Winter Fitness: Staying Active During Boston’s Cold Months
By: Sarah Lapinsky
The icy conditions, bitter cold, and short days of Boston winters often make it a challenge to stay active. Especially for those like myself that enjoy activities such as running outdoors, the winter can feel like a huge setback to achieving your wellness goals. When the sun is out less and people are averse to being outdoors, it is more important than ever to have the physical and mental benefits of movement to fall back on. As the winter is rapidly approaching, we’re hoping this guide will be helpful to finding ways to stay active to beat the winter blues!
Indoor Fitness Options
Boston is home to some of the best gyms in the country from luxury gyms such as equinox to family centered options like the YMCA. These gyms often offer weight training equipment, cardio machines, and more to provide you with all the tools you need to go through a great workout. If you are seeking a more guided approach, a lot of Boston gyms offer group classes such as HIIT, yoga, pilates, strength training, cycling and more! Several Boston gyms have additional wellness amenities, such as spa offerings, to make coming to the gym feel like an oasis from the winter cold. If you are looking for gym recommendations we encourage you to explore some of our other blog posts on some of the best gyms in the Boston area!
Another fun way to stay active indoors is through indoor swimming! Several gyms in Boston offer indoor pools where you can participate in this activity including the Charlestown Community Center Pool, the YMCA, and Commonwealth Sports Club. Swimming is a great way to stay active in the winter by providing you with a full body workout that has the added benefit of being low impact. Additionally, it can remind you of swimming outdoors on a sunny day to help combat some of the wishful hopes for the summertime weather.
Boston is also home to a large indoor rock climbing community, with plenty of gyms available for you to get in a great workout while escaping the cold. Climbing is a great way to stay active by helping you build muscle, boost cardiovascular fitness, improve confidence, and exercise the brain. There are many great places in the Boston area where you can get started including Central Rock Gym or Rock Spot Climbing. Rock climbing gyms are also just one of many specialty gyms/studios that can be found in the Boston area. Some other examples include yoga studios, pilates, cycling, boxing, personal training, and so many more. With a multitude of options to choose from, there is sure to be a gym that works for you!
Winter Sports
One way to find enjoyment outdoors that embraces the snowy weather is by taking up snowboarding or skiing! Boston has the benefit of being close to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine which are all well known for some incredible ski mountains. There are also options right in the Massachusetts area including Wachusett Mountain and Blue Hills. Skiing and snowboarding both have health benefits including better muscular strength, improved cardiovascular health, and having so much fun you’ll get excited for when the winter rolls around! If you are looking for a slower paced way to participate in these activities with even enhanced health benefits, trying out cross country skiing is another great option.
Another popular outdoor activity in the wintertime is ice skating. While this activity can definitely be a bit tricky to master at first, it is such a fun way to embrace the colder weather! There are some great spots right in Boston including Frog Pond on Boston Common that make it easy to get started. Ice skating is very good for cardiovascular health, as it gets your heart pumping not just from fear of falling but also the continuous pushing with your legs. There are also benefits in improving coordination and balance as you stay upright on the skates that make this activity a great winter workout!
Home Workouts
Another great way to stay active in the winter is to do workouts right from the comfort of your own home! Especially since the pandemic, virtual classes and at home workouts have exploded in popularity. These options are often easy to fit into your schedule, less expensive, and will give you an escape from the winter cold! Some popular platforms we recommend for finding virtual workout classes are Peloton, ClassPass, and YouTube. These classes offer a guided approach to fitness that can help keep you motivated which is important when trying to exercise in a space that is often associated with relaxation.
Beginning a workout routine that is mostly based at home can be challenging, so we’ll also give you a few tips to help you with getting started. Our first tip is to find a place that has enough room to move around without running into walls or objects. This is important to ensure you can have the full range of motion needed to get the most out of each exercise and it will also help prevent injuries. Our next tip is to buy some equipment to add variety to your routine. This is as simple as purchasing a yoga mat, free weights, or any other tools you may want to have to reach your fitness goals. Our final tip is to set realistic goals. Avoid the feeling of disappointment that may come if you can’t reach a goal overnight and be reasonable about what you can achieve in a given time. Reaching your goals will give you a sense of accomplishment like no other and will continue to motivate you on your fitness journey.
Conclusion
For all our fitness lovers in the Boston area, there’s no need to fear the changing seasons! There are so many ways you can beat the cold with indoor gyms, winter sports, and virtual classes. These activities are so much fun that you may even begin to look forward to the winter! They also each provide options for a full body workout that will have you reaching your fitness goals in no time. As the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, we highly recommend trying out some of these ways to stay active to keep your physical and mental health strong!
