5 Winter Fitness Hacks

Are you searching for winter fitness hacks to help you keep active in winter? We have five you can try today.

Zzt zzt, zzt zzt… It’s the start of a winter morning and your phone alarm signals that it’s 6am. Slowly, as you stir from your deep slumber, it hits you. That all too familiar feeling of dread, followed swiftly by an internal monologue that goes something like:

“Ughhh I can’t be bothered going to the gym.”

“But I really should.”

“But I really don’t want to, it’s so toasty under this doona and I could do with the extra sleep.”

“But then again, a workout will set me up for the day.”

“I think I can hear rain outside… yep it’s definitely raining. And it’s probably 5 degrees. Yeah, no thanks. I think I’ll stay righhhht here.”

Hits snooze button.

Sometimes it can be extremely hard to find the motivation to exercise, especially during the dark, cold, dreary winter months when all you want to do is curl up on the couch under a blanket and watch 8 seasons of ‘Entourage’ back-to-back.

So here are five winter fitness hacks to help boost your fitness and keep you active in winter, even when you really don’t feel like it.

1. Home is where the health is
If you love to keep fit but the thought of going for a run outdoors in the depths of winter sends a shiver down your spine, then you may want to consider converting a space in your house into a fitness studio. Working out in the comfort of your own home is easy, and it also won’t freeze you to your core. There are countless free workout videos online (‘The Body Coach TV’ YouTube Channel is a goodie), and many of them do not require equipment. And for those that want to use equipment, but don’t own any – you can improvise! Use a 3-litre bottle of milk to do bicep curls, or a backpack filled with books to add some resistance to your squats. Other than that, all you really need is an exercise mat and a device to play the videos on. You can even work out in your PJs if you want to 😉. If you don’t think you have enough room to exercise, check out our handy storage guide to learn about creating space within the home.

2. Accountability for the win
Another fitness hack you can try is joining a fitness group so that you are held accountable! It’s easy to skip the gym when it’s cold outside and you’ve only got yourself to worry about. But if you make a commitment to attend a weekly group bootcamp or a daily one-on-one boxing session, you are more likely to honour it, because no one wants to be that person that lets the team (or their sparring partner) down!

3. Workout while you wash (the floors)
Turn cleaning the house into a workout… but make it fun! The ultimate fitness hack! When it comes time to pull out the vacuum and/or mop, throw on your exercise gear and crank up the volume on your favourite Spotify playlist. As you clean, dance around like a crazy person and burn those calories! Just be careful not to slip on the freshly mopped floors!

4. Walk on the wild side
Cold weather can deter the best of us from going for a walk, so to keep things fresh and motivation levels high, why not mix it up? Instead of walking your usual route or staying within your local area, drive a couple of suburbs over, rug up, and explore a new neighbourhood. Use your phone to plot a safe and scenic route appropriate to your fitness level and get going! You might even discover a cute café along the way!

5. Slow and steady wins the race
We have all fallen into the trap of thinking: “It’s cold and dark this morning, I won’t exercise now, I’ll exercise after work instead.” Then ‘after work’ rolls around and our mentality changes to: “Gee its freezing tonight, not to mention wet, maybe I’ll just skip straight to cooking dinner and squeeze a workout in in the morning.” And so, the vicious cycle continues. For those working from home full time or even part time, one way to avoid this trap is to stagger exercise throughout the working day, so that it doesn’t seem like such a mammoth task. Put your activewear and runners on after your shower in the morning and take a 5-minute break every hour (or every couple of hours) to do some simple exercises.

For example:
10.00 – 10.05 – upper body i.e., push ups, dips, rows, bicep curls
11.00 – 11.05 – lower body i.e., 3 sets of 10 squats followed by 2 sets of lunges (10 each leg)
13.00 – 13.05 – cardio i.e., star jumps, burpees, high knees and mountain climbers
15.00 – 15.05 – abs i.e., sit ups, planks and bicycle crunches
17.00 – 17.05 – 5 minutes of power – exercises of your choice

These short bouts of exercise may help to increase your concentration throughout the day, and come 5.05pm, you will have completed approximately 25 minutes of exercise!

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