Muscle-Building Outdoor Activities

This section is devoted to those activities that are mostly devoted to actual building of muscle and require more strength than the ones previously listed. It’s fool-hearty to believe that none of these activities cross over, because they all do to some extent. However, there are some activities, such as rock climbing that, while the heights and danger might stimulate the heart more than actual repetitive muscle exhaustion, it’s a much more strength-based activity.

ROCK CLIMBING

A challenge to your senses, all manner of adventure sports are a fresh approach to fitness and an excellent way to cross-train your body into ultimate fitness. But don't let the term "adventure" frighten you. Rock climbing may adventurous, but when calculatedly learned and practiced, it can be something that is far more beneficial to the whole musculoskeletal system than it is perilous. It’s greatest benefit is the strengthening and conditioning of the entire body, with an emphasis on upper body power.

Without a doubt, rock climbing emphasizes coordination and strength. The two, in fact, are highly interdependent. Upper body strength is key here, but having an overall balance of strength is a plus. Conditioning is something is that required in addition to performing and practicing movements on a regular basis. This, too, is interdependent for the actual ability to climb at all, let alone enjoy climbing or setting goals in the outdoors. So what does that mean? A rock climbing gym is really the only place to start in a sane and safe manner. This isn’t a sport to be undertaken lightly. Unlike hopping onto a mountain bike or donning a pair of running shoes and hitting the local track, rock climbing requires a ton of skill, and practice. It is a synergy of many different attributes and abilities put together to compile a total picture of capability, strength, balance and calculated mental and physical agility.

Have we scared you off yet? Don’t be scared. A rock climbing gym is a great place to enjoy the sport, and acquire skills that, even if you never venture out on to an actual rock, you’ll be able to benefit from. Though, why wouldn’t you want to test your skills under a blazing 80 degrees, and enjoy the elements and freedom of climbing against a backdrop of the great outdoors?

Rock climbing works just about every muscle in the upper body (pectorals, deltoids, forearms, biceps, triceps, rectus abdominus, serratus, intercostals, latissimus dorsi, spinal erectors and teres major) as well as a few in the lower body (hip flexors, trocanter, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves). It is probably the single most demanding total body engagement one can find in any strength-based activity.

Indoor climbing gyms have popped up all over the country—either as a part of a larger gym or as a separate entity that offers nothing but climbing to its members. Classes are necessary as it’s a skill that is impossible to pick up by osmosis!

Cost of classes and/or gym membership:

For a gym like Gold’s Gym in Portland,OR where rock climbing comes as part of a total body package, (CALL 503-222-1210) you can get in on one of their specials and pay as little as $299 a year at certain times. Rock climbing isn’t taken as seriously as in a ‘climbers-only’ gym, but it’s affordable and is a great way to get your feet wet in the sport to see if you like it. For a rock climbing only gym like Dyno-Rock Indoor Climbing Gym in Arlington, TX you pay a monthly fee ($45) and then pay a class fee for instruction ($10) and a rental fee for equipment ($6 for harness, carabener, shoes, and chalk bag).

Buying your own gear:

For a simple gym kit (harness, belay, carabener), without shoes, you can pay between $75-$120 for your own gear. Shoes are about $60-$120. If you’re going outside, expect to pay a lot more for all the gear you need because, let’s face it, it has to be good!

Advantages:

You can rock climb indoors and out. You have the ability to be completely safe indoors or take more chances outdoors, depending upon what you want. You’ll feel more free as a human being than you ever have. You can choose this over standard strength training any day you are working upper body if you join a combined gym.

Greatest peril:

Falling and overuse injuries to hands, fingers, wrists, shoulders and neck

Disadvantages:

It takes a long time to become proficient at this sport, and it isn’t cheap!

Benefits:

Build unbelievable strength in your upper body and have a sense of agility unmatched by any other sport. Your mental acuity will soar. Your concept of “fear” as you currently know it, will be short-listed.

Best places to Rock Climb:

Ready to grip it and rip it like the big boys? Of Gateway’s Top10 Best Places to Rock Climb, the top nine are located in South Africa. Number one? The steep sandstone faces on Table Mountain in the Peninsula Mountain Chain in South Africa. Here in the U.S.? California’s Yosemite National Park or Tuolumne Meadows in California’s High Sierras.

KAYAKING

This is one of those cross-over sports that requires both strength and endurance. However, we put it into our strength category because of the amount of upper body muscle it requires in order to engage in it.

Kayaking can be done on a lake, river, or in the ocean. If you don’t have access to one of these, it likely isn’t a good choice for you. However, with the diversity of land and many natural bodies of water found in the U.S., it would be hard to believe that there isn’t a body of water someplace near your home to provide you with recreational and fitness opportunities.

