Do you find it difficult to stay motivated in the winter months? Here are some top tips to getting active in or out of the cold! 

• Warm up well to avoid injury

The risk of becoming injured is higher in the cold months, this is because muscles can tighten up in the day and become more vulnerable to strain. You should make sure to gradually warm your working muscles before exercise as to increase the pliability and stretch in them and the surrounding tendons. You should aim to break sweat and add in some static and dynamic stretches like star jumps, jogging on the spot or lunges. 

• Shorter Workouts

Exercising outdoors in the cold can be difficult and for some may be an unpleasant experience. To make sure you stick at it, make your workouts shorter but work harder. Exercises like HIIT or interval training which involve alternating bursts of sprinting followed by jogging are really effective for fat loss and improving fitness, even when performed for only 20 minutes or so. It also means you can get to that warm shower a lot quicker! 

• Mix up your routine 

With the winter months come colder winds and the danger of slips outside, so why not take your exercise indoors? Plenty of leisure centres offer fun (and warm) classes such as box-ercise, circuits and spin classes or, you could go for something a bit more mellow such as yoga. This may be different to what you are used to doing outdoors in the fresh air however changing up your method of training is proven to help break plateus in fitness and helps maintain your enthusiasm.

For more advice visit the 'Health Advice' section and read more on 'Running in the cold'.