Heat Up Your Fitness Routine During the Cold Winter Months
Dr. Jennifer Gourdin, sports medicine doctor in Silver Spring at Kaiser Permanente
Keeping up with your outdoor fitness routine can feel effortless during the long, sunny days of summer, but winter’s shorter days and chilly temperatures often present a challenge. However, colder weather doesn’t have to mean giving up on exercise for you or your student athlete. Instead, it’s an opportunity to get creative and find new ways to stay active and motivated.
Get started by turning daily household chores into exercise—and kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Here are some tips that can help you keep your house clean and your heart rate strong this winter – kids get bonus points for doing their chores!
- Kitchen sink calf raises: While you’re standing at the sink washing dishes, do calf raises to improve balance and lower body mobility.
- Vacuum lunges: Perform walking lunges while vacuuming carpet. Use a side lunge to vacuum under furniture, keeping your back straight. Alternate hands for balanced muscle engagement. These can improve your leg strength and core stability.
- Countertop push ups: Use the edge of the countertop to balance yourself and perform a set of pushups. This will strengthen your chest and upper body.
- Free-weight dusting: Before you dust, strap on 2 lb wrist weights and polish your way to stronger arm muscles.
- Laundry squats: After you collect laundry from your dryer, put your basket on the floor and do squats as you pick up each piece of laundry to fold. Squats strengthen your core and lower body.
- Trash bag reverse lunges: Hold the trash bag in one hand or close to your chest. Step one foot back into a lunge position, keeping your front knee aligned over your ankle. Return to standing and switch legs. Gradually increase weight of trash bag or progress to holding two bags. Reverse lunges strengthen legs and improve balance and coordination.
To maximize your chore workout:
- Play upbeat music to keep your energy up. Dancing is also a great calorie-burner —just put on your favorite playlist and have a fun dance party with your kids.
- Wear a fitness tracker to monitor your steps and activity.
- Set intervals: Work intensely for a few seconds-minutes, then recover briefly.
If you’re looking for something a little more traditional to do indoors this winter, try strengthening exercises such as planks or resistance-band stretches. You can also add some cardio to your routine, such as jumping rope or jogging in place — and if you’re feeling confident, throw in some mountain climbers or burpees.
Whatever exercise method you choose, make sure to do a 5–10-minute dynamic stretch warm-up first and a cool-down when you’re done. This can help improve your mobility, boost performance, aid in recovery, and prevent injury.
Kaiser Permanente delivers award-winning pediatricians and pediatric specialists who are committed to keeping your child’s health and development on track. Connected by your child’s medical record, they can track vaccines that are needed, review test results, and medication, and communicate seamlessly with one another to provide both the routine and targeted specialty care your child requires.
Find more exercise and fitness tips from Dr. Gourdin here.
Dr. Jennifer Gourdin is a sports medicine and family medicine doctor in Maryland.