Benefits to Performance and Well-Being of Nature-Based Exercise: A Critical Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Prior reviews point to the superior benefits of exercising in nature vs in conventional indoor venues, particularly in terms of well-being. However, physical exercise performance, neither in terms of efficacy nor efficiency, has not been sufficiently addressed by past reviews of this topic. Therefore, we conducted both a systematic review and meta-analysis of the experimental literature that relates to differences in exercise performance and well-being between exercising in nature and in conventional indoor venues. Forty-nine relevant studies─the outcome data of which were used for the systematic review─were located within the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases. The meta-analyses, using data from twenty-four of the relevant studies, revealed no significant overall environmental effect on task performance efficacy outcomes (p = 0.100). For nature-based exercise, however, marginally positive cognitive performance outcomes (p = 0.059), lower ratings of perceived exhaustion (p = 0.001), and higher levels of vigor (p = 0.017) were observed, indicating higher performance efficiency. As for the effects of environment on well-being, positive affect was significantly higher for nature-based exercise (p = 0.000), while perceived stress was significantly higher for indoor exercise (p = 0.032). These results must, however, be interpreted with caution. High levels of bias and between-study heterogeneity were observed. Nonetheless, given several noticeable trends in the results, it may be that exercising in nature enhances the efficiency of exercise task performance to a greater extent than does indoor exercise.