The approach of winter often signifies a slowing down of outside activities. Such hibernating tendencies can also introduce you to your weakest time of the year. Strength and endurance depend on routine activity, and when the cold winds start blowing, many seek the comfort of inside spaces—a logical move. However, we sacrifice a considerable amount of routine activity.
Winter doesn’t have to be a time of weakness, and you needn’t spend your time bundled against the cold while wishing for spring. You can take assertive action in the comfort of your home to help maintain your strength, endurance, and inner warmth.
Try this winter-warming routine to maintain your strength over the winter months.
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Note: My patients generally tolerate the following exercises well. However, it’s always good to consult your medical provider to see if the exercises are right for you.
6 Exercises to Warm You in Winter
1. Walking
I love recommending walking in winter. First, it gets you out of the house, some fresh air in your lungs, and provides a whole host of small movements to warm and lubricate all the joints in your body. Walking also has another benefit: It can help you transition from not exercising into practicing a habitual exercise routine.Step 1: Start with a normal walking pace for 5 minutes. Pay attention to what your body is telling you (let those aches and pains smooth out a bit).
Step 2: Accelerate your pace to a brisk walk and maintain for 15 to 30 minutes.
Step 3: Return to your normal walking pace for 5 minutes to cool down.
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In addition to giving your whole body a workout, I find that brisk walking also works wonders on pepping up your attitude and happiness.
2. Marching in Place
Even if it’s too cold to get outside, marching in place allows you to practice a reciprocal leg exercise in the comfort of your own home. It’s highly controllable and scalable from easy to challenging.Step 1: Stand with your feet side by side and arms by your sides. You can stabilize off a wall, chair, or countertop if needed.
Step 2: With your back straight and head facing forward, lift your right leg off the floor until your knee reaches 90 degrees of flexion with your hip bent to 90 degrees.
Step 3: Lower your leg back down and lift your other leg. I recommend taking at least 1 second to complete the leg lifts while keeping your stomach and core muscles engaged.
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Step 4: Each leg lift counts as 1 repetition. Try to do 50 repetitions per set and perform 3 sets. Alternatively, you can perform these activities for 3 to 5 minutes each set and perform 3 sets.
Want to kick it up a notch? Speed up and turn this into jogging or running in place.
Dan Skorbach/The Epoch Times
3. Touch Ground/Touch Sky
This high/low exercise introduces both compound movements and travels through a full range of postural heights in addition to tacking on a good balance challenge.Story continues below advertisement
Step 1: Stand as upright as possible over your center of gravity with your feet approximately 12 inches apart and arms by your sides.
Step 2: Slowly lift your arms above your head—straight up at first—and then flare them out as if trying to catch a large beach ball. Bring your arms back as far as you can to introduce a stretch to your chest, and take a deep breath to expand your chest cavity.
Step 3: Slowly lower your arms while bending your hips until you touch the ground between your feet or as far as possible. Release your breath, keep your back straight, and look down rather than forward as you descend. Bending your knees to take pressure off your back and hamstrings if needed. Hold for 3 seconds before slowly standing back up and repeating the overhead movement.
Step 4: Reaching up and then down counts as 1 repetition. I recommend performing 3 sets of 15 repetitions. Feel free to adjust the numbers as needed.
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Modifications:
- If you get dizzy (the high/low movements do that to some people), stop and let it clear.
- If you can’t do many at first, just do what you can and build up.
- If you can’t reach down to your feet, reach to your knees instead.
Dan Skorbach/The Epoch Times
4. Ski Jumps
This fast-moving side-to-side exercise pays great dividends for balance and mobility and builds endurance.Step 1: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, arms at your sides, elbows bent, and hands forward. Imagine an invisible line running from front to back between your feet, or use a length of tape as a visual guide.
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Step 2: Hop with both feet at the same time, approximately a foot to the right of the line, while also pulling your hands up rapidly to your chest to help with jumping. As you land, let your arms move back straight.
Step 3: Hop back to the center line, again moving your arms for propulsion. Then, hop to the left. Go back and forth from the center to each side.
Step 4: Try to perform these movements for a full minute before resting, and complete 3 sets. Feel free to modify sets as needed.
Modification: If the hopping is a bit much, take big steps to each side instead.
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Challenge: If hopping from the center line and back is easy for you, you can up the challenge by starting on the left side and jumping past the center line all the way to the right and back and forth.
Dan Skorbach/The Epoch Times
5. Chair Squat & Kick
This exercise takes the excellent chair squat exercise and literally kicks it up a notch.Practice Tip: Don’t linger while sitting between repetitions. To maximize the exercise’s effectiveness, return to standing right after you touch down.
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Step 1: Sit on the front end of a stable chair with your arms straight out in front of you and feet shoulder-width apart.
Step 2: Lean forward and slowly stand up. Lower your arms to your sides as you stand.
Step 3: As soon as you stand up, kick out with your right leg and slowly return to sitting. As you squat, sit back far enough that your knees aren’t in front of your toes.
Step 4: The next time you rise, kick out with your left foot. Moving down and rising back up counts as 1 repetition. Try to perform 3 sets of 12 repetitions.
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Challenge: Want to make it more challenging? Kick out with first the right and then the left leg before moving back to sitting.
Dan Skorbach/The Epoch Times
6. Lateral Lunge Foot-Touch
Where the ski jump exercise introduced fast side-to-side movements, this one slows the side-to-side movements down while introducing increased knee and hip flexion and high-to-low movements.Step 1: Stand with your arms to your sides and feet close together. Clasp your hands together and bring them up under your chin.
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Step 2: In one smooth movement, step approximately 2 feet straight to the right and squat down over your right foot. Try to achieve 90 degrees of right knee flexion while keeping your left knee straight, head up, and back straight. Touch your foot with your right hand at the same time.
Step 3: Slowly push straight back up to standing and bring your foot back into the starting position. Repeat the movement to the left.
Step 4: Moving to one side and back up counts as 1 repetition. Try to complete 20 repetitions per set and 3 total sets.
Dan Skorbach/The Epoch Times
You don’t have to let the cold of winter freeze your fitness routines. Instead, the simple exercise battery shown here can help you make it to spring while keeping you fit. I recommend performing these at least three times a week, preferably once a day.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
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