Remember the forest where you get the Master Sword in the SNES classic, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past? If not, here’s the clip I’m thinking of.

Thanks for indulging my 90’s video game geekery. That’s probably one of my favorite childhood memories. Pathetic, I know.

That brings me to the point of this post. I spent a tad too much time indoors as a kid, but I still played outside a good amount. There are a lot of kids in my neighborhood where I live now, and they are NEVER outside. My wife and I don’t see them all summer until the school busses arrive to pick them up in the fall.

It’s pretty sad, really.

Now that I’m older and I have a job and responsibility and stuff, I try to spend as much time outside as possible. Youth is wasted on the young, right? If you’re nostalgic about riding your bike on The Fourth of July, jumping into leaf piles, and building snowmen as much as I am, then we can probably agree about what’s keeping us from keeping up with those pastimes into adulthood.

Time.

Or the lack of it, I should say.

So what’s a groaning grownup to do? We have so much to do and so little time to do it. How can we work, train, and play everyday and keep up with it all?

My answer is to be smart about it. Combine your favorite activities!

For example, I often grade papers outside. I wear a weighted vest and ankle weights when doing yard work. I do most of it by hand. And I train outside as much as possible. Running, biking, hiking, katas, makiwara conditioning, dumbbell swings, rope climbs–pretty much anything you sweat over in the gym or dojo can be done outside!

There’s a little wooded grove I’ve found recently. When I run through, the squirrels and birds and bunnies are there. I haven’t found the Master Sword yet, but it’s a great spot to do burpees and to meditate. It’s a great opportunity for natural training and to reconnect with the outdoors–even if only for a little while.

Do you have any clever ways of training outside? Let us know. Of course, you can always play Zelda on the Nintendo DS outside, but that wouldn’t be as much fun.

PS – Look for a tutorial on how to spice up your burpees coming soon!