In the Bay Area, tree hugging isn't just a political stance, it's turning into a great upper-body workout.
For years, Bay Area residents have taken advantage of the region's mild weather and abundance of open space to run and work out on their own. But now a group of physical fitness professionals is taking supervised workouts out of gyms and health clubs and into the great outdoors for the first time on a large scale.
One of these outdoor-oriented coaches, San Francisco native Tina Vindum, started Outdoor Action Fitness, a training program, in 1995 and holds most of her classes in San Francisco and the North Bay. The program has received national attention, from fitness associations to women's lifestyle magazines such as Self.
When Vindum began attending fitness conventions in 1997, she said, no one else was promoting outdoor exercise. Since then, the American Council on Exercise, the nation's largest nonprofit fitness certifier, has approved her program and she has certified nearly 100 trainers from a dozen states in outdoor fitness and published a manual for professional outdoor trainers. "We will see major gyms starting outdoor programs," said Vindum, 40, who has mentored trainers who lead classes at several major fitness franchises in San Francisco. "It's becoming a lifestyle."
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