Lupita Nyong'o spent her summer hiking, cycling, swimming and playing outdoor sports

Lupita Nyong'o spent her summer hiking, cycling, swimming and playing outdoor sports

Lupita Nyong'o looks back on her summer full of outdoor activities. The actress has shared a series of clips on TikTok showing a variety of sun-drenched fun along with some sweaty workouts, all packed into a 30-second video.

"Summer was a beauty! Hiking, biking, swimming, exploring, dancing, working out, swimming, lounging and more lounging!!" the Black Panther star writes in the caption of her post.

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The first clip shows Nyong'o in a swimsuit on the beach, dipping her feet in the water. Then she wears sunglasses for a few nature hikes, followed by a bike ride through a tree-lined path. In between all these activities, the 39-year-old took some time to rest and shared clips of herself lounging by the sea and on a raft in a body of water.

Next, she's on the grass under palm trees in a yellow workout kit doing some outdoor exercises, including impressive plank shoulder taps. This clip is from another TikTok video Nyong'o shared in July 2022. In it, she shared her go-to warm-up, which involves doing 20 dead bugs, 10 rolling dead bugs, 10 glute bridges, five single-leg glute bridges on each side, 10 breaths in bear pose, 10 dogs in plank down, 10 shoulder taps in plank, and 10 shoulder blade push-ups.

7 easy and creative ways to exercise outside

She ends the video with a shot of her looking out to sea at sunset. “Message me ideas for getting outside this fall,” Nyong’o adds in her caption.

Nyong’o has the right idea to move her training and other activities outside. “We are designed to coexist with nature,” Eva Selhub, MD, a resilience expert, previously told Shape. “Being in the environment reduces the body’s stress response, lowers inflammation and improves the immune system.”

There are actually many proven mental and physical health benefits that come with getting outside. For example, spending time in nature can help with heart disease, depression and anxiety, according to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives.

In addition, changing your training location also offers benefits to your training. Running or jumping on sand causes less impact and can burn about 30 percent more calories than on solid ground, Paul O. Davis, Ph.D., a fellow at the American College of Sports Medicine, previously told Shape. Walking barefoot in the sand also affects your form, creating a more joint-friendly stroke with each step, he added.

What is correct running form anyway?

If you can't make it to the beach, even walking off the treadmill and onto the outdoor area will make a difference. Not only will you reap the feel-good benefits of being outside, but running on flat terrain requires more muscle than running on a treadmill, which you would have to set at a 0.5 incline to compare it to a flat road outside, Colleen Burns, sourcing director for outdoor retailer Backcountry, told Shape.

Just because summer is coming to an end doesn't mean you have to keep your workouts indoors. You can reap the benefits of exercising outside even in cold weather. Don't know where to start? Check out the best outdoor workouts to shake up your routine.