Exercise in Outdoor Greenery Has an Important Effect on MH and Brain
Is there a difference between exercising outdoors or indoors in virtual greenery related to mental and physical health?
A study from the United Nations says that by 2050, 68% of the world’s people may live in cities. Only 33% of people lived in cities around the world in 1950, so this is a vast and quick rise in a short amount of time. This level of urbanization, which has happened quickly from an evolutionary point of view, has changed the environment. For example, people who live in cities see fewer wild areas, more traffic, and more pollution in the air and water. This lack of access to wild areas, a.k.a. "green areas," can have amazing effects on our brain, mental health, and physiology.
Corporations have been leading us to believe that exercise indoors is a great way to engage in these activities whether through inability to access the outdoors or an inclination to remain inside. Researchers, however, have not found that this is a substitution that meets all of the advantages of exercising outdoors.
The research is quite specific in how outdoor activities activate portions of our brain involved in maintaining tranquility and engaging problem-solving activities. Many of us have seen the 10-second commercials with calming outdoor sounds. The sounds of nature have a primal…
