It’s that time of year when it gets dark before dinner. It’s cold outside. The kids have homework, activities, and the occasional unexpected day off from school. And even though you know you need to exercise, by the time everyone gets home, the idea of putting on workout clothes and hitting the gym can feel like one more thing on an already long to-do list.
We tell ourselves, “I’ll get back into my routine when things settle down.” The truth is things rarely settle down, but the good news is that staying active during the winter doesn’t require a whole new routine. It just requires a little flexibility and a few simple adjustments to make your winter workout work for you.
Change the plan, not the goal.
In a workout class, there is one workout that everyone does. However, if someone can’t perform an exercise exactly as it’s meant to be, coaches will often modify it. Maybe the weight is lighter. Maybe there are fewer repetitions. Maybe the movement changes altogether.
Winter deserves the same approach. Normally hit the gym four days a week but can only manage two this week? Go twice. Normally have an hour for a workout but today it’s just 20 minutes? Move for those 20 minutes. If the weather keeps you from running outside, find another way to get moving.
The goal isn’t to maintain a perfect routine; it’s to maintain the habit of being active.
Stop waiting for the perfect workout.
One of the biggest traps we can fall into is thinking that exercise only counts if it happens in the gym, lasts a certain amount of time, or leaves us feeling exhausted. Those are all myths.
A brisk walk around the neighborhood counts. So does playing outside with your kids, taking the stairs, shoveling snow, dancing in the living room, or doing a few bodyweight exercises while dinner cooks.
You don’t have to wait until you have the time for the “perfect” workout to get up and move. A few minutes here and there will add up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) physical activity guidelines emphasize that some activity is better than none and that adults can break activity into smaller chunks throughout the week. Besides, the “perfect” workout is always the one you do, not the one you skip.
Get in the game with your kids.
Parents have another opportunity during the winter: make movement a family activity. Instead of telling your kids to go outside and play while you stay inside answering emails, go play with them. Build a snowman. Take a family walk. Go sledding. Shoot baskets. Play tag. Let them challenge you to a race or create your own family obstacle course.
It doesn’t have to look like exercise. In fact, that’s kind of the point. Kids don’t need another lecture about the importance of physical activity. They can benefit from seeing that movement is simply something their family does and enjoys. Remember, kids will imitate the behaviors they see their parents doing.
The CDC makes a similar recommendation, by encouraging families to build physical activity into their routines through walks and active games together. The added bonus for parents is that playing with your kids will always be more fun than staring at a treadmill display.
Active habits are not “all or nothing.”
Winter can make it especially easy to fall into the all-or-nothing trap. Missing one workout makes it really easy to miss the rest of the week. Eating more than you planned over the holidays might make you think you should just wait until January to start eating better. Get out of your normal routine? Guess you’ll start over when life gets back to normal.
But healthy habits don’t work that way. Missing one workout doesn’t erase the workouts you’ve already done. A busy week doesn’t mean you have to wait for a less busy month. And you don’t have to “start over” every time life gets in the way. You just have to start again.
That might mean a 20-minute workout instead of an hour. A walk instead of a run. A game of basketball instead of a trip to the gym. Something is always better than nothing.
You don’t have to win winter.
There will be days when you don’t feel like exercising. There will be days when the weather makes your normal routine impossible. There will be days when parenting, work, and life simply take priority over working out. That’s okay. Winter isn’t a contest that needs to be won.
So when winter tells you to stay on the couch, don’t try to fight it with a two-hour workout. Just get up, move a little, get outside when you can, and if possible, take the kids with you.
