Green, lean and keen: exercising outdoors linked to better motivation

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-02-26 08:11

New Zealand

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Kiwi research finds exercising in nature may be linked to positive motivation which helps us feel better about ourselves. A team from the University of Otago asked a sample of New Zealanders to log their exercise and wellbeing over a week in April 2020. The results from over 750 people suggests that those who exercised in natural environments had higher levels of positive motivation to exercise - which in turn was linked to wellbeing - than those who sweated it out indoors. Importantly, doing exercise in any context was linked to higher wellbeing overall, so the authors say we should keep up the workouts wherever we can.