This week we saw all the winter weather conditions the UK has to offer, a hard frost as we hit -3c, followed by snow which then turned into heavy rain. To round off the week we had super strong winds and a balmy 17c over the weekend. With weather like this, it is no wonder most people struggle to exercise in the darker months. However, use these suggestions to find ways to keep your fitness going.

 

Check the Actual Weather OUTSIDE – I have now worked with people in parks for 12 years and absolutely love it. As someone who is out there all the time I still find it funny how what people believe the weather to be is regularly not how it actually is when outside. It can appear that it has rained all day yet in reality it just rained for 20 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes a few hours later and again in late afternoon. It looks wet and miserable but it actually only rained for like an hour in total. It only rains in about 10% of my sessions, alebit London is not anywhere as near as wet as other parts of the UK.

Wear the Right Clothes – This is the most obvious advice yet every week I see people turn up to my sessions in the wrong clothes despite my warnings. You just need to use layers. The following combination I have used in heavy rain and as low as -10c wind chill. Wear a t-shirt, a jumper, a hoody type top and then finally a waterproof outer layer. In addition to this make sure you have a hat and gloves. Lower body I would wear a track suit or 1 or 2 pairs of leggings. Footing wise you can get waterproof trainers these days albeit I never have had them, instead I use 1 or 2 pairs of socks. Based on the temperature you can use a thicker outer layer or gloves / hat. If you are doing cardio such as running then you will need a lot less of the above layers compared to when I was doing resistance training in the snow which is much slower paced. To counter the dark there are various lights and reflective colours you can buy.

Understand Your Actual Fitness Needs – Most people do not need to be training twice a day for great fitness progress. The vast majority of people would do well on just 1 or 2 sessions a week over the winter. This means you can just work around the bad weather and find a time when it is ok.

Develop Your Exercise Times Capability – A big limiter for many people is when they can only exercise within some small window of the day. If it happens to rain in your 5-7pm window then you will probably talk yourself out of it. You need to develop the ability to exercise before work, in the middle of the day and later into the evening.  

The easiest way to do this is to drop any pre-expectation on performance level or effort you will put in. For example, if you normally run at 6pm 10km/h for 20 minutes then be ok with your first early run being a mix of walking and running just 9km/h. You will soon adapt to be able to do very similar performances at all times of the day.

Learn to Enjoy Exercise Indoors – It is perfectly fine to have a different exercise strategy during the summer to winter. If you are a keen tennis player during the summer but no options come January then there is nothing stopping you just finding an indoor option you enjoy. This could include, learning to enjoy home workouts, finding a simple gym routine and nice gym you will actually go to or joining an exercise class that you can pay as you go.

Find Some Winter Inspiration – We discussed fitness challenges recently because they give you the stimulus to get sessions done even when you are not quite feeling it. Signing up to something that inspires you may just give you enough of a push to make fitness progress this winter.

Avoid The Big Exercise Demotivators That Affect Everyone – While winter is worse for most people’s fitness, it is not like everyone is breezing through the summer like they are an Olympic athlete. Some of the biggest demotivators are:

-Having A Minimum Time for an Exercise Session – Forget thinking only 20 minutes etc is worthwhile, just get going and anything after 1 minute is a win. Drop any pre conceived requirements for duration and just go with the flow.

-Having A Minimum Effort Level – You do not know what form your mind and body are in until you have done your warm-up so avoid thinking you must lift, run or use a certain intensity. Instead do the warm up then decide after that what you will do in the session. If that means going super easy then so be it.

-Have Some Data Around Your Fitness – Through having no data encompassing your fitness you will miss out on seeing fitness gains happening which is both motivating and rewarding. You do not need to take a hundred tests but with no reference point most people become much less motivated as a result.

Other Options – Some of these may also help you:

Track ‘accurate’ weather using an app so can plan what to do when.
Use other people such as friends, run groups etc so not alone at night
Do your warm up in the house before you step outside.
Use fitness apps to join challenges / have specific plans
Make a cozy / convenient work out space at home.
Leverage Winter fitness by going ice skating or skiing etc
Focus on one aspect during the winter you have been wanting to improve, e.g. mobility.

What Does This Mean For You

Winter doesn’t have to derail your fitness journey. By using the strategies above, you can maintain consistency or make progress during the colder months. Start by making a plan that works with your circumstances rather than against them. There is no need to wait until January neither, you have 5 weeks of time to get things moving ahead of any New Year Fitness drive. I have always found people who get going before the holidays do much better than those who put it off until the New Year. It gives you a psychological edge over starting everything from scratch in the New Year.

Photo – The right and wrong way to handle the winter weather;

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