Keep Fit In Winter

Maintaining a regular exercise routine in winter is tricky and unappealing but keeping fit has numerous health benefits that are really important to remember.

Colds, flus and general chest infections become much more common and easier to catch in winter, but regular exercise can help keep you and your immune system in shape.

SAD (or Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a form of depression that some people suffer from due to a lack of sun, activity and proper nutrition – particularly a lack of vitamin D.

Regular exercise releases endorphins that keep you feeling good and getting outdoors more often will also help maintain your vitamin D levels.

With that in mind, here are some tips for staying fit in winter:

1. Play squash

Squash courts are easier to find than you’d think and the gear you need to get started isn’t expensive either. Most local councils have courts at their leisure centres that cost around £10 per session (or £5 per person).

All you need is your usual sports gear and a couple of rackets which can be found pretty cheap at most sports websites.

It’s a great sport for winter as it’s indoors, but it also combines stamina training with improved strength, speed and hand eye co-ordination. Sometimes dubbed ‘jet-propelled chess,’ squash is a game of wits too. Just don’t play with any geomotrists.

2. Stay motivated

As the days grow shorter, the nights longer and the climate wetter and colder, maintaining your motivation to go outside can feel nigh on impossible. So when just a glance at the rain can make your sofa seem inexplicably enticing, how do you stay motivated to keep fit?

The key is setting goals. This can be anything from losing a certain amount of weight to training for a marathon to getting ready for a ski holiday.

Find a goal to aim for and set daily targets. This way you’ll find it much easier to maintain your exercise regimen.

3. Go jogging

For obvious reasons, winter isn’t necessarily best time of year to get into the habit of jogging, but it does have some advantages.

Firstly, unless it’s literally freezing outside, it can actually be more comfortable training in winter than summer. Jogging in summer can leave you overheated and panting after only a few minutes. In winter, the climate can end up feeling much more comfortable once you warm up.

The other benefit of training outdoors is that you have to work harder just to maintain a safe level of warmth – which means you’ll burn more calories at the same heart rate and the same exercise intensity.

Remember to invest in layers. JD Sports has a good selection of hoodies for this.

4. Try softball

Softball is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, and mixed or single sex teams are pretty easy to find in and around most cities.

In winter you’ll usually find a group of purists that insist on playing the game outside in the rain, but any sensible person will quickly opt for the indoor version. Any sport where you can potentially spend half the game standing still is not very rain friendly…

Softball is basically a simplified version of baseball and while it won’t turn you into a world-class athlete, it is a fun and social sport that helps keep up a minimum of psychical activity.