Preparing for Outdoor Exercise in Toronto

This post discusses some of the unique challenges of exercising outdoors in Toronto—things like uneven terrain, seasonal weather changes, and high impact on joints—and emphasizes that jumping right into summer activity can lead to injury if your body hasn’t been prepared. It recommends maintaining strength, conditioning, and stability especially during the off‑season (winter/spring) so you’re ready when outdoor sports, hiking, or running season returns, including doing isometric work for joints like ankles, knees, trunk, and shoulders. It also stresses hydration: knowing how much water you need daily, giving yourself extra fluids during hot, sweaty activity, and using electrolytes judiciously when needed.

We have a large, enthusiastic outdoor exercise community here in Toronto. Our outdoor exercise fans include walkers and runners, tennis and pickleball players, hikers, oarsmen and kayakers, and other outdoor exercise enthusiasts, from soccer to ultimate frisbee.

While outdoor exercise can be healthy, fun and promote longevity, it has unique challenges compared to gym exercise and indoor activity here in metro Toronto. These challenges include:

• uneven terrain;
• Toronto’s weather challenges; and,
• greater and different kinds of foot impact.

I have personally made the mistake of thinking that I can go from “zero-to-distance runner” on day 1 of warm Toronto spring weather and have ended up setting myself back. As a Toronto fitness trainer, my goal with this blog post is to give you some light precautions, useful tools, and strategies so that you can enjoy outdoor exercise in Toronto (or any great Canadian city!), improve your health, and stay pain-free through it.

Outdoor Exercising to Exercise

While that statement might not make sense at first, it is worth considering. People tend to view walking, jogging, gardening and recreational sports as exercise. Another view to take is that they are all types of performance, and while they might be healthy and good overall, they also require minimum performance standards from your body.

Especially in a city like Toronto, full of hills and beautiful nature areas like The Belt Line Trail, even the slowest jog or hike might present excessive challenges to a de-conditioned Toronto winter body. Let’s face it, most of us exercise in the winter months thanks to Toronto’s snow & icy sidewalks.

Further, popular outdoor Toronto sports such as tennis and pickleball demand a lot of strength and endurance from our bodies. It’s easy to injure yourself if you’re jumping right into outdoor exercise activities without preparing your body.

Strength training and aerobic conditioning through the winter and the colder parts of spring can protect you from injury when you return to your favourite Toronto summer exercise activities. For people who prefer to avoid heavy weightlifting, focusing on exercises dedicated to the stability of ankles, knees, trunk, and shoulders can be beneficial, without heavy loading.

Isometric exercise is an excellent, efficient, and low-risk way of keeping your body conditioned year-round for your favourite outdoor activities and sports in Toronto. Feel free to try the two isometric workouts below as a starting point to protecting yourself against outdoor exercise injuries.

Hydrate Appropriately for Warm Weather

With expensive designer water bottles being such a strong trend, it is hard to believe anyone would be dehydrated in a trendy city like Toronto.

Still, it happens.

While someone might be willing to pay $50-$150 for a water bottle at MEC, it doesn’t mean they use it. So, before you go running up your credit card for the latest trend in H2O containment, make sure you have these hydration rules of thumb in mind:

1. Your base water consumption should be 0.5 fluid ounces per pound of 35 millilitres per kilogram of body weight per day. For example, someone who weighs 150 pounds / 68 kilograms should drink 75 fluid ounces / 2.3 litres of water per day.
2. For every 15 minutes of vigorous, sweaty activity, try your best to consume an additional 6 fluid ounces / 175 millilitres of water.
3. Consider adding electrolytes to your water during activity. Electrolytes have also been trending and should be considered carefully based on your health issues. For example, people with high blood pressure need to take extra care with them. Consult with your physician before using them. Lastly, except in rare cases of high-performance athletics or exercise that is several hours in duration, electrolyte drinks that contain sugar are not useful.
   
   Most people can get away with using Celtic Sea Salt as an electrolyte supplement. However, more intense, longer durations of exertion outdoors in the summer in a city as warm as Toronto might require a more enriched electrolyte supplement. LMNT and LiquidIV are two great options. Again, please consult your physician or licensed nutrition professional before using a new supplement.

Making sure that your body is physically prepared for outdoor activities and staying hydrated while exercising outdoors in our spring and summer weather are essential. Following these crucial guidelines will help ensure that your active outdoor Toronto exercise experiences are healthy, fun and part of your long-term health.

Enjoy the Toronto outdoors this summer! Want to begin with some time at the gym to prepare? Book your one-week free trial membership today!