Best Outdoor Workout Spots to Film Content in San Diego

If you’re a coach, trainer, or fitness entrepreneur trying to build out your content library, San Diego gives you more usable backdrops per square mile than almost anywhere else — but most of the good ones aren’t the spots everyone already knows about. Here are my go-to locations for filming outdoor workout content, plus a few things about shooting here that’ll save you time, money, and possibly a run-in with a park ranger.

FLETCHER’S COVE, SOLANA BEACH

North of the parking lot and beach entry walkway, there’s a small hill with a garden, a fence line, and a few picnic tables — and right next to it, a flat astroturf area with enough room to fit about 10 bodies moving at once. It’s elevated, the surroundings feel intentional rather than generic, and it’s rarely crowded unless you’re catching an off-peak window or there’s an event happening.

Parking: try the street coming down the hill from the north. Even when the main Fletcher’s Cove lot is full, there’s usually something open on the neighborhood side streets up there.

Light is great here in the morning (as long as you’re not caught in June gloom or May gray), and it’s solid again from late afternoon into sunset if you’re facing toward the ocean.

D ST. OVERLOOK PARK, ENCINITAS

Park on the street across from the Encinitas library, then walk up a short winding path to what’s basically the highest point in Encinitas — panoramic views, including a sweeping shot of the ocean over the entire town. There’s a stone bench, a large flat grassy area, and almost nobody up there besides the occasional dog walker. It’s a genuine hidden gem, and honestly a little surprising more people don’t use it regularly.

TAMARACK AVENUE, CARLSBAD

This one’s more crowded, but it earns its spot on the list. There’s plenty of sidewalk and grassy area next to street parking, a railing running along the bluff facing both north and south, and palm trees lining the 101 right along the coast — as classic a SoCal backdrop as you’ll find. It’s recognizable, so if you’re fine with people being around, it makes for genuinely great content.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT FILMING FITNESS CONTENT IN PUBLIC HERE

Local rules around outdoor fitness activations have shifted back and forth in recent years. After COVID, outdoor classes on the bluffs and beach areas around North County got popular enough that the city cracked down on unpermitted group sessions — but as of now, those restrictions have loosened back up.

If you’re just filming content (not running a full class), you should generally be fine as long as you’re not disrupting anyone else’s space. Between 10am and 2pm you’re more likely to get approached by a lifeguard or ranger, but if you keep your setup simple and low-key, a quick 30-minute session tends to go smoothly just about anywhere in North County. Most of the time, if someone does stop you, they’ll just ask you to move along — that’s the actual worst-case outcome nine times out of ten.

One thing I’ll pass along, though not as official advice: if anyone asks whether you have a permit, the honest and simplest answer is that you’re just doing this as a hobby. There’s no benefit to presenting yourself as a professional in that moment — just be respectful, pack up if asked, and move on. There’s nothing stopping anyone from using a camera in public, so if you’re ever in a tight spot, there’s no harm in coming across as someone who just picked up a camera and is having fun with it.

A QUICK LIGHTING TIP IF YOU’RE FILMING SOLO

Avoid shooting when the sun is directly overhead — sunrise to about 10am and 4pm to sunset are your best light windows. The trick is keeping the light source between you and the camera without facing it directly, which around here usually means facing north or south.

Easiest way to remember it: the ocean is always to your west. So if you’re shooting in the afternoon, put your camera on the ocean side of you; in the morning, put it on the inland side. Face your body north or south depending on your setup, and you’ll get a solid exposure even without much technical know-how.

THE TWO MISTAKES ALMOST EVERYONE MAKES FILMING THIS THEMSELVES

The first is the time math nobody runs ahead of time: 15 minutes driving somewhere, 15 minutes setting up, 30-60 minutes shooting, then breaking down and driving back — only to sit down afterward and realize you got two or three usable shots out of the whole session. For a busy entrepreneur, that’s a real chunk of a day for a small handful of images.

The second is variety. If every photo comes from the same spot in the same outfit, it starts to feel obviously repetitive once you’re spacing posts out over a few months. A single location can only support a few specific shots before your whole feed starts looking like it was all shot in one afternoon — and for fitness brands and coaches especially, that consistent-but-varied look is everything.

WHAT WORKING WITH ME ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE

When someone books me for personal brand content, we start with a hit list — the key shots they need — and they’ll bring a few outfits so we can mix and match across locations. Portraits, action shots, product shots, promo content, all planned out ahead of time and spread deliberately across spots and outfits, rather than improvised on the spot.

That planning is what solves both problems above. I’ve got a business education in economics and marketing strategy, so while I’m shooting, I’m thinking like a business owner about how this content actually gets used — once a spot’s given us what we need, we move on instead of burning an hour in one place for two usable frames. A planned shoot costs a bit more up front — there’s a call, some strategy before we even show up — but you walk away with dramatically more usable, more varied content than showing up and shooting a few frames on your own. I’m a business owner shooting for other business owners, and that mindset shows up in every session.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOOTS

Early in my career — a few months after I’d maxed out a credit card on my first pro camera body and a couple of lenses — I shot with a karate instructor — a woman with an incredible high kick — at a quiet spot along the bluffs in Del Mar. We wandered down near the train tracks (not something I’d officially recommend, and access to that particular stretch has since become a bigger local issue as coastal erosion threatens the tracks themselves). As we were shooting, a train started coming through. I had her line up parallel to the tracks, waited for the train to pass, and caught a high kick with the train blurred through the background.

It's still one of my favorite shots I've ever taken, and it ended up featured prominently on my website when I was first starting out — it brought in several bookings after that.

Planning a content shoot and want help mapping out locations, outfits, and shot list ahead of time? That's exactly the kind of planning I do before we even show up — reach out and let's build it out together.