Staying motivated throughout the winter

With the days getting colder and shorter, it can be hard to stay motivated. Especially with Christmas coming up, we have even more of an excuse to throw it all out the window until the New Year. We totally get it. It’s important to have fun, but it’s also important to look after and prioritise yourself and your goals. That’s why, at WithU, we are big believers in balance. We want to help you find some balance this time of year. So we have set out some of our best tips for keeping motivated and on track this festive period, whilst still enjoying yourself.

Set some goals:

It’s essential to keep yourself accountable, especially throughout December, as it can be even harder to get yourself back on track if you take the whole month off! It’s worth setting some goals now (read our post on setting goals here). Make sure they are realistic and align with the plans that you already have in place. There is no point in committing to work out every single day over Christmas if it just isn’t feasible for you to do so.

Not sure what you should aim to do? Maybe you want to focus on meditation or mobility on the days where you don’t do strength or cardio. Maybe you should aim to work out 3 times a week. Or to make it a little more interesting, why don’t you set yourself the challenge of trying one workout that is completely new to you, alongside your usual workouts, every week.

Plan, Plan, Plan:

Once you have set your goals, it is much easier to put an action plan in place. We highly recommend having a plan in order to have something to guide you and stick to. The festive season can be unpredictable and often lacks structure, having some sort of plan can help you keep a routine and stay on track to achieving your goals. We’d recommend scheduling your workouts and adding them to your calendar. This way, you are emphasising the importance of working out, but you are also creating a reminder for yourself. Booking in workouts is one of the best ways to make sure that you complete them. You can schedule the workouts on WithU and add them to your phone calendar.

Stay Warm:

It’s cold and wet outside, but don’t let that be an excuse. We recommend wrapping up warm or investing in some new, winter workout gear to keep you motivated and excited to get outside to train. A new workout kit is always a winner when you need a boost of motivation, but if it’ll help keep you warm too, it’s a win-win!

Or why not bring your workouts indoors? Get out of the cold and train inside. On the WithU app, we have workouts that can be completed in the warm, both in the gym and at home. Depending on what equipment is available to you, we have the perfect workouts to help you smash your goals inside. With machine cardio workouts, dumbbell and kettlebell strength sessions, to both bodyweight strength and HIIT workouts, WithU is here to support your goals all winter.

If you decide to work out outside, make sure you warm up properly beforehand. When it’s cold, it is particularly important to ensure your body is warm and ready to train. It’s worth stretching and doing some activation exercises indoors before stepping out. This will help to avoid injuries. When finished you should also ensure you are cooling down and stretching afterwards. This will also make recovery easier, meaning that sore muscles won’t be getting in the way of your next workout!

Grab a buddy:

Everything is made better with a buddy, even working out. Not only will it make training more fun, but having someone to work out with, will keep you motivated and help you push yourself even further. Having someone there to cheer you on or even to compete with is a sure-fire way to improve your performance and reach your goals. Agreeing and planning to train with a friend or family member is also a great way to stay accountable. Even if you’re not feeling motivated to work out, you won’t want to let your buddy down. You are therefore more likely to show up and smash out that workout.

Remind yourself of how good it feels to complete your workout:

It can be hard to pull yourself out of bed on a cold morning but remembering how good you will feel after training will give you that kickstart to get your workout done. The dark and gloomy winter days can be tough mentally, a mood-boosting workout will certainly help you through those short days. If you are struggling to get going before training, it’s always worth thinking about how much better you will feel, mentally, after finishing a workout.

We hope these are somewhat useful when the cold and dark winter days have got you feeling demotivated! Look out next week for some more tips from one of our very own WithU coaches. Make sure to follow us on social media @withutraining and let us know how you stay motivated in the winter.