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All Weather Workout Tips
When you don’t have gym access, you need to exercise at home or outdoors, and these all weather workout tips will help you stay consistent through all season. Consistency with exercising in ways that manage your abdominal doming in your closing Diastasis Recti truly matters more than intensity, so you need to be prepared. To help you keep working out in all kinds of weather, I’d like to offer some “seasoned” advice for four different conditions, but I’m going to offer you some considerations that go beyond the physical “skin deep” aspects, okay?
Is that a soda in that green bottle? As I picked images for this blog, this one hit all my sweet spots except for that, but I decided to use it anyway just to be able to springboard to my first tip for any weather: Hydrate your body – even when it’s cold – with water and natural fluids. Soda pop and energy drinks full of diuretics and fake food coloring really aren’t your friends.
By the way, it’s ridiculously hard to find stock photos of people exercising outdoors where they’re not half-naked, making out, or doing crunches. Why??? If you’re a photographer, you should seriously consider putting your stuff on stock photo sites. Now, moving right along…
Summer Weather Workout Tips
Do NOT push through strenuous workouts on hot days. Most people don’t have access to pools or air-conditioned gyms, and keeping up with harder exercise sessions at home when it’s hot will likely leave you more exhausted and overheated and sore than usual.
Be aware of the signs of heat stroke and heat exhaustion, and focus on consistency rather than intensity on hot, muggy days. Show up to your workout, even if it needs to be less intense than usual.
If you are finding that the heat (or mask mandates) restrict your energy levels – thus restricting your endurance and stamina – try to maintain the habit of moving everyday in sustainable ways that don’t deplete you. Your body has to work harder when it’s trying to stay cool. Add just a moderately hard, TummySafe workout to that, and you’re burning more energy which your body reads as hard!
Sometimes it’s best to do something different while you wait out weather that isn’t favorable to your workout. We have hundreds of home workout videos here on Fit2B you can stream indoors or in the shade, in the cool of the morning, and even in a cool bath… yep, we have a bathtub routine! We have everything from seated routines to silly videos for kids, gentle cardio to yoga and Pilates, weights and more!
Winter Weather Workout Tips
- Get your glutes in gear … in the right gear! When you’re deeply motivated to do something, nothing will stand in your way. You will find the right jacket, the right shoes, the right gloves, and you’ll get out and get ‘er done.
- Avoid inflexible shoes and bulky garments. New technology has made it possible to maintain full range of motion in freezing temps without feeling like you’re walking in a gigantic body-cast.
- Reward yourself with items that motivate you to move: That moisture-wicking undershirt in your favorite color, that new pair of minimal shoes with grippy traction, that cute hat and gloves set.
- Leave a comment below with your tips for exercising in freezing, snowy weather!
What about rainy weather workout tips?
People, this is where I’m going to shine because I’m dripping wet, and raindrops + sweat = glistening here in the Pacific Northwest. Yep, I live a couple hours from where The Twilight Saga was filmed and where we get MAYBE a couple solid months of sunny weather each year? Gosh, if I were to avoid working out in rainy weather, I’d never workout!
4 Tips for Exercising in The Rain
- Mind over matter – I have to make the mental choice that my health matters more than getting wet, that – no matter what is pouring down outside – my brain and body NEED to move. Exercise isn’t a luxury; it’s science.
- Set up a system – What’s the order of operations that you follow for getting ready for a workout. Mine is: Favorite move chosen, sports bra on, perfect shirt picked, AirPods in, playlist selected, shoes on, head out. Each of those steps moves me toward my workout regardless of the weather.
- Be okay with being uncomfortable – Here on Fit2B, one of our mantras is: It doesn’t have to hurt to work. However, challenges will always be (a little or a lot) uncomfortable, and isn’t that what makes us stronger? Work is literally part of “workout.” Why not get a little more wet on top of the sweat?
That one perfect workout season…
For me, it’s the early Autumn when the weather is cooler but still dry. What’s your favorite season to workout? When conditions feel perfect, all your gear fits the conditions, and you look forward to each session, that’s when you can really find your stride. Coming out of your personal perfect season, it’s all about maintaining momentum for as long as you can.
As I put the finishing touches on this blog, it has rained… in August… after several weeks of sunshine … and I practiced what I’m preaching here and kept my momentum. I went outside and got into it – letting myself feel the rain, move barefoot in the small puddles, turn my face toward the sprinkles – because I know that adapting to the shifting weather NOW means better consistency LATER.
Wait, barefoot?
Yes, my current workout is a 10-station strength circuit (blog on that coming soon) that includes several exercise stations indoors and several outdoors. Spreading things out and forcing myself outside like this is on purpose. I do it barefoot, and this is also purposeful. I have been intentionally barefoot during all my home fitness workouts since before launching Fit2B in 2010 because we simply don’t wear shoes in our home. However, only in the last year did I carry that intention outdoors. It has been amazing for my sensory issues, for my feet strength, for my comfort with discomfort, and for my ability to workout in all weather like it ain’t no thang.
Leave a comment!
These are just my own all weather workout tips for staying active while you continue learning how to close Diastasis Recti. I’m sure you have some things to add that I didn’t cover – and we’re counting on that – so please scroll down and leave a comment with how you handle hard weather and keep working out. What’s your favorite thing to wear when it’s hot or cold? Got a specific brand to recommend? Share what works for you and what keeps you moving successfully, because everyone needs new ideas. Thanks for reading!
Yeah I really want some winter footwear tips for 0 degree weather or colder (tho I probably wouldn’t walk outside if it were colder). Something that’s flexible but warm as heck and waterproof.