Winter is upon us. Sadly, that can lead to the all too common occurrence of letting our fitness regimen fall off the pace. It’s understandable, considering how cold and dark the days are, nothing can seem worse than the idea of hitting the gym or going for a run.
Yet it’s never a good idea to fall off the horse during winter, as your fitness levels can drop by as much as 20% after missing between 3 -8 weeks of exercise. This means all of your hard work to either lose weight or get into amazing shape could take a serious hit.
Don’t be ruled by the change in seasons, instead follow these handy tips for working out during the winter:
Do Your Warm Up Inside
This one is rather obvious thanks to the ridiculous drops in temperatures that can make us shun the outdoors for as long as possible. Yet taking the time to stretch and warm up inside will help kick your body into the mind-set that it’s about to exercise, making the process much more achievable.
Cold weather can wreak havoc on the muscles in the body too, so always take the time to prepare indoors to avoid any type of injury too.
Wear Compressive Clothing
Fitted clothing will be your best friend during the winter workouts, and if it’s possible, make them thermal for good measure. Fire this insulating clothing under your standard workout gear and you will immediately feel less cold when you start working out.
Loose fitting clothing can cause our natural body heat to be replaced by the cold air surrounding us when we work out. And let’s face it, the outdoors is cold enough, but plenty of indoor locations will be a lot colder than normal too.
Drop Intensity Levels
Our bodies alter the way they work during different climates. This means that in the winter, our body tends to work much harder to try and keep us warm enough to compensate, essentially pushing them a little harder than normal.
To help ensure optimal fitness, it’s advised that you drop intensity levels in your exercise to help compensate the body for its additional stress trying to keep us warm.
Don’t Skip the Shower
Sweating is our body’s natural way to cool our bodies down, which is why we sweat when exercising. While this is great in warm climates, come winter time and drop in temperatures, it can actually turn out to be rather unhelpful.
Sweat that is left on our skin after a hard workout can actually cool down our skin and overall temperatures, making us feel the cold more often than normally. Always jump into a shower as soon as you can after exercising.
