The doldrums of winter are here.  While it might have been challenging to keep off the extra pounds during the holidays, it will surely be even harder to lose them before spring.  Unfortunately, our summer bodies are earned during the winter, so it’s time to kick it into high gear!  No matter your reason for exercising, be it training for a race, losing weight or just becoming more healthy, there are lots of fun ways to work out when it’s cold outside.

Dancing

Do you have a Wii or Xbox? Good, you’re already set up to do dancing exercise in your living room with Dance Central or Just Dance.  If you have a smartphone or tablet, Just Dance Now or Go Dance are good choices.  If you have a way to play music, you can put on your favorite jams and go crazy.  Dancing is an excellent way to get exercise without feeling like you’re working.

FitStar

FitStar is a company that creates apps for people who want to do a few workouts a week.  FitStar Personal Trainer and FitStar Yoga contain short videos with bodyweight training exercises.  You can specify in the app whether each exercise is too easy, just right or too hard.  The app will customize each session for you in the future to get your optimum workout.  FitStar also offers paid subscriptions with more exercise options.

Try a New Class at the Gym

Sometimes, you just get bored with the same old workout.  If you’re part of a gym, you can always try a new class, such as yoga, cycling or wall climbing.  If you feel like you’ve hit a fitness plateau, mix it up to get back on track!

Living Room Cardio

Almost any exercise can be done right in your living room with little or no equipment.  If the weather is bad outside, don’t skip your workout.  Jump rope, run in place or do some jumping jacks.  Stair stepping is excellent exercise.  If you don’t have stairs in your house, get a sturdy chair and step up on it one leg at a time until you get tired.  You can create your own workouts with some of these cardio exercises, and don’t forget to add periods of rest.

Social Media Workouts

if you don’t want to freestyle, you can look up workouts on Pinterest or YouTube.  Most of the time, you can just search for what you want to do and find it easily.  Pinterest has workouts for any part of the body, and YouTube has a huge number of channels dedicated to fitness.

Boxing

Any type of fighting exercise will get you exhausted quickly.  Boxing, shadow boxing or kickboxing are all great ways to get a full body workout.  Install a punching bag in your garage or go to the boxing ring.  Also, exercises that fighters do, such as burpees, are extremely challenging.

Indoor Sports League

For fitness that is fun, join an indoor sports league like basketball, indoor soccer or racquetball.  Competitive sports are a relaxing way to work out because they are fun and don’t feel like exercise.

Fitness DVDs

Insanity, P90X and Jillian Michaels all have great fitness DVDs for when you just want to stay in your living room.  There are a lot of other DVDs on the market as well.  For cold, snowy days, find a few exercise DVDs to stay fit indoors.

Variety is King

Remember to keep diversity in your workouts during the winter.  There are lots of ways people work out in the summer, such as gardening, mowing the yard or swimming.  Many find it difficult to keep in shape during the winter because all of their exercise has to be planned.  Keep a multitude of different workouts to keep interested during the boring winter months.