Rowing, yoga, salsa dancing and sweating together at boot camps in the park or on the river bank: open-air sports are very popular. Outdoor sports are booming, said Frankfurt sports psychologist Chris Englert of the German Press Agency: “People are flocking outdoors to do sports there.” This has also been shown by large-scale studies. The trend was already there before the pandemic. Fitness studios also started offering outdoor classes. “It was fueled by Corona,” said Englert.
Seeing and being seen is an important factor: “We like to show what we can do.” It has also become much more important socially, especially in Germany, to shape the body even more than it used to be. People have very high social connection motives: “That means we want to do sports together, we want to be seen, we want to be part of a group,” said the professor at Frankfurt’s Goethe University.
This not only has positive effects on figure and constitution, but also on mental processes. For example, the mood of people who do sports outdoors, so-called green exercisers, could improve and their motivation is also higher. The hurdle to training outside is lower, especially when the weather is nice. It is important that everyone finds the type of sport that suits them. “If the sport is fun, the likelihood is higher that I’ll continue,” said Englert. (dpa)
