It’s hard to stay motivated to workout when its cold and rainy or even snowing outside! The winter months are a time where you need to find ways to continue to be active and remain fit. There are some workouts you can do to embrace the winter weather and others you can take indoors.
In order to embrace the snowy outdoors, Shape magazine suggest sledding, snowshoeing, and even shoveling snow.
SLED
Remember the thrill of breathlessly speeding down a snowy hill atop your Flexible Flyer when you were a kid? Gravity did all the work, right? Not quite. After the ride, you had trudge back up that hill, sled in tow, and do it again. But it was worth it then and it’s worth it now. According to winter sport expert Michael R. Bracko, Director of the Institute for Hockey Research, a 130-pound woman can burn close to 200 calories an hour sledding.
SNOWSHOE
There’s something fundamentally peaceful about waking up at dawn, putting on snowshoes, and padding through fresh powder after a storm. Snowshoeing is a killer workout too. Joshua Duvauchelle, an ACE certified personal trainer, says snowshoeing can burn more than 600 calories an hour, adding that it “hits your quadriceps when you’re walking up a hill and strengthens your hamstrings when you’re walking downhill.”
SHOVEL AWAY
The blizzard is over and the world is a winter wonderland of fresh, white, powdery goodness. It’s all beautiful…except for the fresh, white, powdery goodness covering your sidewalk, your driveway, and your car. The silver lining that comes with the Mother Nature-imposed chore: shoveling is a great full-body workout. And according to Bracko, you’ll burn between 350 and 450 calories an hour while digging out.
There are also indoor workouts that can be done all winter long! You can join an indoor boot camp class, play racquetball, or even swim in an indoor pool. All of these will keep your heart rate up and help you burn those unwanted calories. So don’t let the cold weather be an excuse for not keeping up on your fitness routine, just embrace the season and keep it up!
