By Jessye Gentry |Staff Writer|

Sand is a shock absorbent and slippery, which makes your body have to put forth extra effort to fight the friction when running through it.

The beach is a fun place for students to relax and take in a nice view. Exercises like running are always good too!

Some beaches even have outside gyms, like Santa Monica beach.

Muscle Beach in Santa Monica is an outside gym that was established in the 1930s.

It became a very popular beach, due to all the famous individuals who frequently visited.

This beach has a lot of fitness equipment including parallel bars, balance beams, swings and rings, just to name a few.

Aside from Muscle Beach, you could also run on the beach.

Running on sand is a more intensive workout and you will burn more calories when compared to running on concrete according to fitday.com.

There are different running exercises you could practice.

The zigzag, which alternates every minute running on wet sand to dry sand.

Sand Hill Ascents is running up and down sand dunes.

For the few of us that despise running, you could do yoga on the beach.

The sound of the ocean waves is the perfect soundtrack to do yoga, as well as the beautiful background the beach provides.

Volleyball is very good at burning calories too!

You feel less exertion playing volleyball than going for a run, but according to Harvard Medical School, beach volleyball burns calories quickly.

A 155-pound person will burn 298 calories during a half-hour game of beach volleyball, which is comparable to running at 5 mph and swimming the backstroke.

The same person will burn 149 calories during 30 minutes of volleyball in a gym and 112 calories during a 30-minute game of water volleyball.

Skateboarding, rollerblading and bike riding is fun, as well as providing a great workout.

Venice Beach has a skate park with a sunken pool, stairs, ledges, rails and an astonishing view.

Skateboarding is a rigorous cardio workout.

Even if you’re not attempting any elaborate tricks, just pushing around a board on flat terrain can “accelerate your cardiovascular system and burn between eight and an impressive 12 calories per minute,” stated Michele Olson, a professor of exercise science at Auburn University in Alabama.

Rollerblading is “such a great way to lift your mood while getting in some awesome exercise,” stated Kalinda Bogue, director of marketing at Rollerblade.

In fact, studies show that an hour of inline skating can burn about 840 calories and can work your muscles just as effectively as running, according to sheknows.com.

Let’s not forget there is tons of water at the beach.

Swimming is always a great way to tone your body and burn calories.

Surfing is also a great exercise.

Surfing combines anaerobic and aerobic components: paddling, jumping to your feet and turning.

There’s a very strong interaction between mind and body: just a simple bottom turn is quite a feat of balance and control, and it all takes place in an environment (salt water) which helps protect you from injury as a consequence of error, according to surfline.com.

There are many fun activities to do at the beach so next time you’re there, give one a try!