Going For The Green

BIKE BEAT

Until recently, I didn’t know that exercise came in colors. Exercise done outdoors, in natural spaces, is green—or so it is called by exercise physiologists. When done near oceans and lakes it’s blue. I’m not sure if exercise done in gyms has a color. Beige, maybe.

These color categories aren’t just whimsical; they help us understand the effects of exercise. The key distinction is between exercise done in proximity to nature—in a park, in the woods, or near an ocean or lake—and exercise everywhere else. The distinction matters because, as it turns out, outdoor exercise is better for you.

Exercise anywhere is good. Exercise can improve immune function and cardiovascular health, enhance mobility and balance, slow aging and cognitive decline, improve sleep, and combat anxiety and depression. Research shows that these benefits, all else being equal, are greater when exercise is greener.

Bike riders, walkers, and runners can enjoy exercising in the natural surround afforded by the Bolin Creek Greenway. Photo by Michael Schwalbe.

One explanation offered for this green effect is that humans, as products of nature, are “biophiliac”—hard-wired to love nature. Being outdoors supposedly makes us feel ancestrally at home in an uplifting way. Maybe so. But to say that we like nature because we’re biologically disposed to like nature isn’t much of an explanation.

Another theory holds that natural environments demand less of the kind of attention that wears us out. In busy urban areas, we have to attend to vehicles, people, noise, signs—all of which might portend threats. Natural environments give us a restorative break from the clamor. Add exercise to the mix, and we get the benefits of both restoration and physical exertion. So goes this theory.

A third theory points to perceived level of exertion. Researchers have found that exercise feels easier when it is done in a green environment. We can thus go harder and get the benefits of more intense exercise without suffering extra strain or discomfort. Merely being in a natural surround seems to give us a mental tailwind.

The good news is that getting the benefits of green exercise doesn’t require running a marathon in a national forest. It’s possible to get these benefits by taking the proverbial walk in a park, hiking a woodsy trail, or going for a leisurely bike ride in the country. More intense exercise will of course yield a greater training effect, but the green effect arises even at low levels of intensity.

A mountain biker takes a zippy ride on a woodsy trail in Carolina North Forest. Development pressures could put these and other area trails at risk. Photo by Michael Schwalbe.

In the Triangle area there are still plenty of options for green exercise. In Chapel Hill and Carrboro we have lovely greenways and wooded trails. A little ways away are the Brumley Preserve trails, Johnston Mill trails, Duke Forest trails, American Tobacco Trail, and Umstead State Park. Cyclists willing to venture out of town can find quiet roads through the fields and wood lots of Orange and surrounding counties.

Yet those of us who are long-time residents of the area could be forgiven for being pessimistic. In recent decades we’ve seen thousands of acres of farmland mushroom into subdivisions, two-lane country roads thicken with traffic, and rural villages burst into small cities. We’ve seen green spaces covered over with steel and concrete—trends driven by economic pressures that will only get worse. Two recent cases highlight the problem.

In June of this year, 140 acres of land at Lake Crabtree County Park were lost to hiking and mountain biking use because the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, from whom Wake County leased the land for $1 a year, said Federal Aviation Administration rules required the RDAA to get “fair market value” for the land. The trails on this land were some of the most popular in the Triangle. They’re gone now, likely to be replaced by an “innovative entertainment destination,” as the airport authority puts it. Or, more simply: a place to make money.

A small lake along the Crow Branch Overlook Loop in Carolina North Forest provides a restful scene not far from downtown Chapel Hill. Photo by Michael Schwalbe.

We also learned this year that UNC-Chapel Hill trustees and administrators want to build a sports coliseum at Carolina North, two miles from campus. The proposed coliseum has been described as a “global sports capital” and a “premier multi-sport complex.” The extent to which such a development would damage Carolina North Forest, Chapel Hill’s equivalent of Central Park, is unclear. At the least, worry about the forest’s survival is warranted.

One thing, however, is clear: the prospect of a new sports facility rings up dollar signs in the eyes of its proponents, who claim it could generate between $5 billion and $6 billion over the next 10 years. What sport is being touted as the big potential moneymaker? Cricket. Maybe cricket is more popular in North Carolina than I realize, but to me this sounds like another Belichick-esque boondoggle in the making.

I cite these examples to make the point that it’s hard for hiking and biking trails—or places for green exercise more generally—to prevail against so many real or imagined dollars. This failing, from the standpoint of the future, is tragic. Generations from now, when green places are fewer and more difficult to access, we may wonder why we let paradise be paved, and why we didn’t know what we had until it was gone.