With Daylight Savings over and the days getting shorter, here are 4 things you should do to ensure you maintain your routine and avoid a sedentary lifestyle over winter:
- Reset your clock: obviously you’ve done this by now! I’m talking about the clock on your wrist, I mean the one that’s inside you, your body clock. You need to find what works for you and quickly go about establishing a routine you can stick to from now until Spring, when it gets warmer and lighter again. Are you a morning person or an evening person? Is it unrealistic for you to try to set your alarm every morning? Do you prefer the lighter mornings to the darker evenings? Perhaps you will allocate more time on the weekends to exercise if you know it’s unlikely you will do it enough during the week. Find what works for you and stick to it.
- Go indoors: schedule as much exercise indoors if the colder, wetter conditions are going to prevent you doing enough exercise. People lose their momentum over winter because of unrealistic expectations. If you know you won’t exercise when it’s raining, then have a plan to train indoors.
- Embrace the conditions: what activities can you do that suit the winter climate and will keep you fit? Skiing, snowboarding, ice skating are winter activities that will keep you fit. They may not be activities you do often, but you get the picture.
- No excuses: there simply is no excuse to lose your sh@t over winter and have to start all over again in time for summer. Don’t allow yourself to do what everybody else does and revert to excessive eating and drinking and avoiding exercise.
Here’s an interesting fact for you: the majority of clients I have helped over the years that have achieved the best results started in Autumn or Winter. People who start in Summer are usually full of New Year’s Resolutions and don’t last as long, but those starting in Winter seem to come willing to learn and stick with it and not let the weather conditions determine their level of success.
So will you let the next few month ruin your health or will you use it to take your results to the next level?
About the Author
Ryan Mitchell is the owner of Evolution Fitness Centre and is a qualified personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach. Ryan is dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals and draws on his experience and knowledge gained from training people of all ages and fitness levels. Ryan is a former Australian Powerlifiting Champion and Australian team member.
