How ‘exercise snacking’ can help you stay on track in winter

How many times have you snoozed the alarm lately or skipped out completely on exercise because of the cold?

It’s not fun dragging yourself out of a warm bed or finishing the day working out in the dark, but experts say the benefits of staying active in winter outweigh the discomforts.

Here are their tips to help you stay on track and which exercise is right for you if you are just starting out.

Reframing our thinking around exercise

Reframing why we exercise can be a helpful first step, according to Associate Professor Shelley Keating, from the University of Queensland’s School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences.

“People often say, ‘I just don’t really do much exercise during winter, but I pick it up again’,” says the clinical exercise physiologist based in Brisbane/Meanjin.

“[But] if you’re taking a medicine for something, you wouldn’t take a break, it’s important for your health and wellbeing.

She says exercise should be about “health gain”, not weight loss.

“Even just the impact on mood during winter, it can make you feel so invigorated and great.”

Why it’s important to ‘double down’ in winter

Brisbane-based exercise physiologist and dietician Cam McDonald says there are several changes that can happen in our body during winter, which makes it important to keep moving.

These can include:

• Weight gain
• Insulin resistance
• Higher cholesterol
• Higher blood pressure

“Doing exercise that suits your body improves glucose regulation; it improves the type of cholesterol that’s being produced, or at least how it’s being used,” he says.

“So even just going for a walk will improve your immune function.”

Dr McDonald says avoiding exercise during the colder months may actually “unwind” your fitness faster than other times.

“The physiological changes that you’re going through might accelerate a decline in health a little bit faster at this time, than you might see other times of year,” he says.

For these reasons, he says “winter is a really good time to double down rather than to take the foot off the gas”.

‘Exercise snacking’ and trying different times

With shorter daylight hours, time is one of the biggest challenges to continuing and sustaining exercise, says Dr Keating.

If you’re struggling during winter, she recommends assessing where you can fit the exercise in and prioritising it as a key part of your daily routine.

Dr McDonald says while some people “thrive” with early morning training research shows many “perform at their strongest from around about 11am onwards”.

“If you’ve got this natural tendency to not want to get out of bed first thing in the morning and you actually feel better in the afternoon, you should definitely follow your body with that.”

Another strategy Dr Keating recommends is “exercise snacking“, where you break up exercise into smaller pieces throughout the day.

“You don’t need to be running a marathon every day,” she says.

“You can think about it like ‘every hour I’m going to get up and do, maybe 10 to 15 minutes of squats, some calf raises, some push-ups.

“I work in a building where I’ve got five flights of stairs, so I might go up and down the stairs and that gets my heart rate up.”

Make exercise social and inviting

To make exercise feel more inviting, Dr Keating recommends changing some of your exercise to home workouts.

“Bring exercise equipment in from the cold garage, get it in front of the TV, somewhere where it’s welcoming to actually do that sort of exercise.”

Dr McDonald also recommends opting for indoor workouts, for example, at a gym.

“[A gym] gives you a whole lot of variety to, if you don’t feel really [motivated], you can go for a walk or a cross train.”

“If you are starting out exercise, you’re going to get some sort of help there that’s going to make it safer for you to engage.”

Making exercise a social activity is another great way to help with consistency and accountability.

Personal trainer Erin Wait runs outdoor group training classes on the Sunshine Coast on Kabi Kabi lands.

Ms Wait says exercising with others can help keep you on track.

“The number one thing is community … you’re essentially showing up for others.”

Reducing barriers and removing pressure

Ms Wait recommends “reducing barriers’ to morning sessions by getting organised in advance.

“A lot of our clients, they’ll get all their clothes out the night before, some actually even sleep in their clothes,” she says.

“They pre-book their sessions in, so when you wake up in the morning and it is dark and cold, you’ve already removed all those little opportunities of excuses and all you have to do now is go.”

Dr Keating agrees. She recommends having your clothes and bag ready the night before, dressing in layers and warming up at home before you head out the door.

Ms Wait uses the concept of “high and low seasons” to help remove the pressure around exercise in winter.

“Your high seasons are spring and summer, those barriers are kind of gone, we’re training a bit more and it’s a lot easier,” she says.

“Then maybe in winter, rather than chasing [personal bests] or training four times a week, we kind of lower the expectations a little bit.

“Maybe you’re going to train twice a week over the next two months and you’re just there to move your body.”

Choosing exercise you enjoy makes it easier to do

The best type of exercise is one that you’ll do long term because you enjoy it, says Dr Keating.

“For some people that might be Bollywood dancing, for others that might be hiking, some people love going to the gym, others don’t,” she says.

This article contains general information only. You should consider obtaining independent professional advice in relation to your particular circumstances.