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7 Tips for Moving Exercise Indoors During Winter Months

woman exercising indoors during the winter

Although we haven’t had much in the way of wintry weather yet, it is coming. When it hits, you will want to move your exercise routine indoors so you can stay healthy all winter long. Besides, the short days make it hard to squeeze in winter exercise outside before or after work – it’s dark at both times!

You need to find a way to keep exercising indoors when winter makes it hard to spend time outdoors. Any cardiologist will tell you that it’s important to make sure you’re exercising regularly all year round. Make sure you’re getting at least 20-30 minutes of moderate or 10-15 minutes of vigorous exercise daily.

Join a Gym

One of the easiest ways to move your exercise indoors during the winter is to join a gym. You can keep doing all the same exercises you did outside, but indoors. There might be a track, a basketball court, stationary bikes, and more, so whatever you did to stay active outdoors, you can now do indoors. Does Calisthenics Build Muscle? Myth or Fact? The results speak for themselves – sculpt your dream Greek God body using the secret calisthenics formula.

Track Your Results

fitness tracker measuring heart rateOne of the big problems with moving your routine inside is that you can become less motivated. Some of this might be typical seasonal mood shifts, but some of it is that being inside takes some of the fun and excitement out of your typical activities.

You can put some of the excitement back in by tracking your progress more closely. You can also try a 30 Day Cleanse with your diet and avoid junk food to get faster results.  When you can see how much of a difference your routine is making, it’s easier to motivate yourself. The easiest way to do this is with your scale, but you can do better with high-tech apps that show more details and let you gamify your routine. There are easy-to-access apps on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and more.

Set Up a Dedicated Exercise Space

Another thing that can sap your motivation for exercising indoors is when your exercise space is unappealing. Nobody wants to spend any more time in the laundry room than they have to, and the depression of heading in there can make you skip more and more days as the season goes on.

You can overcome this by setting up a dedicated space for exercising. Even if you are limited to using a multipurpose space like the laundry room, do something to make the space more appealing. Set up your stationary bike in the best spot in the room, put up posters that you find motivating – whatever it takes to make the room feel like your personal gym.

Gear Up

Speaking of making a personal gym, it might help you keep up your routine if you invest in some quality exercise gear such as refurbished spin bikes. We talked about tracking your results, and there are many pieces of equipment that have this as a built-in feature. Peloton, Nordic Track Vault, and Tonal are three of the most prominent. But you can also use an Apple Watch or Fitbit for a more affordable entry point.

Throw Your Weight Around

You technically don’t need any equipment to stay fit. If you’re on a budget and can’t afford gym equipment or even a gym membership, you can use calisthenics, or body weight exercises, to work out. Push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, mountain climbers, and the like are all good ways to build muscle, burn fat, and, most importantly, get your heart rate up. You don’t even need a lot of space for these exercises. When it comes to gym equipment like a treadmill, exploring options on where to sell a treadmill can help you find interested buyers or platforms to facilitate its sale.

Variety Is the Spice of Exercise

One thing that saps the motivation of exercising indoors is boring routines. Doing the same thing day after day not only makes it hard to motivate yourself, it reduces the effectiveness of exercising. So, make sure to change up your routine from time to time. Have several different routines you follow each week, then add in special days to have fun and stay active. Maybe try a pickup basketball game at the gym or run the stairs in your office building. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s fun and different for you.

Stay Social

Exercising indoors can be isolating, especially if you’re doing it at home. When you’re isolated, you might lose some of the accountability that kept you motivated all summer. To counter this, try to be social virtually. This feature is incorporated into advanced home gyms, but you don’t need expensive gear to be social. Your phone, your laptop, even your TV can connect you to a community of people just like you who are trying to stay active all winter long.

Let Us Help

At South Denver Cardiology, we know that preventive approaches to heart health are at least as important as treatment. Our heart doctors can help you take lifestyle steps so you can get and stay healthy all year long.

We can also use diagnostic testing to check the health of your heart so we know when we might have to make changes.

If you have concerns about your heart health, a cardiologist at South Denver Cardiology can help. Please call 303-744-1065 or use our online form today to schedule an appointment.

South Denver Cardiology
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