If you’ve asked yourself: “How can I stay healthy during fall?” this one's for you! It can be hard to stay motivated once summer is over. With winter approaching and the days getting shorter, darker, and colder, it’s all too easy to fall off the bandwagon.
But here at FitMyFoot, we believe that by sticking to a healthy and active lifestyle, you’ll be a lot happier. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of the most effective ways to stay healthy this fall. We’ll cover the best fall workouts and how to stick to your workout routine over the coming months. Let’s get started!
How to maintain your workout momentum through fall
Most people agree that it’s easier to be healthy and active during the summer months. The days are warmer and the sun doesn’t go down until late into the evening, giving you plenty of time to get outside and get moving. But when it starts to get dark at 5pm, your motivation to hit the streets for a run totally diminishes. We get it!
Being able to maintain your workout momentum through fall is essential to ensure you don’t undo all your months of hard work. Unfortunately, statistics show that theaverage person can expect to gain a whopping five to seven pounds during winter. That leads them to set unrealistic new year’s resolutions just to try and get to where they were before winter. It’s a case of constantly chasing your tail!
If you have clear goals and want to keep progressing closer towards them throughout fall, you need to have a plan in place. We recently wrote an article about how you can set a new fitness goal this fall, which will give you some guidelines on how to establish and set SMART fitness goals, so definitely check that out first.
As discussed in that piece, to maintain your workout motivation through fall, you need to have clear goals and the tools and understanding on how to achieve them. And that’s what we’re going to give you in this article! Now let’s move onto some of the best fall workouts you can do to keep your activity levels and motivation up.
The 3 best fall workouts
- Walking
We believe that fall is the best time of year to walk. The weather drops a few degrees so you can enjoy a cooler temperature while you walk around your local community. The benefit of this is that you won’t feel like you’re overheating, which is a common complaint made amongst summer walkers!
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If you want to learn about some of the benefits of walking, check out this article we wrote titledWhy You Should Walk More in 2021.Here’s the summary, walking:
- Strengthens your lung and heart health
- Burns calories
- Lowers your blood sugar
- Safe for joints
- Boosts immune function
- Improves energy levels
- Builds strength
Aside from these benefits, spending time outside boosts your mood and is a perfect way to spend some time socializing or just catching up with your favorite podcast.
Plus -- if you're wearing comfy shoes with supportive insoles-- there’s no greater fall feeling than hearing the crunch your shoes make while strolling through crisp fall leaves
- Outdoor sports
With the cooler temperature, you’ll also be able to better enjoy playing some outdoor team sports. Plus, from September to December there are lots of holidays –Labor Day weekend, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. That means lots of opportunities to spend time with your friends and family. And what better activity to do than play a group sport?
If you’re needing some inspiration, you can play a game of soccer, football, basketball, softball, or field hockey, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! Playing a sport with your friends and family is a great way to get outside and get moving without feeling like you’re exercising.
Playing sports for an hour gets your heart pumping, works multiple muscle groups, burns calories, and puts a smile on your face!
Check out this articleon the best sports to play this fall and how to start playing them.
- Trail runs
Before it gets too cold and dark in winter, take the opportunity to run this fall. You can run solo or with friends, but you’ll notice how much you benefit from spending the time outside on the go. Plus, running on trails is softer on your feet than concrete, so if you're wearing proper shoes and insoles, you'll reduce risk of pain and injury.
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If you struggle to stay motivated while running, sign up for a turkey trot or a similar race happening in your local community. While this isn’t a competitive race with money to be won at the end, it is a perfect opportunity to set a goal and have something to work towards.
Check out the information for this national 5km turkey trot if you’re keen to get involved.
3 ways to stick to your fall workout routine
- Set SMART fitness goals
If you’re attempting to go from never working out a day in your life to a seven-day-a-week workout routine, you may struggle. You may work better jumping straight into the deep end, but for a lot of people, being too aggressive with your expectations can result in a lack of motivation, pressure and falling off the bandwagon. Be realistic by setting SMART fitness goals.
- Do what you enjoy
If walking, outdoor sports or running aren’t your thing, no worries! The key to maintaining motivation is to find something you enjoy. If you really love dance classes, do those all the time. If you really hate burpees, don’t do them!
- Find an accountability buddy
If you’re really struggling to stay committed to your fall workout routine,get an accountability buddy. This could be a friend, colleague, family member, online coach or personal trainer.
Final thoughts
Keep going this fall! Don’tfall at the first hurdle. Be prepared to overcome the hurdles set forth by the winter months by opting to do workouts that you enjoy with people who hold you accountable.
