Take It Outside

Hey {{first name | reader}},

It’s Tuesday, which means your weekly fitness check-in. Welcome to Week #27. 

Two weeks without a gym.

Normally that sentence would make me twitch. Instead I've cycled through Versailles, climbed the staircases of ten French châteaux, walked the beaches of Normandy, and accidentally logged more steps than I do at home.

It turns out there are worse training plans.

Sometimes when I’m groaning away struggling through a 50 minute spin class in the dark, I forget how much fun it is to actually ride a bike outside while exploring the beautiful countryside. The grounds of the Castle of Versailles are extensive, truly stunning, and best viewed from the saddle of a bicycle.¹ In an hour on the bike we probably covered about 20 km and perhaps less than a third of the grounds. It was hot, but worth every iota of sweat. 

This week Chloe and I explored so many chateaus in France, almost ten, that by the end we were all “chateaued” out, but we never got tired of exploring the stunning castle grounds of each structure. Those kings and queens of France were onto something.

I didn't expect to come home fitter than when I left, but outdoor exercise turns out to have a few tricks the gym can't replicate. Sunlight helps regulate your circadian rhythm. Uneven terrain recruits muscles machines ignore. And spending time in nature consistently lowers stress hormones more than doing the same workout indoors.

There's also a physical adaptability argument. Cycling outside means dealing with inclines, wind resistance, and changing terrain. Running outside means adjusting stride and pace constantly. These micro-adaptations engage stabilizing muscles and proprioceptive systems that a treadmill or stationary bike simply don't touch. The château staircases alone — uneven stone, variable riser heights, no handrail in several cases — were a balance workout I couldn't have designed in a gym. Leg day, circa 1540.

The mood benefits of outdoor exercise are well-documented. So are the mood benefits of pushups, which operate on a somewhat different mechanism. Pushups (or jumping jacks) are good for a number of mood elevation needs. Sleepy— do some pushups you’ll wake up. Angry— do a lot of pushups until you’re no longer thinking about whatever made you angry just how much it hurts and that you may have reached failure. Sad— add another set to the angry pushups. Cold— just do pushups until you start to sweat. When anything isn't quite going to plan implement, rage pushups as needed.²

Walking Omaha Beach reminded me that bodies aren't just for aesthetics or personal records. They're also for carrying us through extraordinary places, caring for people we love, and occasionally helping shape history. Omaha Beach and Utah Beach are peaceful today with families and bathers, and only scattered remnants of the battles that were fought there. The juxtaposition of the current moment and the history are disorienting. Whatever you think about fitness and purpose and what bodies are for — standing on Omaha Beach reframes it. The physical effort of that walk was the least of it.³

Question: I don't have access to a gym right now. How do I keep my fitness up?

Answer: Better than you think. The research on "detraining" — the loss of fitness during breaks — shows that meaningful strength loss takes three to four weeks of complete inactivity. If you're walking, cycling, climbing stairs, and doing bodyweight work, you're not losing fitness. You may be building different fitness. The things that erode quickly without training are neuromuscular efficiency and cardiovascular capacity at high intensity — neither of which disappears in two weeks of active travel. Protect the habit. Your fitness will be waiting for you when you get home. The habit is harder to rebuild than the strength.

Myth: Outdoor exercise is just a less effective version of gym training.

Reality: If your goal is building muscle, the gym still wins.

If your goal is becoming a healthier human being, it's a much closer contest.

Outdoor exercise produces measurable benefits that gym training doesn't replicate: greater cortisol reduction, better mood outcomes, improved attentional restoration, and higher levels of reported enjoyment — which matters more than it sounds, because enjoyment predicts adherence. A 2012 systematic review found that exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalization and positive engagement, and greater decreases in tension, confusion, anger, and depression compared with exercising indoors. You don't have to choose. But don't underestimate what happens when you take it outside.

The Loire Valley has excellent charcuterie — cured meats, cornichons, hard cheeses, mustard, and bread that has actual structural integrity. I've been assembling versions of this at every stop: whatever sliced ham or saucisson is available, a small hard cheese, cornichons, Dijon. High protein, zero cooking, eaten standing up outside a château. France occasionally gets things exactly right.⁴

This review pulled together findings from multiple studies on outdoor exercise. The overriding theme: people report better mood, lower stress, and greater enjoyment exercising in natural environments than indoors. One consistent finding across the studies: people who exercise outside report higher enjoyment and are more likely to say they intend to repeat the activity — which turns out to matter more for long-term fitness than any particular training variable.

Replace one indoor workout this week with an outdoor version. Walk instead of the treadmill. Ride a bike instead of the spin studio. Find a playground and use the monkey bars for pull-ups. Your workout doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to happen.

Stay strong,
{{first name | reader}}

P.S. The gym will still be there when I get home, and thank goodness, the bread won’t be.