For many people around the country, the winter is like a purgatory period for pursuing fitness goals. The cold weather and less access to sunlight make training a lot harder for many people.
Because of this, many people put on weight during the winter months. This leads to a lack of energy and increased risk of depression.
But what if you could avoid the winter slump altogether? This episode discusses three things that you can do to ensure that your winter months remain productive while keeping your mind clear in the cold weather.
Transcript
Machine-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited — may contain errors.
Chris Albert (link to this point)
You know, the winter months are a time when a lot of people find themselves in a situation where they're getting really depressed. You know, I live in California now, but I grew up in a colder area out in Connecticut. And I remember everybody putting on 15 pounds and, you know, during the winter, everybody, you know, getting a little bit more moody, you know, not being as energetic as they should be and and a lot of people falling into kind of a depressive state where they didn't feel like they had a lot of control over their lives, right? Because the weather controls you, you have to put a lot of your plans on hold, you don't get to see the sun every day. And, you know, it stinks.
It stinks, right? The winter stinks, but the winter is also cool too. I mean, I do miss the cold sometimes. But for a lot of people, it's it's just a dark time period. And me saying that I miss the cold probably is a product of me being out in California.
But what I want to do today is just talk to you guys out there who are in the colder areas of The United States, and talk to you about three things you can do to just stay in shape over the wintertime. Right? Just stay in shape over the wintertime. And, you know, it's, it sounds like and and I'm talking about it right now. It sounds like it's almost an easy thing.
Right?
You you stay stay disciplined, do this, do that. But the reality is that if you have a strategy, you can be in just as good of shape during the wintertime as you are in the summertime when it's getting when you're getting ready for beach time. And, you know, by taking care of your fitness during the colder months, you're also gonna stave off a lot of that depression, a lot of those dark feelings that you get during the winter. So let's talk about it. The first thing is this, and this is gonna sound like the littlest thing, but when you go to work, take your gym clothes with you.
Put them in a bag, get them in the car with you, keep them in the car. Don't keep them in the house. Right? Of course, you want to bring them in and and wash them, but but at nighttime, bring a new set, leave them in your car. Now why is that?
Well, it's because during those cold winter months, the last place you're gonna wanna be doing the last thing you're gonna be doing is getting in and out of your cold car. Right? So what you want to do is you want to stick your gym clothes in the car with you so that when you get if you don't have to come home, right? If you come home, you get out of your car, you go into your warm house, you're not going to want to go back out again. So this way you can go straight from work to the gym, get a good workout in, and, you know, get that energy that you need in order to keep your mind going.
Alright? So real simple first one. Next one, instead of always, you know, planning out to go to the gym and things like that, or or instead of trying to go outside and doing a lot of running and and that sort of thing, try to do high intensity interval training in your own home. Alright? So rather than getting up in the morning and and go in and put your gloves on and get your sneakers on and everything like that and then venturing out into the cold and trying to build your courage up so you can do it, go ahead and do 100 burpees right in your living room, right?
You'll get a great workout from that. You'll you'll get all the cardio you need, and you don't have to go outside and run around in the cold. Alright? That's that's a big one. Of course, if you can tolerate the cold and you got the gloves and and you like running, you can go outside and do that too.
Cold's great to run in. I love it. Makes you really energetic, will will help you help you feel really good, but the burpees will do the trick for those of you who don't want to get outside. Alright? Now, finally, and this is a big one.
Make sure you're sticking your diet. Right? Make sure you're sticking your diet. In the wintertime, it's really easy to say, alright, I'm gonna eat a bunch of pizza. I'm gonna do a bunch of eat a lot of junk food.
Put on my 15 pounds over the winter. I'll just lose it over the springtime. But that can have a huge impact on your mental mindset. Could have a huge impact on your mood. Can have a huge impact on how you feel in your energy throughout the day.
So make sure that you're trying to eat as well as possible over the winter. Get lots of vegetables in. Get a lot of good protein in your body. Don't load yourself up with junk and all that other stuff. The sugar, the Pop Tarts, that kind of stuff.
That will definitely create a deleterious effect on your mood, on your energy, and everything else. Alright? This one's super short, super sweet, and I made it because I feel for those of you out there who are in those colder states. I'm lucky. I get to be here in California.
I don't have to worry as much about it. I can go out. I can do all my fitness stuff and not shiver my butt off, but this is for you guys who are out there freezing right now. We'll be back at you this Friday with some Warrior Notes, and until then, get out there and live your best lives while you can.
Host of the Warrior Soul Podcast and founder of Warrior Soul. Worldwide trainer and nutrition coach, contributing author at Testosterone Nation and Muscle and Strength.
