Indoor Workouts to Get You Through Winter

Fitness
Written By Paige Small

Winnipeg winters can be LONG. Especially this year. I continue to be blown away with not only how cold it has been this winter, but also how much snow we’ve gotten. Although I love getting active outdoors in the winter by skating, snowshoeing, and even just going for walks, some days it is just TOO COLD! 

Which brings me to the topic of today - finding ways to stay active with indoor workouts when it’s just too darn cold to get outside. Regardless of weather, I typically do indoor workouts year round in addition to whatever outdoor activities I’m doing in the season. For me indoor workouts include a variety of weights and HIIT workouts in addition to indoor spin workouts. 

Working out indoors by yourself doesn’t have to be boring, and it doesn’t have to only be walking/jogging on a treadmill. Here are a few fun workout ideas to try at home this winter:

Deck of Cards Workout

This is an idea I took from the Carrie Underwood Fit 52 book (Find your Path), and it’s always a fun way to switch up an indoor workout. Grab a deck of cards and assign a workout activity to each suit in the deck. To go one step further, have each suit’s activity focus on a different body part - for example diamonds could represent core, hearts can be cardio, spades can be upper body, and clubs can be lower body. So on a given day you might choose the following exercises:

Diamonds - Sit-ups

Hearts - Burpees

Spades - Hammer Curls

Clubs - Weighted Squats 

Then, based on these assigned exercises, you shuffle your deck of cards and start the workout! When you flip a card over, you do that number of whatever workout activity is represented by that suit - ex. 10 of clubs would be 10 weighted squats. You keep flipping cards and doing the corresponding exercises until you’re through the whole deck. Alternatively, you can split the deck in half and have a different set of activities for each half of the deck. 

Circuits

I’m a big fan of building your own circuits. It’s very easy to do and not hard to follow either. Here are some sample circuits I’ve put together in the past. 

Circuit 1 - shoulders

  • 5 burpees

  • 10 squat + overhead press (with dumbbells)

  • 5 plank rows each side 

  • 5 shoulder taps each side 

Repeat x 3

Circuit 2 - cardio

  • 20 jump ropes with weight (light dumbbells) 

  • 20 squat jumps

  • 10 skater jumps 

  • 20 jumping jacks 

Repeat x3

Circuit 3 - upper body

  • 10 push-ups

  • 10 tricep dips

  • 10 plank up-downs

  • 10 hammer curls 

Repeat x3

Circuit 4 - core

  • 10 crunches

  • 10 reverse crunches

  • 10 scissor kicks

  • 10 flutterkicks

Repeat x3

The thing I love about circuits is the flexibility. You can do just one circuit, you can pair multiple circuits together to create a longer workout, and you can easily create different circuits daily. To make sure you don’t forget your circuit, it’s great to have it written down on a piece of paper or a whiteboard to remind you what your next exercise in the circuit is. This prevents any unnecessary downtime, keeping your heart rate up throughout the whole circuit workout.

Tabata

Nothing says getting a quick at-home sweat going like a tabata-style workout. Tabatas are similar to a circuit, but instead of rotating activities one after another, you complete the same activity multiple times based on a time interval. For example, you would pick an exercise and do it for 20 seconds on then 10 seconds of rest 8 times in a row to make up your first tabata set. Then you would do the same format again but with a different exercise. I usually aim to do 8 sets (8 different exercises), totaling just over a 30 minute workout.

Here are some of my favorite exercises to use in tabata workouts:

  • Burpees

  • Push-ups

  • Mountain climbers

  • Bodyweight squats

  • Squat jumps

  • Plank jacks

  • Squat + overhead press

  • Jump rope

The idea behind tabata is that you push yourself hard for the 20 seconds and use the 10 second rest period to regain your energy so you can exercise at a high intensity during the next 20 seconds. Similar to circuits, tabata workouts are extremely easy and flexible. Just pick 8 exercises and use an interval timer to help track your intervals. I just use my fitbit which has an “interval timer” setting for workouts, but there are plenty of free timer apps you can also use!

I hope these workout ideas give you some inspiration to switch up your at-home workout routine and crush some goals this winter!

Paige Small
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