Posted on October 25, 2017 by Jenny Cromack

I love the phrase’ Hump Day but I also think that many of us have a Hump Month and it hits right about now ….the end of October/beginning of November. September comes, everyone is motivated to get in shape after indulging on holiday, full of beans everyone is smashing it in the gym, and then as the dark mornings and nights set in that motivation slowly starts to fade. Staying motivated to exercise in Winter can be tough!

As they say in one of my favourite shows ”Winter is coming……” but that doesn’t mean that you need to join our furry friends and use hibernation as a tactic, letting all your good intentions fall by the way side! Instead, seize the opportunity to keep smashing your goals, embrace Winter and come Spring you’ll be full of energy and pleased you did.

Here are our top tips to staying motivated to exercise in Winter.

Overcoming Dark Mornings

I hear you on this, my alarm goes off, it’s warm and snuggly in my bed. The last thing I want to do is get my butt out of bed at 5am to cycle into work. However, I know it will make me feel better if I get up and do some exercise, if this is not motivation alone for you then why not try the following:

  • Buy a bedside lamp which stimulates natural daylight, set it to come on gradually at the time you want to wake up. Beginning your day with natural light activates your internal body clock and you’ll be raring to get to the gym!
  • Put your gym kit at the end of the bed. When you’re alarm goes off count to 5 (no longer you may fall back to sleep!), and on 5 make a deal that you are up and starting to get dressed ready to get out for that run or go to the gym. You could even go to bed in your gym kit to get an extra 5 seconds sleep but even we think that is extreme!
  • Change your alarm to one of your most motivation gym tunes. Replace that annoying continuous beep with a tune which really gets you going! Mine would be a good dance tune!

I Don’t Like Running In The Dark By Myself

Don’t worry, we’re not going to laugh at you if you feel like this. You need to feel safe whenever you exercise and not always be looking over your shoulder, let alone worried about stepping out of the house. Why not try…..

  • Find a running buddy to join you on your early morning or evening runs and walks?
  • Join a running club. There is nothing like the camaraderie of a running club to keep you motivated. Most clubs meet at least twice per week, and have a variety of groups for different abilities.
  • Consider switching your outdoor sessions for treadmill sessions?

Shorter Days = Less Hours To Cram Everything In!

We appreciate how busy everyone is, once you’ve played with the kids, done your full time job, made the lunches for tomorrow, made tonight’s evening meal there just doesn’t seem enough hours in the day to exercise…..especially when there are less hours in a day! But, here at motive8, we are big believers that ‘something is better than nothing!’ Here are some tips if you feel like you’d like exercise to start taking pride of place in your priority list:

  • For the next 3 days, write a diary of everything you do. Then review this, what activities can you live without and replace with exercise instead? For example, whilst it’s important to unwind is watching 2 hours of your favourite soaps really a priority, even replacing 30 minutes of this with exercise will make you feel so much better and will still be taking time out for you.
  • Get exercise savvy…..replace long, endurance sessions with as equally effective but shorter HIIT sessions.
  • Do you take the kids to a club each week? Why not fit in a run or workout whilst they are at gymnastics club or swimming?
  • Try Jenny’s 10 minute rule….it works!
  • Replace your outdoor sessions with indoor home sessions, just because you don’t have enough hours to get outside and exercise doesn’t mean you can’t stay in to exercise!

I’ve Just Lost My Exercise Mojo….

Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us at some point. It’s what you are going to do about it which matters….sit there and think about how much life sucks and you’ll never get in shape again, or get off your bum and do something about it? That’s the right….the latter…..go you!

  • Try giving yourself a new goal…..something challenging. For example if you’re used to running 5k, then even if you sign up for a 5k this probably isn’t going to motivate you as much as signing up for a 10k….something you’ve never done before, something which may even scare you into training….whatever works!
  • Music motivates many people when they train, so jazz up your play list!
  • Try something new, why not use the following months to take up a new activity, something you have always fancied doing.
  • Also consider, what you are doing needs to be fun and something you enjoy – possibly the most important thing for keeping you motivated.

As always we’re on hand to help with any motivation you may need, just get in touch if we can help!