Southampton - Whether or not you have followed my series on Environmental Training thus far - jumping in now to read this final article is fine! If you have been following along and have given the workouts a try - I hope you have found them fun and challenging. At the very least, I hope they have proven a breath of fresh air, literally!

The most important "take away" from these articles will hopefully be the ability to step outside and no matter what environment or geography you see - you are able to turn that space into your very own personal gym. Open 24 hours and free of charge. All it requires is a touch of imagination, a sprinkle of will power, a dose of desire and a pinch of knowledge.

Use the environment around you. (mindsparke.com)

Let's break down the key elements involved when creating a safe and effective outdoor workout. The first thing to do before creating your outdoor workout is to choose your workout "goal." The goal of your workout will then help drive the design of the elements you include. Some possible goals for your workout might be

(a) To burn fat - work aerobically
(b) To train for power and speed - a sports specific workout
(c) To reduce stress - a more meditative - stretch oriented workout
(d) Overall fitness - a bit of each of the above goals

Once you have decided on your workout goal it is then important to assess what you have to work with in your given environment. A few general assumptions can always be applied no matter what your geography.

 • Fixed objects (defined for our purposes here as objects that will not come loose when pressure is applied) - such as trees, sturdy fences, telephone poles, picnic benches, lifeguard stations, etc. can always serve as a fixed "anchor" for looping ropes, tying ropes and resistance bands, etc. This will allow you to create a sort of cable, pulley type of exercise station. This will be the area where you can do exercises like cable rows, bicep curls, chest presses, wood chop and golf swing drills.

 • Flat and wide open non-cement surfaces - such as grass, sand, dirt. These surfaces are perfect for jogging, sprint drills, sports drills, plyometrics and lunging.

 • Flat hard surface - such as pavement, tennis court, cement area. This is a great surface for jumping rope, doing medicine ball drills and footwork drills.

Keep that heart rate up and feet moving. (opengym.com)

 • Raised (at least six inches and not more than 18 inches) and fixed objects - such as benches, steps, picnic tables. Excellent for doing step ups, push-ups - incline or decline, abdominal knee-ins, tricep dips.

 • A staggered line of repeated objects - such as light poles, trash cans, fence posts, etc. Excellent to use for doing repeats of an exercise such as sprints, running drills, line drills and more. Two poles or trees in a line can be used to tie off a rope between the length that can be used for over/under drills - common in boxing training, sports training and more.

After you have assessed your area and made decisions about how you will use what you see it is time to come up with the workout design. Here are the basic guidelines to use to create an effective and "out of the box" type workout. I find that a hybrid workout of the goals I mentioned at the beginning of this article creates the most effective routine. With that in mind, here are some ideas about what to combine for the most complete workout.

 • The workout should contain a warm up and cool down, five to 10 minutes of each - followed by 30 to 45 minutes of your main workout.

 • Include some resistance exercises for strength and toning - rowing, push-ups, bicep curls, tricep dips.

Flat services are best for plyometric exercises. (encoregardengroup.com)

 • Include some aerobic activity in the workout, i.e., jump rope for three minutes in between a set of rows and push-ups. Sprint one direction to a tree and then light jog back to starting point. Repeat several times.

 • Include some agility and leg/glute work such as sprint repeats on a flight of outdoor stairs or take two stairs at a time all the way to the top. Walk back down - then repeat.

 • Include some power work using a hard surface for medicine ball "throw downs" or plyometric drills.

 • Include a stretching and flexibility element by adding some yoga poses. This can easily lead into your cool down.

 • Put all that together and you will have created a well rounded, fun and challenging "environmentally" based workout.

Final thought - we are so fortunate to have the Hamptons as our backyard playground - and the opportunity to utilize it for improving our health and vitality is just another of the gifts we get while here. Embrace it!