These days, the weather is so amazing that all I want to do is play hooky and go to the beach! I feel so blessed to live in Southern California where I have access to the beach pretty much any time the weather allows (which is much of the time). One of my favorite past times is going to the beach with family and friends and playing games, sports, and swimming in the ocean. When I was little this ranged from playing frisbee, building sand castles, catching sand crabs (which I now actually hate…they creep me out!), and even running away from the water to keep it from touching our feet!

Little did I know, that not only are these activities fun, they’re calorie burners as well!! When I really got to thinking about it, I realized that the beach is the perfect place to get our daily dose of Vitamin D AND get a great workout! Here are some of the common beach activities we do, and the potential calories burned during each of them:

So next time you go to the beach, bring a volleyball, football, etc. with you. Or hop in the water to cool off and get a quick workout in…turns out the beach is better for way more than just bronzing our skin! (Although that is definitely a large part of the appeal!) Want an added bonus? If you do core exercises like planks on the sand, you’ll increase calorie burn and strength building, because the sand requires more balance, engaging your core more! What’s better than having fun while burning calories at the same time?!