Green exercise refers to physical exercise undertaken in relatively natural environments. Physical exercise is well known to provide physical and psychological health benefits (see main article: Physical exercise - Health effects). There is also good evidence that viewing, being in, and interacting with natural environments has calming and positive mood effects. The combination of these two elements (exercise and nature) leads to the notion of green exercise.
People and animals tend to naturally participate in green exercise, however its potential role in physical and mental health (e.g., due to nature-deficit disorder) has attracted increasing attention during the 2000s, particularly through the research work of Prof. Jules Pretty at the University of Essex. and several funded programs (see examples). The concept has grown out of well established areas such as attention restoration theory within environmental psychology which has tended to focus on the psychological and physical effects of viewing nature (e.g., see the work of Kaplan and Ulrich) and well-recognised work about the psychological benefits of physical exercise.
Famous quotes containing the words green and/or exercise:
“In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don’t want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.”
—Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)
“In order to cultivate yourself and to drop no lower than the level of the milieu in which you have landed, it is not enough to read Pickwick and memorize a monologue from Faust.... You need to work continually day and night, to read ceaselessly, to study, to exercise your will.... Each hour is precious.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)