Exercise motivation is decelerating as the days become increasingly shorter and the weather is becoming increasingly colder and potentially incremental.
Exercise motivation during the winter months (or from October to March in the UK) can become seriously challenging for many people.
Added to this, there is no summer holiday ahead to keep us motivated, and as Christmas approaches the inevitable increase in socialising can often lead to exercise being at the back of the queue when it comes to our priorities.
So how can we increase exercise motivation throughout the dark and dreary months? This blog will give us some helpful hints and tips.
1. Plan to Exercise in Daylight
With many people now working several days a week from home, try and fit in your exercise during daylight hours.
Let’s face it, exercise motivation is greater in the light as opposed to on a dark, wet evening. Try and plan a lunchtime walk or jog, or maybe fit your exercise in, between meetings.
Leaving your exercise session to the evening, when it’s cold and dark can often lead to ignoring the trainers and curling up on the sofa watching the TV, with a mug of hot chocolate.
2. Try Indoor Exercise Sessions
If you really struggle with exercise motivation outside in the bleak weather, consider indoor workouts.
You could join a local gym or go to a nearby yoga class. There are also other options like indoor bootcamps or dance classes. There are a lot of options.
This can be a great opportunity to try something completely different, which can in turn really enhance your exercise motivation.
3. At Home Workouts
This became a staple of the lockdown exerciser, with at-home gym equipment flying off the Amazon shelves!
If you are really struggling with motivation to leave the house and even travel to an exercise venue, or the weather is making it dangerous to do so, home workouts are a great ‘go too’ to increase your exercise motivation.
You can follow a bodyweight workout on YouTube. Check out my YouTube channel with plenty of workouts available, from resistance to HIIT workouts.
Read my blog about the advantages of HIIT Workouts
The added advantage of home workouts is that they save time, without even having to travel to a gym or other venue and generally little or no equipment is needed.
4. Exercise With a Friend
This a fantastic tip and can be beneficial year-round to enhance exercise motivation, however, when the dreary winter weather is here this takes on added relevance.
If it’s dark, cold, and windy outside what better motivation to run, than knowing your friend will be meeting you at the end of your street at 6 pm?
5. Use the Weekends
Many people ‘do their exercise’ Monday-Friday. This is of course OK, but on a weekend we’ll generally have more chance of being able to exercise in daylight hours.
I know many of us are busy with family commitments, but what better way to spend time with the family than a pleasant group bike ride around a local park on a crisp, sunny, Sunday morning?
6. Invest in Winter-Specific Clothing
Make sure you aren’t cold! Invest in some thermal hats and gloves for those winter walks. Also, consider wearing layers which you can take off if you get too warm.
Initially when you start exercising outside you may be cold, but you can get relatively hot quite quickly as you up the intensity.
7. Have a Backup Plan
The weather can get so bad that going outside to exercise is not a good option and in the worst-case scenario could be dangerous. Think snow and ice! On this occasion, it is very easy to blame the weather and curl up on the sofa and watch a film.
This is when home workouts can be great. Things like bodyweight circuits or yoga are fantastic. Again, there are copious options on YouTube.
8. Don’t Leave it Until January
Many people leave their winter exercise regime until January when they embark on New Year’s resolutions. Don’t be that person!
Very few people who do this last longer than 4-6 weeks before completely losing exercise motivation and giving up!
Don’t put pressure on yourself with the ‘new year, new me’ stuff! Get into an exercise routine now.
If you leave it until January, on top of the added pressure of a New Year’s resolution you’ll have lost a lot of fitness and gained weight from not exercising over the previous months making your job even harder come January!
Exercise Motivation: Consistency is Key
Remember the key to maintaining a fitness routine throughout the year is consistency. This consistency can come under strain during the winter months.
However, by implementing some of the tips above and by being prepared and adaptable throughout those dark and dreary months you can continue to stay active and healthy all year round.
If you are interested in training online with an experienced Personal Trainer via Zoom or Microsoft Teams where I can train you in the comfort of your own home with or without equipment please get in touch.
Also, if you are based in the Birmingham or Sutton Coldfield area and need some motivation and would like to use the great outdoors to train please get in contact
Also as an England International athlete, I take corporate running clubs, which provide great motivation for company employees to get out of the office in a group and benefit their well-being.
Along with this I also provide engaging talks on nutrition to various companies, as part of their employee well-being provision.
