• For those who do not enjoy working out in a gym, choosing to exercise outdoors can make a great alternative.
• To get started, build on what you enjoy. If that is hiking or biking, take longer walks and rides until you’re comfortable being active for about 45 minutes.
• To stay motivated and consistent, it can be helpful to recruit an exercise buddy and get appropriate clothing that will keep you warm and dry in inclement weather.

Between the sweat smell, fluorescent lights and omnipresent television screens, April Herring has never connected with going to the gym.

Instead, she runs, bikes, hikes, plays tennis, pickleball and football — anything to get her exercise outside as often as possible.

“Fresh air, sunshine, the variety of the trees as the seasons change,” said Herring, an administrator at Carroll Community College in North Maryland. “There’s something about the energetic healing quality of nature.”

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The health benefits of spending time in nature have long been established, and exercise in general, of course, improves physical and mental well-being.

Combine the two and you double down on what adults need to stay healthy, said Debbie Rhea, professor in kinesiology at Texas Christian University.

“We’ve got to get outside. We’ve got to be active,” Rhea said. “If we’re going to live long lives, this is what it’s about.”

Getting started on an outdoor routine, however, might not be as easy as signing up for another gym membership. Here’s how to get going.

START SIMPLE WITH WHAT YOU LIKE

If you haven’t been active for a while, think back to the activities you enjoyed years ago, suggested Connie Sciolino, founder of the Alpine Training Center in Boulder, Colorado, a gym that trains athletes for outdoor mountain sports.

People who like occasionally hiking or biking should start building an aerobic base by taking progressively longer walks or rides. Once you’re comfortably in the 35- to 45-minute range, start adding some intensity to build strength, she said.

“If jogging is their main activity, I would send them to the bleachers or do some up-down on stairs, either in sprint format or put a pack on their back,” she said.

Rhea cautioned against jumping back into a sport you used to play without preparing your body for the proper movement.

“Let’s say they’re in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and they haven’t sprinted and now they try to run around those bases,” she said. “They’re probably going to hurt an Achilles or a hamstring or something by doing something too fast.”

THEN BUILD STRENGTH WITH WHAT’S AROUND

A side benefit of exercising outside is that there’s no need to buy expensive equipment, trainers say.

After warming up with your preferred aerobic activity, add strength training by using your body weight and what is available in the built environment. That could be finding a picnic table or low wall and placing your hands shoulder-width apart to do leaning pushups. Then turn around, put your hands on the same surface and lower your body for dips that work your triceps.

For working your legs, add squats with your feet shoulder-width apart, looking straight ahead with your back straight. Add lunges by taking giant steps and bending down into the space between your feet. For the core, find a patch of grass to do sit-ups.

Start with eight to 10 repetitions, or no more than you are comfortable with, and add sets with short breaks in between as you get stronger.

For a more complete workout, find a park or trail with outdoor exercise equipment, which is installed in one-third of park agencies, according to the National Recreation and Park Association. The equipment can range from basic pull-up bars to gym-style bench presses and rowing machines.

And many cities, including Chicago, San Antonio and Atlanta, offer free group classes outdoors.

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED — EVEN IN BAD WEATHER

When it inevitably rains or the weather turns colder, it helps to keep in mind an old axiom: There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

“If we have the clothing for whatever the temperatures are that we may be in, then we’re more likely to go outside to be active when we need to,” Rhea said.

She suggested investing in a jacket that breathes and a light hat with a brim you can use on sunny or rainy days.

Trainer Katie Higginbotham recommended having a contingency plan for inclement weather. Pick an area with surfaces that won’t get slippery when wet or somewhere with some tree shelter so as not to be bombarded by rain.

On those days, having a regular exercise buddy really helps, said Higginbotham, who oversees quality control for TrainFitness, a U.K.-based private training provider.

“If you know someone is there waiting for you, it’s difficult to say no at the last minute,” she said.

Finally, it helps to set a goal, whether that is training for a 5K charity walk or a triathlon. If you’re working toward something, it keeps you motivated to keep going, Sciolino said.

“When you have that day marked on your calendar, you have to perform these things or die out there,” she said.

