With winter creeping around the corner and the clocks changing only a matter of weeks away, you will quickly find that your motivation starts to wane. Getting out of bed when it’s dark, cold or raining can start to feel a lot more difficult! Exercising during the winter months is much harder than during those lighter, warmer summer months, but it’s important to keep hold of as much motivation as you can.
Through the winter months you will have access to a lot less vitamin D, which is important for your mood, strong bones and good immune system. Luckily, some of the benefits of exercise include improved mood and reduced health risks. Wellbeing365 take a look at some of the top tips for staying motivated in winter.
Wake up to warmth
As the temperatures continue to drop as we enter winter, it’s important to find tips and tricks to make it much easier to get out of bed. If you typically exercise in the morning, you’ll find it much harder when it’s dark and cold!
You might want to consider setting the thermostat on your heating, so that your home is warmer before your alarm goes off. There’s nothing worse than getting out of bed when it’s freezing! For an extra boost, you could even put your workout clothes on the. radiator so they’re warm and ready to put on.
Let in some light
You will typically find that the mornings are much darker, but you can mitigate this by letting in as much natural light as possible. Consider leaving a blind or curtain slightly open so that when the sun starts to come up, the light will enter your room. Natural light can help you to wake up much more comfortably.
You can also invest in special lights that can recreate natural light in your room, and see if it helps you take on the day with more energy.
Play some music
Most alarm noises aren’t very pleasant to hear first thing in the morning, so why not change it? Set your alarm to play some music that energises you! This can help to lift your mood first thing in the morning, which is great when you need to get out of bed.
The right music can motivate you to get moving and start your day with some exercise to get the blood flowing!
Exercise indoors
It can be handy to find new ways of exercising indoors so that you can avoid the harsh winter elements! There are many different kinds of exercise routines and classes you can take without even having to leave your house.
This means you can still get your exercise in without needing to battle the cold, rain or wind.
Exercise with a friend
If there’s no way around avoiding the elements during the winter months, it can be incredibly motivating to have an exercise partner. This can help you to hold yourself accountable, as there’s someone else relying on your punctuality!
Sharing the pain of getting up in the dark and exercising in the cold can make it much more bearable, as well as turning into a sociable event that you both might actually come to enjoy.