Beach Activities To Keep You Active

Beach Activities To Keep You Active

Summer is a great time to enjoy the outdoors and appreciate nature. While some people might opt to stay at home due to the elevating heat outdoors, exercising and exploring the outdoors during summer can help increase their overall sense of wellbeing. Not only does exercise in general contribute to staying fit and healthy, moderate amounts of sunshine has also been shown to increase vitamin D synthesis in our skin, increase feel-good endorphins, and increase social activity. Here are some suggestions for some outdoor activities that can help you stay active during the summer.

Water Sports Swimming

During summertime, swimming and water sports may be the ideal forms of exercise, since you will not experience the unpleasant "sticky" feeling of perspiration. Similarly, water sports may also keep you feeling cool under the sun. Some water sports you may want to check out include:

• Kayaking
• Water skiing
• Surfing
• Body boarding
• Boogie boarding
• Jet skiing
• Sailing
• Water peddling
• Scuba diving
• Snorkeling
• Rowing
• Fishing

Beach Activities

The beach, a vast playground of endless activities and opportunities to exercise, is often synonymous with summertime. You can have a change of scenery by performing your normal exercise routine on or near the beach. It is also a great opportunity to socialize and spend time with your loved ones. Some activities that are fun and can help you stay fit on the beach include:

• Jogging (try jogging along the water line for a new experience)
• Cycling
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Beach volleyball
• Badminton
• Flag football
• Relay team sprints
• Rollerblading

• Beach volleyball

It's fun, sociable but above all a round of volleyball on the beach provides an excellent all-round workout.
Apart from offering a welcome break from endless hours of sunbathing, volleyball promotes greater flexibility, coordination and helps tone the whole body.
In volleyball you are constantly bending your legs to prepare to leap forwards which stretches the major muscles in your lower body.
A serving action also strengthens the backs of the arm and pushing the ball to your opponent works the front.
As an added bonus, volleyball works the toes and feet because you're likely to be playing barefoot which means you are constantly gripping the sand.
Volleyball is an ideal exercise to play on holiday because it encourages the body to burn up fat without you even noticing it! In fact you can burn up to 250 calories in just half an hour.

• Jogging on the beach

Jogging on sand makes you work harder because all your lower leg and ankle muscles are helping to keep you balanced.
Beach jogging means you're working against your own body's resistance - as opposed to relying on a machine in a gym to do half the work. Also, running with a partner tends to make you work harder because it provides a competitive edge which you don't get in a gym.
Running is a great cardiovascular exercise as it involves elevating your heart rate. This increases blood circulation, bringing more nutrients and oxygen to the tissues and helping to remove waste from our body more quickly.
Improving your cardiovascular system means our muscles are able to draw in more oxygen and blood which produces more capillaries and allows the muscles to expand, thus burning up calories even more quickly.

• Surfing

The balancing movements required to hold you in place on the board employs most of your stomach muscles. This, in turn, can lead to a flatter stomach - so it's well worth taking the plunge.
Learning to balance on a board means you are employing 'core stability' - where you engage your deep postural muscles - the muscles that wrap around your pelvis like a natural girdle.
This action can help strengthen the muscles that give you the definition of a waist.
And, even if you spend most of your time off the board, paddling out to sea is an excellent way to strengthen your upper and lower body. As you paddle you tend to lift up your chest which lengthens your back, chest and shoulder muscles.
Keeping yourself going through the water will also give your calves and thighs a good workout. Expert surfers can burn up to 1000 calories per hour, but recreational surfers probably burn around 500 calories an hour.

• Beach frisbee

Playing frisbee is a common beach pastime, but according to Helen Maddin of Cannons gym club, this simple game is a good aerobic exericse, - especially if your opponents can't toss a frisbee in the right direction!
And believe it or not a game of frisbee for around 20 minutes can burn up to 150 calories
And as an added benefit it works your arms, legs and stomach muscles - great if you plan to show off your midriff.