In many physical endeavours the warmer summer months can act as a super power, gifting endless motivation and willpower. The long daylight hours, bright mornings and fair weather allow workouts to be slotted into even the busiest schedules and fresher, lighter foods become the staple choice. Outdoor pursuits especially, including running, walking and cycling, are well suited to this more predictable time of year. 

Enter the seasonal shift. Summer giving way to Autumn and Inevitably Winter, bringing with it shorter, gloomier days and dark, bitter mornings aplenty. Where just weeks earlier we sprang from our beds at daybreak it seems a much more arduous task now, rousing ourselves in the dark to the sound of an alarm clock. Life of course has to continue, work, school, daily chores but prior to or following all that can you now be bothered to exercise as well? 

Motivation and drive can certainly take a beating during this time of year. Evolutionarily, winter would be a period to be endured and prep would start way before the first true cold snap. Excess body fat would serve to both insulate and drip feed the body with precious energy, energy that would be preserved through limited activity. Today, we’re only separated from this way of living by incredible advancements in home heating, insulation and a few thousand years. In evolutionary terms that’s not a long time at all.

So in actual fact we are fighting against deep-routed, biological urges, urges which also venture into the realm of nutrition. As previously touched upon, the ability to store and later metabolize fat to be used as energy is perhaps the body’s most ingenious survival trait. Early humans would have undoubtedly encountered periods of feast and famine and this ability would have ensured survival. Winter would certainly bring bouts of famine so it’s likely that our ancestors gorged during the harvest months like many mammals still do today in order to build a robust insurance plan for the inevitable food scarcity. It’s plausible that we still retain elements of these impulses even today and this incredible anti-starvation system is still very much active, the difference now is there is generally a lot more feast than famine during the winter months.

Another power at play is the body’s internal timekeeping systems. Known as circadian rhythms these internal clocks work with external stimulus, such as light, to moderate the release of chemicals and hormones that contribute to the waking and sleeping cycle. During the winter months, when daylight is scarcer, these internal clocks may short change the body by releasing melatonin and adenosine, which contribute to tiredness, in correlation with the earlier setting sun.

Taking all of the above into account, it’s a wonder that anyone gets anything close to productive achieved through the winter, however the fact that many not only maintain their efforts but also oftentimes thrive is a testament to yet another amazing superpower that human kind is in possession of, the incredible ability to adapt and overcome.. Many now master the seasons and use the changing weather to their advantage. All the negative associations spoke of previously are a single perception and in actual fact there can be positives pulled from these perceived adversities. The body warms through exercise, so during cold weather less effort is put forward to keep the body cool, we sweat less and as a result use less energy making it easier to remain hydrated. Rain can serve to cool the body and sooth the muscles during a run or ride as ‘the burn’ intensifies. Reflective clothing and lights make outdoor activity in dark weather much safer and accessible. Through modern science and a deeper understanding of nutrition we can supplement the body with what it needs to remain alert and active despite the evolutionary wants to ‘hibernate’.

In truth though, remaining active during the winter can still be a difficult task for many but there are a number of things that can be done to mitigate this. Changing your training with the season could be one such measure. Moving your training into an indoor setting perhaps to focus on a different aspect of overall fitness, strength/power perhaps? Making greater use of a treadmill or exercise bike to offset the increased chance of your workout being ‘rained off’? Or altering the time of day you access your workout to make use of the daylight hours?



Learning to work with the seasons and not against them is key to creating a solid routine that encompasses different forms of training and plays to the pros and cons that each distinct portion of the year is sure to bring. As with anything fitness related, the plan will succeed or fail based on the planning and preparations made as well as the consistency with which they are executed.