It’s well documented that exercise brings with it a host of benefits for both physical and mental health. There is also evidence to suggest that the environment of that exercise can influence those benefits. Exercise outdoors (dubbed years ago as ‘green exercise’) has been widely researched and its benefits over indoor exercise have much to do with rate of perceived exertion (RPE), i.e measuring how hard your body is working during that exercise. The same exercise session performed outdoors can feel easier than the same session indoors, due to the potential boost provided by natural surroundings. Perhaps distraction has something to do with it! Another study looked at the colour of the environment. Participants were asked to perform indoor cycling for five minutes in three different video conditions. The first was green foliage, the second was the same video but with a red filter and the third had no colour at all. Not only was the RPE was decreased in the green video but also there were marked positive mood increases, indicating that ‘greenness’ is definitely a positive factor for motivation…..if a walk outside isn’t going to feel so taxing as a walk on a treadmill inside and there’s the added boost of mood elevation, then surely that is hugely motivational to the 25% of the UK population who are classed as sedentary (move for less than 30 minutes a week)?
The power of nature on our brains, our cognitive function, is interesting too. The Washington Post wrote of a study of green exercise where walking meetings (as opposed to sitting meetings) performed inside proved very positive in terms of brain flow and head clearance. Taking those walks outside in nature added even more. The results showed that looking on to green surrounds with what the researcher termed ‘a soft fascination’ helped declutter the brain and enabled the participants to focus better and stress less.
Whether or not we should wear spf50 every single day throughout the entire year remains a hotly debated topic. Tim Spectre (and his dermatologist wife) say no. Just in summer. I’ll leave that one up to you. (But the Beauty Pie one is lovely, as is the La Roche Posay fluid).
Annie
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