training benefits too.
Research shows that exercising on sand can:
Result in greater physiological responses, meaning increased cardiovascular fitness and greater benefits from your session.
Expend 2.1 to 2.7 times more energy than on a hard surface.
Ahhhh, cool water on a hot summer day! But instead of just swimming to cool down, try taking your whole workout into the water – you’ll be surprised how it feels. Water does funny things to movement patterns and you’ll find yourself switching on muscle groups you might not have related to a certain exercise before! Movements will become slower in the water, forcing you to engage your core muscles more to stabilise and balance. Water will act as resistance, making a number of exercises that you complete on dry land seem like a completely new challenge. Your natural buoyancy will challenge basic moves as your body wants to tip forward or backward
Try the following exercises in water:
Star jumps in chest deep water
Running in waist deep water
A plank holding a water noodle vertically into the water
High knee run in waist-chest deep water
Jump lunge in waist-chest deep water
Note, as a safety precaution, please do not exercise in water alone.
As well as being a couple of degrees cooler under the shade of trees, trail running can improve running technique, increase strength and help with injury prevention, making it a fantastic summer workout. You’ll also benefit from:
Less injuries due to softer surfaces, therefore lower impact and also due to strengthened lower leg muscles through stabilising over uneven terrain
Better running technique due to taking shorter, quicker strides on uneven surfaces and landing more on the forefoot than the heel – all of which require less energy and allow for quicker speed
Hidden strength challenges because it’s highly unlikely you’ll find a trail run that doesn’t include a few hills and hill running is one of the most efficient forms of strength training for runners
Dr. Scott Levin, a New York based sports medicine expert and orthopaedic surgeon, gives trail running the thumbs up: “Trails are going to take away a lot of stress from the impact that you’d normally get running on harder surfaces.”
If the summer sun is simply too much, take your training indoors into air-conditioned comfort. You can complete basic circuit exercises in your living room space, or better yet head to your local Goodlife gym where you’ll have your pick of equipment and machines to use, in the climate-controlled luxury of cool air. You’ll keep your body temperature down, but can still work up a sweat. You could try a spin class for big calorie burn or pick a group exercise class that you have never completed before to give your body a summer exercise challenge.
There are an abundance of water-based activities that will keep you cool in summer, but three crowd favourites are stand up paddleboard, kayaking and surfing. Each of them require core strength and challenge our bodies in ways that on ground exercises can’t. Plus, being water based, they are a perfect summer exercise choice.
Celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson points out that kayaking “gives you that upper-body training component that you don’t get in more traditional cardiovascular workouts”. Your core gets a good workout because it’s responsible for transferring your paddle force into moving the kayak and even though your legs aren’t moving much, they are being used to turn and balance the kayak.
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