Best Winter Fitness Tips to Stay in Shape

COLD, wet, and dark – winter days are not the natural time to want to get out and about and exercise.

Indeed, our core animal instincts are to find shelter, warmth, and store food – not a good combination if you are seeking to maintain an exercise regime.

But all the more reason to establish a routine and stick to it – otherwise that winter weight we gain in common with the bears will be all the harder to shift come the spring and the end of our hibernation.

Whether you are going for the cardiovascular burn by boosting the heart rate and building stamina, or focusing on resistance exercises to grow your muscles – or ideally a balanced combination – exercise helps us in many ways, including staying fit, becoming healthier, losing weight, and boosting our mental health as well.

So how do we keep the motivation going during the long months of winter?

Set goals for yourself. We are much more likely to achieve something if we set a goal – even if we fall short we are likely to have got further than if we had not. Do be realistic in goals though – unachievable ones cause you to abandon them, so far better to break an ambitious target down into several smaller steps and celebrate achieving each one, until you finally find you did get to where you wanted to be. Want to run a marathon? Start by once round the block.

Too cold outside? Exercise can be done indoors too – whether you go for the gym membership or become a mall walker, join a fitness class or put in a workout video on YouTube, the important part is to find what you like and get stuck into it.

Embrace the winter season. It may be cold but the world is still out there in all its glory. Brisk walks through the park, trying winter sports for the first time, or even a snowball fight with the children and shoveling snow are all good workouts as well as creating some good memories as a bonus.

Bring a friend. Doing anything with someone else is always more fun, and you get an accountability partner thrown in for good measure. You are far less likely to skip a session if your friend is waiting for you to turn up, and there is nothing wrong with grabbing a coffee afterward either.

Use the calendar. Like setting a goal, if you commit to when you are going to do your exercise, you are far more likely to actually do it than if you just hope you find a bit of free time in the day as something always seems to crop up otherwise. And if time does get short, do some exercise anyway – not every session needs to be a two-hour workout. Even a few minutes is better than nothing – climb the stairs rather than take the elevator or park on the far side of the supermarket car park, there could be a thousand steps just there.

Track your success in a log. It is highly motivating to see your progress build up as you achieve your smaller goals one after the other – we all enjoy seeing ourselves achieve success.

And always remember, your friendly Diet Center is always here to provide you with whatever plan or product you may ever need along your journey!