With winter heading towards us at full speed ahead, most people use the cold as an excuse to not exercise. Have no fear though, I’ve recently come upon some great fat burning (and fun) activities to do during the wintertime. The first, some of you might even do without thinking it’s exercise: Ice Skating.
Whether you go by yourself or make it an outing with friends and family, just hitting the ice and skating around a bit can burn many calories. The exercise itself works the legs the most, but also your entire core because you’re so focused on balancing.
With the holidays approaching there will be even more outside ice skating rinks popping up to celebrate the wonderful wintertime. Another great outdoor winter exercise is snowboarding. Though this may only apply to people who actually know how to snowboard attempting to learn and snowboard is exercise in and of itself!
Although it may depend on how fast you can go, it’s predicted that you could burn up to 1,000 calories just from one hour of snowboarding. Like ice skating, snowboarding really works on the legs, focusing on the quads and hamstrings.
If the exercise portion of it isn’t enough for you, the endorphins you release while doing an exercise that’s fun will also boost your mood! Then there’s the always loved winter pastime, sledding. Who knew that this could actually burn calories. We’ve done it since we were children, the minute the first snowfall came and now, we can use it as an excuse to exercise. Obviously the pulling of the sled back up the hill is exercise, but while you’re steering (or trying to steer) your sled down the hill you’re actually in fact working both your legs and your arms.
This is a great pastime especially for people with children, because who doesn’t love an excuse to act like a kid again and head down a hill face first on a sled? If you’re from up north, this pastime is much more common, snowshoeing.
Not only is snowshoeing a great way to relax and get some fresh air while looking at some beautiful winter scenery, it is also a great way to work out your legs and calves. The number of calories you may burn will obviously depend on the intensity of the trail you choose, but a simple walk could burn up to 500 calories!
The last and possibly most obvious way to burn calories during the winter time is to shovel snow! It’s probably the most dreaded part of winter and depending on your road, driveway and how many sidewalks you may have on your property the amount of snow you have to shovel may be quite excessive.
Keep in mind while you’re doing the most dreadful thing that winter can bring, shoveling for just an hour will burn 400 calories and focus exercise on your biceps, triceps and many other arm muscles. So when the snow starts to fall (which is supposedly soon) don’t let that get in the way of you going into exercise hibernation.
Take advantage of the season and get out there and have fun with these activities all the while burning calories and leading a healthy life.
