Tuesday, November 8, 2022

How Do You Prepare For Workouts In The Winter Months?


If you looked at the big picture of what brings you opportunities to train, you'd find out you can workout anywhere under most circumstances (there are some things that aren't always in our control) and be able to train in just about any form of weather although I wouldn't test that theory during a hurricane, tornado or in acid rain LOL. 

You can always get to the gym but if there's a blizzard out or Hurricane Karen is approaching, you might want to rethink your priorities. Bodyweight is one of the better options and so are things like Isometrics where you can use things in your household to create a great workout. Now if you want to go to extremes and want to take your chances out in the freezing ass cold, you might want to take the approach of Russian Athletes like the legendary Alexander Karelin whom trained in the dead of winter for decades doing everything from running, calisthenics, wrestling, lifting weights and even drills that would make most men puke their guts out. 

Winter Workouts can be a time of great importance as it teaches you a level of mental toughness and taking on tasks that would humble most. Shoveling snow can be a hell of a workout especially if it's on a daily basis in certain areas around the country and Canada. It's hard work and puts you on a level even this generation would be baffled by. How do you even prepare for workouts in the dead of winter? For one, be prepared to stay as warm as possible, two, you might want to learn some breathing techniques such as the Wim Hoff Method and three, cold showers can be your best friend.

For the workouts themselves, it depends on your goals and making the most out of what is possible at the time. If you're not use to the cold and you try to do workouts with as less clothing as possible, you could make yourself sick or even worse so it is important to build a tolerance. Learn from those like the Finnish with their ideas of the sauna and rolling in snow or going into a freezing lake, learn from Wim Hoff and learn from athletes who thrive in cold weather. From time to time, I'll train out in the snow doing mace swings, hammer strikes, kettlebell work or even some pushups and crawls but as a guy who grew up on the beaches of Santa Cruz, California there's always that mentality where being warm is just part of your nature and being in a warmer climate is something that you can't let go of. 

I've trained in t-shirts and shorts out in the snow and am always told how crazy I 'am but the truth is, I don't go out in the snow for hours at a time for specific reasons. One of them being that after a period, it can be almost near painful because of the rod and pins in my legs, when it's stupid cold out, I can feel it right away and need to be careful. I'll still crazy shit out there but only during a small window and have to balance out the cold and warmth. That's just life man and you do what works best. 

Make your winter workouts fun, that's another important thing to prepare for. If you condition yourself to hate the cold, you're going to be miserable but if you condition  your mind to be able to tolerate the cold and make something interesting out of it, you might get more enjoyment out of it. Go sledding, if you're into skiing or snowboarding, make it worth your while. Workouts should never feel like a chore or conditioned to hate. When you're a world-class athlete, you might end up hating the workouts because they're so damn hard, they'll make you wish you want to die but you do it for the sake of being the best possible. Those are the people that go a completely different route than most people and it's not always wise to train like a world-class athlete when you can barely keep up with the most basic exercises. 

Be prepared by expecting the unexpected, mentally condition yourself and physically level up little by little to train in winter. Have fun with it and challenge yourself little by little. Hell just standing there for several minutes at first may be all you can handle but it's not impossible to train hard, be smart about it and listen to your body. Be bold and keep being amazingly awesome. 

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