A Winter Workout To Warm You Up And Slim You Down

By The East Side Crew on May 31, 2011 in Sport

Winter is here! Even the word ‘winter’ sounds chilly. It’s easy to get into a habit of hibernation during winter when you wake up in the dark, drive to work in the dark and leave work in the dark. Getting home and cuddling up with a big glass of red suddenly seems like a good idea and you quickly forget how great it felt training regularly and eating well during the warmer months.

Getting into poor habits during winter makes you feel crappy and lethargic – so don’t do it! Exercising in the crisp, clean winter air is a great way to beat the winter blues and feel good about yourself all year round.

Here are some of our top tips to keep you training through the winter months…

Set A Goal

Set a goal to reach by the end of winter. Completing a fun run such as the City to Surf is a perfect example. Having a goal will provide a focus to your training and keep you motivated. Your goal should be something personal to you, and it should be simple, measurable and achievable.

Buddy Up

Get a friend or a group of friends and train together to ensure you have someone to be accountable to. Knowing that someone else will be there training with you makes it that little bit easier to get out of bed in the morning, and makes it a lot harder to miss a session. Be tough on each other. A little bit of peer pressure never hurt anyone.

Warm Up

Be sure to stretch and warm up your muscles first. Cold temperatures mean that it takes a little bit longer for your muscles to warm up and for your cardiovascular system to kick into gear.

Winter Workout

Here is a winter workout that is designed to get you sweating no matter the temperature. It is great to incorporate a long hill or set of stairs into this workout. If you don’t have a hill nearby, find a loop around your house that will take approximately 2 minutes to complete.

Session Goal

Your goal is to complete the total workout as fast as possible. This will lift the intensity of the workout. Time yourself over the total workout and the next time attempt it make sure you beat your previous time. Warm up and cool down is a 5 to10 minute run at a comfortable pace to a long hill or set of stairs.

For the advanced trainers out there, at the bottom of hill complete:

• 10 Push Thrusts
• 10 Moving Push-ups
• 10 Squat Jumps
• Run at a fast pace up hill or stairs

At the top of the hill complete:

• 9 Mountain Climbers (each leg)
• 9 Up Downs
• 9 Squat Jumps
• Run at a fast pace down hill or stairs

Repeat the above dropping the reps by one each set until you get down to one rep of each exercise.

For the beginners, start your workout at 6 reps rather than 10 so you are doing less volume overall. Each time you do the workout start from a higher number so you are doing more work every time.

And be happy that we live in beautiful balmy Sydney and not somewhere in the frosty Northern Hemisphere!