Becoming healthy requires commitment to both eating right and incorporating exercise into your regimen. Exercising, however, is not easy to make a habit for many individuals who are looking for a way to get in shape without realizing that’s what they’re doing. Nothing is more boring and repetitive than listening to your feet slap against the motorized and moving platform of a treadmill as you run nowhere inside of a gym like a lab rat.

Taking into account where you live and the opportunities presented in the natural environment can make getting healthy and in shape an appealing, and more importantly, fun prospect. For citizens living near mountain ranges, skiing or snowboarding offers an exciting opportunity to learn a new sport and get a new body.

Learning a new sport offers a chance to ‘forget’ about the exercise and take pleasure in the learning of a new skill and the coordination of different muscles that will challenge your body in new ways without being trapped in a repetitive exercise cycle with only the sound of your digital sport watch to keep you company. Cold weather exercise is also extremely adept at building endurance due to the requirement of muscles to work harder at colder temperatures.

Downhill skiing as exercise can help with your overall flexibility and balance will tone your leg and abdominal strength without straining the muscles in your back or tendons and joints. A day on the slopes can end up burning almost 600 calories per hour depending on your activity. Because of the need for balance and the high-speed bursts you’re likely to encounter as a beginning skier, being smart with safety gear like a ski helmet is an absolute must.

The benefits of skiing are akin to the benefits of yoga which impact balance and flexibility while toning your legs and abs but not straining the joints in the way that running does. A full day of skiing burns over 500 calories an hour! This sort of exertion should act as a caution to any novice skier to stay hydrated!

In contrast to skiing, snowboarding is looked at as a more alternative and extreme public face, but has been fully accepted as a valid winter sport. Snowboarding targets your calves and quads when guiding the board, your ankles and feet when steering, and your core in overall balance. Shredding down a mountain through thick powdery snow is also a powerful alleviator of stress and anxiety and can help in your overall mental health. Part of the fun of snowboarding is the range of outfits you can use to express yourself from bright orange suspenders and checkerboard pants to edgier fare like a motorcycle-type black helmet.

Find a way to express yourself while having fun and learning a winter sport that will burn calories and bring you closer to the natural world that surrounds you.