In keeping with the season and the strong interests shown in some of the recent blog posts, there are a couple of additional issues and tips about walking and exercise during the winter months we ought to review.  As mentioned in a number of posts, slacking off in winter is not the best thing for your waistline, your stamina or your motivation.  You’ve spent all spring, summer and fall working hard to stay fit.  Suddenly because of bad weather and the holiday feasting and stress, you’ve found yourself back where you started 8 months ago with all the accrued walking benefits lost.  All that hard work and effort has been for naught.  Talk about demotivating.  Here is some info and additional tips to help you stay active and engaged during this rough patch. 

Winter walking is Great

On the plus side, walking outdoors during cold weather is highly effective in working off the excesses of the holiday season. When the temperature drops your body works hard just to say warm.  Add that to the effects of exercising outdoors and you get a significant boost in calorie burn during your outdoor walking routine.  In addition we all know that getting outdoors for a walk helps “clear the head” and reduces the stress generated the by all the holiday preparations.

Winter Walking Needs Extra Care

That’s great, but remember you do need to do a bit of preplanning before you hit the road.  Be sure to warm up before you head out.  Pop your walking clothes in the clothes dryer to warm them up.  It might help take a bit of the chill out of the air.  Be sure to layer your clothing with a shirt of wicking material (polyester or silk) next to your skin. Your main heat releasing body parts are your head, feet and hands.  Be sure to keep them well covered.

Keep in mind that walking is a low intensity exercise and its’ benefits tend to be accumulative.  This means that you can get close to the same benefits from two 30 minutes sessions as with one that’s an hour long.  If it’s too cold, break your walking session in two.  By simply increasing your speed a bit, the caloric burn/fitness outcomes will be close.

It’s Just Too Cold

If the elements outdoors are just too much to bear, check around the neighborhood.  See what other fitness opportunities or programs may be available. In keeping with our general exercise theme, mall walking or stair climbing would be two excellent alternatives.  But you may want to broaden your horizons a bit. There may be yoga, aerobics, pilates or dance programs that you can join on a month to month basis to help get you through the winter doldrums.  Schools, Park Districts, and Recreation Centers often sponsor winter exercise programs, usually at little or no costs. 

Ice skating is a great alternative to walking.  A thirty minute session on skates burns the same number of calories as thirty minutes of stair climbing or an hour of walking. It’s a low impact exercise so your joints will thank you as well.

Finally, you may want to consider buying a piece or two of inexpensive home exercise equipment.  A jump rope or stability ball would be two items to consider. 

Winter weather can be frustrating even to the most motivated walker.   But when the cold weather and dark nights set in, don’t put your walking/exercise routine on ice.  Take a look at other programs are available locally.  Find those that interest you and mix and match to your heart’s content.   Beat the winter blahs.  If walking outdoors is out of the question find a substitute or two.  The important thing is to keep going and preseve all the walking benefits you’ve earned. 

If anyone has any additonal thoughts or tips about winter exercise drop me a line or leave a comment and share with everyone.

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