Semaglutide medications — including Ozempic and Wegovy — have been shown to reduce the risk of kidney failure and the risk of death among people with kidney disease and type 2 diabetes.

In a trial led by UNSW Sydney between June 2019 and May 2021, researchers found that a small weekly dose of semaglutide lessened the likelihood of “major kidney events” by 24%, according to a press release.

The study, funded by Novo Nordisk and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, included more than 3,500 participants with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease from 28 countries.

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The participants received 1.0 mg per week of semaglutide, which is less than what is typically prescribed for weight loss or diabetes, the release noted. 

The median follow-up was 3.4 years.

“It’s the same chemical compound, but we used a lower dose … we did that deliberately because people with kidney disease tend to be more sensitive to the effects and side effects of drugs,” said the study’s lead author, professor Vlado Perkovic of UNSW Sydney, in the release.

“That’s helpful in terms of being able to perhaps have the drug more widely used than might have otherwise been the case given the current supply limitations.”

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The group of people taking semaglutide were also 18% less likely to experience a heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events, the study found.

Why does semaglutide have this effect?

Patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease are at a significant risk for kidney failure, cardiovascular events and death, according to Dr. Brett Osborn, a neurologist and longevity expert in Florida.

“The recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights semaglutide’s potential to mitigate these risks,” Osborn, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. 

Dr. Brett Osborn, a neurologist and longevity expert in Florida, noted that patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease are at a significant risk for kidney failure, cardiovascular events and death.  (Dr. Brett Osborn)

Semaglutide works by improving glycemic control, Osborn noted — which is crucial in mitigating diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease). 

“It also lowers inflammation — particularly within the blood vessel lining,” he said. 

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This reduces blood vessel damage and improves blood flow through the kidneys.

“Overall, semaglutide offers substantial renal and cardiovascular protection for patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease,” Osborn said.

“At a base level, semaglutide, through indirect mechanisms, improves vascular health. The better blood flow to your organs — be it your heart, brain or kidneys — the longer you are likely to live.”

Semaglutide works by improving glycemic control, one doctor noted, which is crucial in mitigating diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease).  (Getty Images)

Outside the spectrum of diabetes, Osborn said he believes these medications will have a major impact on human health, comparing them to the advent of antibiotics at the turn of the century.

Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, also said this was a “very important” study.

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“This lifesaving result is likely due to the metabolic effects of the drug, which helps with reducing inflammation, overcoming insulin resistance, and improving insulin function and glucose metabolism at the cellular level,” Siegel told Fox News Digital. 

“This study has broader implications for all patients who have kidney failure.”

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“Improved kidney function means improved heart function, and pressure on the heart from failed kidneys is a major cause of heart attack and death.”

Siegel added, “This study has broader implications for all patients who have kidney failure or are at risk for it.”

Novo Nordisk, the Denmark-based company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, announced the positive primary results from the trial at the European Renal Association (ERA) Congress in Sweden last week. (LISELOTTE SABROE/Scanpix Denmark/AFP via Getty Images)

Novo Nordisk, the Denmark-based company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, announced the positive primary results from the trial at the European Renal Association (ERA) Congress in Sweden last week.

“FLOW is the first ever renal outcomes trial with a GLP-1 receptor agonist, and demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in kidney disease progression, cardiovascular death, and all-cause mortality risk with semaglutide 1 mg,” Michael Radin, executive medical director for diabetes at Novo Nordisk, said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital. 

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“This study highlights our drive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people living with type 2 diabetes and CKD and to deliver innovations to address current unmet medical needs in CKD pending FDA approval.”

Wegovy is an injectable prescription weight loss medicine that has helped people with obesity. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

To leverage semaglutide as a treatment for kidney disease, there is a need to overcome supply shortages and conduct research about combining the medication with other therapies, the researchers stated in the release.

Novo Nordisk will also need to seek regulatory approval for the drug to be used for chronic kidney disease patients.

“The challenge is to get these results into clinical practice, to get the drug used by the people who will benefit from it, who will live longer without dialysis, without heart attacks, without strokes, if they take this drug,” Perkovic said.

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