The last few months have been full of changes for me, one of which was the move of my personal training business from the Orange County area to the Los Angeles area, what a difference! In the midst of training for an upcoming bodybuilding show in September, my diet and cardio have had to become exponentially stricter and more intense. Like many of you, I too dread the thought of waking up to an hour of training on the Stairmaster or treadmill, especially before breakfast. Who wouldn’t want to start with a nice stack of strawberry pancakes and a ribeye from the nearest IHOP! Unfortunately, it won’t happen to me, at least for now. But the one thing I can do, and it’s something I wanted to share with all of you, is the ability to shake up my boring cardio routine, all with the help of my new location in Los Angeles. You see, there’s nothing like getting a good workout in an environment that motivates you and gives you the excitement and exhilaration you won’t find in any indoor gym. By doing my training outside, I’ve been able to eliminate the dreaded hour of morning cardio by looking at the clock, watching the seconds tick by. Here, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite settings, all up close in beautiful Los Angeles.

For those of you who enjoy the beach, nothing beats a morning workout near the beautiful California coast in Santa Monica. Near the Santa Monica Pier is an area complete with rings, pull-up and pull-up stations, a climbing rope, as well as space for many other exercises. For me, I like to start my work on the rings, work my way up through the bar, and finish it off with a grueling rope climb that challenges my upper body strength like nothing else in an indoor gym. After repeating this circuit 4 times, I complete my training with a 2-3 mile run on the shore, enjoying the coastal breeze and the sound of crashing waves, distracting me from the physical stress on my body.

Next, I would like to mention the only stadium at UCLA that is open to the public. I enjoy coming here on the weekends because there’s nothing better than an intense workout on the college campus of one of our very own Los Angeles sports champions. Starting with 8 sets of 100-yard sprints with a 1-minute rest between sets, my heart rate gets ready for the intensity to come. Then I put on a weighted vest and head for the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, and down for a total of 10 grueling games. Does it hurt… OF COURSE IT DOES! But the results are beyond worth it. The bars and ropes at the end of the soccer field conclude my work here with about 3 circuits. For those of you just starting out, start at a slower pace, this is an advanced workout and to prevent injury, listen to your own body.

Lastly, here is an activity that we can all remember enjoying as kids, plain and simple riding a bike. There’s nothing like the simplicity of riding a bike, something that for many of us can take us back to fond childhood memories, back to the days when we didn’t have a care in the world. As children, many of us ride our bikes for hours on end, never looking at the clock to see when it would be time to stop, and most of us don’t find it exhausting or physically taxing. I thought to myself, why ride a bike in a stuffy gym when I can buy a real bike and ride with the downtown Los Angeles scenery by my side? With a good mp3 player and my new bike, my 7am cardio session flew by before I knew it! Since my first ride, I can’t help but ride my bike twice a week, you just can’t beat the excitement!

Now we see that you don’t have to live near green pastures, forests or mountains to get a good quality outdoor workout. Whether you live in Los Angeles or New York City, metropolitan areas provide us with many opportunities to challenge ourselves physically and mentally. We no longer have to think that to get a good workout you MUST go to a gym, this is not the case. As with anything else, repetitiveness goes out of style and the last thing you want is to get bored and tired of working out. The environment they are placed in for their workouts will make a huge difference to their state of mind which will eventually affect their intensity in their workouts. I challenge everyone to take a look at your local environment and find a way to physically challenge yourself outside of your local gym. For those of you in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend the places listed above. Take a step out of your comfort zone and go out like our great ancestors did and have fun!