Weather and exercise: A comparative review and the role of geographers

Abstract

As part of an argument about the value of a geographical approach to the connection between local weather and physical exercise, this paper begins with how that connection features in four areas of scholarship that have been at the forefront of exploring it so far. By comparing how each of them commonly imagines ‘the human’ and ‘the weather’ in their studies, we particularly highlight how different bodies of work illuminate different facets of the weather-exercise connection. This, we suggest, represents an opportunity for geographers to explore how these facets combine in context with a view to tackling the complex public health challenges associated with increasing human inactivity and a warming world. Building on that, we end with three promising cross-cutting themes that we think could usefully guide these endeavours: adaptation, decision-making and place.