Card N.6

6. Pilates outdoor

Minimum of 2 hours
Young people of all ages
Mountain
Gym/Dance

Pilates has a liberating and beneficial effects. When it is planned in nature, it can increase the perception of a vital energy in a particularly intense way. The outdoor pilates planned with different difficulty levels based on the target group, strengthens the deep muscles and improves posture. At the same time it reduces stress, connects body and spirit, dissolves tensions, activates vital energy, increases body awareness, promotes mobility and balance. This basic activity can be easily linked to other game activities oriented to exploring the senses in nature. The activity can be conducted in different outdoor locations as urban garden and/or forest.

Video: Clear your head, exercise your body and enjoy some time in nature

Activities to develop

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS

Include in your sport activity a game like “Exploring the senses in nature”. This game activity is conducted in a non-competitive way, based on enjoying the experience in the group in nature. Participants are divided into groups of 3: the one of the three participants takes turns standing in the middle and is blindfolded and led by the hand to discover the environment in which he is. The two assistants will not have to speak but only lead the person in the middle to explore details of nature, inviting him/her to smell a flower, to touch the bark of a tree, to grasp a stone, ... The activity stimulates the 5 senses, giving to participants the freedom to conduct the training, strengthening their trust in others and enriching team building.

Develop a sense of trust in others
Teambuilding

Video: Creative Nature: blindfold walk

This is a short guided practice to experience nature with the help of a friend!

Activities to develop

PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS

Contributing to the return of people to a freer sociality and closer to the natural human propensity to live directly with the body and the establishment of interactions and relationships with others, with animals, plants, rocks, soils. The activity strengthens the following behavior:

Reduce noise pollution
Respect and protect animals and plants

Video: The Impact of Noise Pollution on Wildlife

Some extra activities that can be done parallel to this one are workshop and/or education session on deforestation, loss of biodiversity, mitigation strategies for forest fires.

Activities to develop

THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH NATURE

Encourage a deeper way to being in nature through the sensory education. This process stimulates responsibility, trust, respect to other natural live organisms, and promoting new perception and listening skills. Include in your activity, proposals such as

Trees and flowers recognition in the surrounding (also using special app as Plantnet)
Bird/animal sounds recognition (also using special app as BirdNet)
Input from nature recognition