In fact, the sport of kayaking is growing in popularity so much that the price of kayaks have absolutely gone through the roof! An entry-level inflatable kayak starts in the neighborhood of about $250. You can find them at Costco in the late spring and early summer or at a sporting goods store. They only go up from there. $699-$999 buys you a single-man kayak built for recreational paddling of all skill levels, either an ocean or fresh water model. The greater the stability and lighter weight the materials, the more expensive it gets. $1000 and upward buys a serious kayak for higher ability level and more competitive conditions. When we say “upwards”, we were shocked to find that kayaks can actually sell for $10G’s! Yeah, the price of a pretty flashy speed boat, complete with motor and leather seats. (Drool)….

But the truth is, while kayaking can be expensive, it doesn’t have to be. Nor does it have to happen in Class IV rapids to be beneficial to your strength and endurance levels. It’s a great upper body workout for anyone. For fitness purposes, kayaking is actually better suited to still water, such as is found on lakes. Rivers provide their own challenges, and certainly, it requires strength, endurance and calculated choices in order to navigate successfully and safely. However, if you’re purely into the enjoyment of being out on the water and getting your strength needs met, kayaking is a great way to do it!

Equipment needed:

A kayak of some kind, a cart with wheels to get it from car to water, plus an oar, swim gear and a change of clothes, as well as a floatation device/ life preserver

Muscles worked: Latissimus dorsi, lower pecs, deltoids, serratus, intercostals, obliques, biceps and triceps

Advantages:

Can be a great way to get out of the gym and burn calories along with building upper body strength. Calms the mind, and is a great way to fish and view wildlife.

Disadvantages:

Kayaks are bulky and require roof racks. They can be quite heavy, depending upon the model, and require two people to lift and carry them. You can only kayak year ‘round if you live in a place where the water doesn’t freeze over in winter.

Benefits:

A great fitness tool, they can develop the back and shoulders like nothing else. There are no limitations to when you can kayak—it’s a great summer activity in the early morning, heat of the day or at twilight

Best places to see the world from a Kayak:

Alaska, Hawaii and the South Pacific. http://www.alaskaseakayakers.com/, OR http://www.kayakkauai.com/

EXTREME OUTDOOR WORKOUTS –

Obstacle Course Racing
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Muscle Building Workouts - Build Muscle And Fitness The Right Way

Does this sound familiar to you?

You have goals for your muscle building workouts. You follow a regime that allows you to achieve those goals. You're doing everything right. But, you fall on your butt.

Then you find that you get back up and start the whole process working on your muscle building workouts all over again. Only to find that you keep falling down, getting back up again and repeating this over and over.

You do this until you think that you are never going to achieve anything here. You think that this training lark isn't for you. So what do you do?

Yep, you give up.

Why does this happen and what can I do about it?

You've probably asked yourself that question many times. But you may have found that you never came up with a real answer. You blame the muscle building workouts and everything that led you to it.

So what is the real problem?

It seems that you have the right muscle building workouts. You may have goals in mind of what you would like to achieve with that training routine.

Maybe you're doing one, or more, of the following:

* Having bad, or no, warm up sessions.
* Not eating enough.
* Not taking enough fluids.
* Training too much.
* Lifting excessive weights.
* Not getting enough sleep.

These are all very common to all muscle and fitness workouts, no matter what sport you do.

These are easily identified and remedied. Just go through each one of these and see if they apply to you. If so, then identify why this is the case. Having done that, you need to find the right solution to fix it. You do this in a systematical manner, until you have fully identified what is wrong, the reason for it going wrong and the appropriate solution for it.

For example:

Lets say that you not experiencing any growth in your biceps. Ask yourself some questions of your muscle and fitness workouts:

Question: What is wrong? Answer: My biceps are not growing.

Question: What are the possible causes, and why? Answer: The exercise may be done too quickly, or maybe I'm cheating in my training, or maybe there isn't enough weight on the barbell.

Question: What can be done to remedy this? Answer: Improve my form when doing this exercise. Reduce the weight so that I don't cheat and to keep me more strict. Or increase the weight on the barbell to promote more growth in this area.

So you see, you need to identify the problem first. If you don't do this, you cannot fix it up. Then you must identify what the possible causes are so that you can offer up appropriate solutions to remedy the situation. Just go through each solution, one at a time, until you are satisfied with the results.

This requires patience and dedication. Most people will not put in the time to find out why they're going wrong. Instead they spend a lot of money and waste a lot of time trying out different solutions. Whereas, what they should have done first was to seek the answer within themselves. Then seek the appropriate solution elsewhere suitable for their muscle building workouts -- only if that solution is outside of their grasp.

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