Our TOP 6 Tips to stay motivated to exercise this Winter
Winter is here (at least in our neck of the woods – lucky you, Northern Hemisphere!). It is that time of year when we even our strongest motivation can be challenged. Days are shorter, cooler and often windy/ rainy. Mornings and evenings are dark and cold and motivation is out the window. So how do we stay motivated during the less inviting months of winter? Here are our top tips to get you moving and maintaining your motivation over the next few months:
Buddy Up: Keep yourself accountable to your session. Find someone who will commit to joining you and arrange to meet that friend or family member for your class/ walk / morning run. Text your trainer and confirm that you’ll be there Saturday!
By informing someone else of your intention to train/ exercise, you are more likely to see it through. It is much trickier if you have to make up an excuse that will satisfy someone else too, and not just your own internal dialogue! Also, knowing someone is waiting for you to share the pain of the early darkness might just be the motivation you need to throw back the covers and get out of the house.
Pairing: This theory sees you hair on activity that you LOVE, with another that is not so high on your LOVE-Metre! For example: watching Netflix and a 20 min HIIT home workout; OR listening to your favourite podcast and a big walk/ run. If you mentally pair these two activities in your head – you cannot do one, without the other – soon you will be churning out your HIIT session, just for the opportunity to catch up on House of Cards (because you can’t do one without the other!)!! Brilliant, right?
Plan a different schedule: If you have been making your early morning bootcamp all year, on a Tuesday at 530am, but just cannot seem to get your butt out of bed now that it’s dark… change your schedule! There is no point setting the alarm every Tuesday, only to turn it off and roll back to sleep – and then, totally missing your exercise for the day! That is really a lose-lose scenario! Plan a different exercise schedule, for the short term – train after work, during your lunch break, once you’ve dropped the kids off to school – whatever other option you might have, switch it up! The early mornings are NOT working for you and you are losing out altogether.
Take it indoors: Do you normally train outside but its now dark, cold and sometimes even windy or rainy…. Well, take your activity indoors. Do your bootcamp variation at home, in the garage or on the deck. Hit the gym and jump on their treadmill or ergo, for some cardio. Take up a trial at your local F45 when you know it is forecast to rain all week. There are indoor options aplenty, and while it may not be your preferred way to train – at least you are still getting something done when the weather turns against you! (Pssst. Check out #sshmovers on IG for some workouts to try).
Dress for it! The truth is, sometimes it is not a matter of bad weather, only bad clothing choices. Is it time to upgrade to proper winter training gear? If you’ve balked at buying gear specifically for winter outdoor activity, then weigh it up. If the difference between you spending the money on one or two key pieces is stopping you from training at all (or at least regularly), then it might be time to bite the bullet. The price is easily offset by the increase in comfort and the consistency that you can now maintain, regardless of the weather. And let’s face it – some new training gear always enhances our motivation! 😉
And last but not least KISS (Keep it simple, Sisters!). Don’t plan to drive across town, in the dark and cold, to attend an hour and a half yoga class with a girlfriend – if your heart is not in it! The more things that need to fall into place in order to get you to perform your exercise, the more likely we are to find a reason not to go. If there are too many variables involved, then it is an opportunity to find an excuse at any one of the steps along the way. If you have to drive too far across town, or wait for a ‘gym’ to open or rely on someone to pick you up to get you there, you’re creating extra hurdles that will attract excuses or opportunities for the session to fall apart.
Try a more simplified workout instead: go for a 25-minute run around the area at lunchtime, walk three big laps of your neighbourhood before work, or check out our 15-20min circuit workouts by searching #sshmovers on IG and do this at home before your day starts. With fewer chances for the effort to breakdown, you will manage to finish the session with less hassle and “Done” is far better than “None”.
Give one (or more) of these ideas a go this week and let us know how you go!
Good luck. Try and enjoy the cool change – summer will be back before we know it!
