Winter workouts? No thanks! Yep, it’s that time of the year when we test the motivation we’ve mustered to make good on our fitness resolutions. So, naturally, weather conditions are at their absolute worst. It’s like some kind of cruel joke that nature plays on us each year. But this winter, the last laugh will be yours.
Working out in cold, wet conditions comes with a unique set of considerations, affecting everything from your warm-ups to your mental health. Whether you’re planning on running through icy rain or banging out calisthenics in the blistering cold, here are the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to workouts around your training, nutrition, and mindset this winter.
Don’t skip your warm-up
Maybe on a typical gym day you can get away with fast-forwarding through your warm-up (we’ve all done it), but you’ll definitely want to ease into your workouts during the colder months.
“When it’s cold outside, warm-ups are more important than ever,” says Caleb Kinney-Woods, personal training leader at Life Time. “You are naturally going to feel tight and less elastic in colder temperatures, so you really want to warm up the muscles, prep the connective tissues, and make sure that your body is pliable and ready to go. You just cannot skip this step in the winter, especially if you are training outside.”
A quick warm-up before entering snow beast mode can also help your lungs adjust to the cold, says Kris King, owner and director of Beyond the Ultimate. “Quite a lot of people, in the cold— especially dry cold—suffer with their breathing,” he says. “There’s this tightening or restriction of the vessels that can happen in cold air when your heart rate gets high and you’re breathing heavily.”
King likens the feeling to “a kind of bronchitis or sport-related asthma” that manifests as a dry cough during your workout, which can detract from your performance, and may even linger for a day or two afterwards, impacting your ability to recover properly.
“There’s nothing particularly wrong with that—it’s quite a normal thing—but you can avoid it by warming up,” he says. “So I always say to people, if you’re working out hard outside, you should progressively get there. Don’t just get out the door and send it, because that’s going to potentially create limited performance.”
Fuel up before and after
Regardless of the time of year, fueling up with a couple of extra calories and staying hydrated before a workout will always serve you well and help ensure you have the energy you need to perform at your best. But cold weather adds another layer of importance to fueling up. “A lack of calories will mean that you get colder quicker, and dehydration can play a big part in the way that your body regulates temperature,” says King.
Fueling up properly beforehand will also reduce the likelihood that you’ll need to top up on the go, which is less effective out in the cold, King says. “If you get behind on your calories or your hydration, and your body starts reacting, it’s much harder to catch up at that point—particularly in hot or cold environments,” he says. “If you can just stay on top of it, then it’s much easier.”
In any case, you should be prepared to increase your pre-workout nutrition by a fair bit. “From a metabolic standpoint, you’re going to have an increased resting metabolic rate in a cold environment, because your body is working harder to keep itself warm,” says Kinney-Woods. “That can be helpful if you’re on a weight-loss journey, but it also means it’s even more important to pay attention to your fuel, because you are going to have that increased metabolic expenditure.”