Warming Up with Winter Fitness Tips for Hikers- Fitness February Week 3

The forecast says that Groveland is in a winter weather advisory today until 11pm, and I am getting a little excited for some precipitation in the area – meaning I am getting excited for skiing, snowshoeing  & the firefall viewing (because we need water for horsetail falls to even be running) this weekend if it happens? But with all good winter weather comes the drag of being cold, which can really stall my own motivations for working on my fitness – luckily over the last half month of educating myself I have accumulated a few good winter fitness tips!

This schedule will definitely get moved around this week to account for when the weather wants to let me outside for some cardio!

In all seriousness winter workouts can be dangerous –  icy conditions and tight muscles could tweak something and eliminate the whole purpose of my February Fitness month. I want to move my body to make it stronger and less prone to injury… not cause injury!

NROL of Abs to the rescue: introducing dynamic warm-ups  which help to prevent injury by jump starting the muscles and joints. I have heard about dynamic stretching before in passing, like during high school cross country meets they would shout: “Dynamically warm up before the race!” We would then do some high-knees and butt-kicks and call it a day. But it is so much more then that! There are curtsy lunges, the inchworm, and seal jacks.

Seal-Jacks? Not for this seal!

Dynamic warm ups are a good way to prevent injury before all exercise, but are doubly important in the cold because your body needs to literally warm up before moving the muscles and joints. Plus, dynamic warm-ups will get you ready to go out into the cold, cold world (or my cold, cold house) with your blood already pumping. I have found that jamming it out my “Get Me Bodied Radio” on Pandora kinda makes these warm-ups kinda fun in that same way that people are probably into Zumba (I mean normally… not like in a Maine sorta way).

Now that we have that all cleared up lets proceed with the normal weekly total body workout plan (Or start with Fitness February Week 1 & Weeks 2 before this)…

Yoga Routine

Yoga is awesome normally, but is even more awesome on days that you can not get outside! I picked this video today because yesterday I forgot to drink my morning coffee (Say what?!? I know it was an off day). Energizing it should help fight off the grey cloud blahs, and give you some renewed vigor!

Cardio Routine

The last two weeks I said I was starting a barefoot running schedule – right? But after contemplating it for the past two weeks I have discovered the barefoot running schedule I chose just isn’t my style (meaning I got bored). Plus barefoot running when it gets a little icy (while in my Merrel Pace Glove even) is just a recipe for cold toes. Instead I have decided to start the next progression from the Rundouble app I used for my couch to 5k training I did earlier this month, which is a 5k to 10k!

Strength Routine

I found a Jillian Core workout! I think the hardest part is gracefully rotating between side-planks and normal planks. Unfortunately I have been unable to find a Jillian weight lifting video so for the second half of our workout I am stuck with this sucker:

Dear YouTube – why all the emphasis on weight-loss and having a celebrity body? Yes, I do know that sells, but can’t we have a couple nice weight training videos too? You can wear the same tiny colorful outfits while picking up a weight, really. After scouring the YouTube I did eventually find this Wisconsonite accented gem (Unless I am misplacing the accent, sorry Northeast/Alaska/Canada if that man is really one of you people!). You will need to fast forward past the first 50 seconds of disclaimer (Do I look like a slow reader?)

AHHH & now the the snow has started and my power is flickering! Yay winter!