It’s that chilly season of the year when all you want to do is snuggle up indoors and indulge in your favourite hot beverage and chocolate brownies, but it’s actually during winter that getting active is even more important, and not just for your fitness.
Here are 6 reasons why exercise is good for you in winter:
1.Get sunshine
While there are a limited number of foods that can provide your body with vitamin D, the easiest source is from exposure of bare skin to sunlight.
During summer a short exposure of 10-15 minutes is plenty, but in winter sunshine can be harder to come by, especially when you’re huddled indoors. But that’s why it’s even more important to get outside and get moving.
2. Keep warm
Save electricity and an expanding waistline by heating your body up naturally with a workout.
The rise in your body temperature has a soothing, calming effect on your body, not unlike a long soak in a warm bath or lying in front of the heater.
3.Stay healthy
According to research regular exercise strengthens the immune system so it can fight off bacterial and viral infections. So get active and beat that nagging flu.
4. Beat the winter blues
A daily workout releases feel-good, de-stress brain chemicals, gives you a break from the daily grind and helps ease depression.
Get out of the house, take a walk and cheer yourself up even more!
5. Take a deep breath
Being cooped up with nothing but heaters to keep the air moving means fresh air is much harder to come by in winter!
Generally, the air outside is healthier then that inside so going for a walk or run outside gives your lungs a chance to detox and breathe deeply without concern for breathing in other people’s bugs.
6. Avoid winter weight gain
September bodies are made in winter so don’t just sit there and only think of hot chocolate, soup andother comfort food which have a tendency of causing weight gain.
Beat winter gain by exercising regularly in winter.
That glass of wine will cost you 30-minutes of walking. Just 2 cubes of cheese will be another 30-minutes. And the hot chocolate? A full hour of walking is what you need to work that off.
Credit: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fitness/
