My favorite holiday has finally arrived: Summer Fridays

Since my favorite day of the week is Friday and my favorite season is summer, it's no surprise that the combination of the two gets my heart pumping faster than an all-out sprint. On the rare, but blissful occasion that I'm fortunate enough to wake up to a sunny Summer Friday, I quite literally get anxious and flushed if I'm indoors for too long. If you too suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out, for all you old folks) on sunlight, you'll be delighted to hear that taking your workouts outdoors boasts a wide range of benefits.

For one, research shows that hitting the pavement outdoors burns more calories than working up a sweat in your little hot-box of a gym. The most exciting thing you can do on a treadmill or elliptical is adjust the incline and speed, and even if you do somehow find that fascinating, you're still probably staring at a television screen or a blank wall. Yawn. Working out outdoors promotes muscle confusion, which causes your body to burn more calories, and allows you to exercise on all types of terrain, thus strengthening your body more effectively and helping prevent injury.
Furthermore, switching things up beats the inevitable trap of gym-boredom. For me, exercise is equally about the mental payoff as it is about the physical one. To insure that I don't go completely insane, I find it imperative to switch up my workouts from time to time. The variety of outdoor workouts is somewhat endless, so there's really no possible way to get stuck in a workout rut. When you exercise outdoors, every day the environment is a little tweaked. Even if you run the same path day after day, I'm willing to bet a months membership at Equinox that the weather and surroundings will never be the same as the day before.

Lastly, and most importantly, exercising outdoors just makes you feel... good. And it's not all in your head, although some of it probably/definitely is. Research has shown outdoor exercise is linked to a large reduction of stress, a decline in tension and anger, and lower symptoms of depression. Research has also found that fresh air contains molecules-negative ions to be precise- that have an extra mood-boosting effect on the body to extend your “exercise high."

If I haven't sparked your interest to get up and go outside on this glorious, sunny Summer Friday, you're probably in a bad mood and need to take a nap. If I have started a little fitness fire in your heart, here are 6 examples of my favorite outdoor workouts I do when I am blessed with a sunny Summer Friday.

1. Paddleboarding: Not only does it give you an insane core workout, but it also gives a similar sensation to that of laying in a hammock with a good book -it's just entrancing. Don't ask me why, it just is.

2. Hiking: The views...oh the views.

3. Stair Workout: Not the most pleasant, but my favorite workout to do when I really want to torture myself and not be able to sit down the next day. Hellishly gratifying.

4. Running On the Beach: I am fortunate enough to reside 100 feet from the beach, so this workout pops up quite frequently during the warmer months. Sand training requires less stability and energy returned during exercise, which results in a greater workload for the muscles to achieve the same output. In simpler terms: you get more bang for your workout-buck.

5. Biking: The resistance that comes from wind and real-life hills is not to be compared to changing the resistance on a stationary bike. Seriously, don't do it, you sound moronic.

6. Rock Climbing: An absolutely breathtaking experience, but not for the fainthearted. I repeat not for the fainthearted.