Ways to stay in shape when you’d rather be in bed

by | Oct 3, 2016 | Article, Covid Sanity Pack, Workouts and Exercises.

I love that in interviews I am now referred to as the “author of Finding Your Fit” 🙂 Still getting used to that!!

Cooler temperatures have arrived and so too our inclination to head indoors for some cold-weather weight gain.

Change the narrative now. Don’t fall off the fitness horse, says personal trainer and author of the new book Finding Your Fit, Kathleen Trotter. “The key to staying active all winter is to frame daily movement as a non negotiable. Don’t ask yourself ‘if’ you will move. Instead, ask yourself ‘when will I move.’”

Pick activities that are convenient and that you don’t hate so you can do them consistently, says Trotter. “If you like the gym – great. If the gym is not realistic find alternative ways to be active. Set up a home gym, walk on your lunch break, join a sports team. Anything, as long as you move.”

Make staying fit a positive addition to your life. For pro triathlete Lionel Sanders, it’s his happy spot. The 28 year old from Windsor, Ont., recommends athletic intelligence – movement of any kind leads you down a good path, mentally and physically. “The only limits someone has are the ones you put on yourself. You’ve got to keep things fun and interesting.”

I ran alongside Sanders at a recent training event hosted by Lululemon and Freshii. What’s a few extra km for someone who runs 120 km a week, swims another 20 km and cycles for at least 12 hours. He goes through almost a dozen pairs of Skechers Performance runners a year.

Sanders trains 330 days out of the year, and he’s clocked close to 24,000 km of running since turning pro six years ago. Add to that 4500 km of swimming and 2500 hours of indoor cycling.

His most memorable win to date: This spring’s Ironman 70.3 North American Pro Championship in St. George, Utah. Last year he finished in 18th place.

Lots of Sander’s running is done on a treadmill – “it allows me to get in very high mileage weeks without injury. I can also upload a run course and the treadmill will adjust incline and decline to mimic the course,” says Sanders.

Depending on where you want to go with athletics, there’s opportunity to improve, says Sanders, who recommends a polarized approach: “When go out for an easy run make it very easy, when going out for a hard run you make it very hard.”

Or you won’t see improvement. “Natural tendency is to make your ‘easys’ harder and harder and harder and your ‘hards’ become easier and easier and easier, so you gravitate towards the middle where you’re always working moderately hard all the time.

“When you can separate them, it takes you from good to great,” he adds.

Fit in fitness

Ways to stay in shape when you’d rather stay in bed, with tips from trainer Kathleen Trotter

  • Consider doing a yoga podcast, walking with your partner after work, playing a sport, doing exercise in front of the TV.
  • On days when you can’t fit in your regular workout, use the “piggyback” strategy. Pinpoint daily, non-negotiable habits that you already do, then turn them into a workout. “For example, turn you daily dog walk into a workout by using fartlek intervals. Fartlek Intervals mean speed play and provide a great interval workout. Warm up for five minutes. Then pick a random landmark – such as a stop sign – and speed walk, run or sprint towards it. Walk or jog to recover. Repeat until it is time to go home. Make sure to budget for a five-minute cool down.
  • Walk your child to school and then jog home. While waiting for your child to complete her after-school activity, bring your exercise clothes and use that hour to go for a walk or run. Or do squats and lunges on the sidelines.
  • Pace back and forth during conference calls, go for a walk at lunch with a colleague or do body work exercises on the floor as your child plays.

Originally published at TORONTOSTAR