Staying on track in Winter
It's coming into the cooler months and staying under the covers seem more inviting than going out for that run or hightailing it to the gym at the early hours or even after work as going to the gym in the dark seems less than inviting. But a few little tweaks to your routine and you could be running out the door in the early morning.
Here are 5 of my tips to get you up and training in Winter
1. Get your clothes out the night before
Having your clothes packed out the night before gives you that extra incentive and motivation to get out of bed. It makes it so much easier in the early hours when you don't have to figure out what to wear you can just grab your clothes in the morning and go. Similarly if you have to go straight to work after you workout, have your post workout breakfast/ smoothie ready, lunch packed and your work clothes ready the night before so that you can save time in the morning and not have to get up earlier. All it takes is an extra 5 minutes of being prepared the night before to save you a whole lot of hassle in the morning.
2. Set yourself a fitness goal for the end of Winter
Setting yourself a fitness goal, be it strength of cardio related is that extra push you need to keep you on track during the cooler months. Having a training plan set out and working towards something in the cooler months keeps you not only accountable but is also great to then see your progress at the end of winter. For example do a 1km or Mile time trial on the 1st of June. Then 3 months later on the 31st of August do another one and see how your time has improved.
3. Train with a friend
Having someone to meet at the gym or going to a fitness class with will be more likely to make sure that you go as you won't want to let them down. When you don't have much motivation to go to the gym, it is definitely more fun to be training with your friends as they can spur you along. Likewise if none of your friends go to the gym or same one ass you, do a regular fitness class and you'll find that you meet more friends who regularly go to that class.
4. Try a new fitness studio
Just like i say summer is the perfect time to get outdoors and running, winter is the perfect time to try out a new fitness studio. Trying a new fitness studio can not only change your workout up but also get you out of a workout rut. You might be in the routine of doing the same ones week in, week out. Not only can this get boring and repetitive but your training can also plateau. So mixing it up every now and then is great to keep your body guessing and not get too uses to what you're doing.
5. Mix up your training
This is definitely a time to start a new type of training. If you love swimming in summer, try running or cycling in winter or heading back to the gym and focusing on your resistance training (which i might add should be a part of your training all year round to help prevent injuries and to stop bone and muscle mass reducing). But mixing up the type of resistance training you do and the type of cardio that you do can
6. Have your breakfast planned out for after your session.
If, like me, breakfast is your favourite meal of the day and I generally can't wait to get home from the gym or back from my run to eat. So having your breakfast planned out ready can be that extra incentive to push harder or run faster to get home to eat it. This can also make it a lot easier time wise after your session if you have your breakfast ready to go - for example for smoothies put all of the ingredients in the blender (unblended) in the fridge and then in the morning all you have to do is quickly blend it up and breakfast ready.
