Winter Is Coming!

Hello to all you 4 U Body Fitness Masterpieces!

Brace yourselves! Winter is coming! (Game of thrones rules!) Mother Nature is now giving us the cold shoulder and is only doing this for one reason. To mess with our gains and results!

It is the hardest time of the year to find motivation. The days are shorter, the weather is usually wet and miserable and Carlton are absolutely horrible this year. It is much easier to rug up with a hot milo, a bowl of soup and sit on our well-toned booties and watch re-runs of storage wars than it is to get up and go for a run or a bike ride. There is something a little bit off putting about waking up at 4:30am to 2 degrees Celsius and it is pissing down rain outside…I wonder what that could be?

Yes it is incredibly difficult to get up and moving but there is a lovely little saying that makes it easier to get up and work out. “Summer bodies are made in winter.” That should be all the motivation that you need right there. We all want to wear the swimwear at the beach and not look like Shrek after Christmas dinner. Ladies, I’m not up to date with female fashion but I assume “Muffin top” will not be in this year for summer…but who bloody knows considering the “Dad Bod” is now sweeping women off their feet. I wouldn’t leave it to chance honestly.

Summer bodies are made in winter. In years gone by, I have had people jump on board around September or October and saying that they want to lose 10-20kg by summer and “Tone up and get a beach body.” Can it be done? Absolutely! However, you need to have your exercise and diet on point from day 1 and in 99% of cases, the proper habits haven’t been formed yet and the old habits haven’t been broken and that takes time. This usually leads to the trainer/client partnership to be tested as this leads to clients inevitably dropping off because they didn’t lose 20kgs in 2 months. It takes 2 months to start forming good habits, and up to 12 months for those new habits to replace the old habits and to become “The norm.” So with winter before us, we need to create new habits with diet and exercise now so that by the time summer rolls around, we have shaken off the winter blues and haven’t put on winter weight. This is the PERFECT time to start working out and keep those motivation levels right up there.

Another excuse that seems to pop up at this time of year is “It’s too cold to train.” I have literally had cancellations because people didn’t want to train in winter. It’s also too cold to hear those excuses as well but I have to hear them. Here is a little bit of information that might help you get off your well-toned badonka-donks. It is proven that when training in the cold, the body will burn more calories than normal in order to try and keep the body warm and regulate your internal body temperature. Staying active in the winter months is also your best defence against things like the common cold, seasonal flus or that absolutely terrifying Man-Flu! In fact, being active in the cold weather will reduce your risk of picking up a the flu by 20-30%. If that is not enough for you to get those firmly-shaped buttocks off the couch, then perhaps this point will. Rocky did it…and Rocky is bad-ass!

Winter is also the worst time for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety due to the lack of natural sunlight and the vitamin D that the body absorbs from the sun is severely limited. Exercise boosts dopamine and serotonin levels to help combat those winter blues.

It is in our genetics to try and stay warm, eat lots of food and fatten up plus sleep a lot more during the winter months as we try to combat the cold weather. Society these days however makes everything far too easy for us in regards of quick and easy (and incredibly unhealthy) food. If you make the right decisions with food and exercise during winter, your goals of getting that summer body is well within your grasp as opposed to being lazy and stacking on the weight and frantically trying to beat the clock to get that summer body. Eat right and work out. Don’t use the cold weather as an excuse to slip back into old habits.

In order to help us all to beat the winter blues, the team at 4 U Body Fitness are happy to announce that during the months of June and July, we are having our 2^nd annual 4 U Body Fitness 8 week challenge! This was incredibly successful last year as we had a lot of people lose a lot of body fat and weight over the 8 week block. The winners were Romy Skinner and Nicole Goldsmith and both ladies lost a considerable amount of weight and body fat over the 8 weeks. A few of my boys had great results too such as Mark Hornstra and Rich Uzar as well as the very lovely Sam Charbine and Bianca Haycroft. This proved that you can change your outlook on life in as little as 8 weeks and this challenge was the launching pad to bigger and better things for many of the competitors. All of the names mentioned I believe are much happier with the way they are now compared to themselves pre-challenge.

I strongly recommend that if you are new to Personal Training, haven’t had a very positive weigh in session or if you are just looking for some winter motivation and a challenge that you dive in head first and give everything to this upcoming challenge. Beat those winter blues and beat the clock on summer.

My team of Hulkamaniacs are really looking forward to it and hopefully we get some incredible success stories this year like we did last year.

And for Pete’s sake Carlton! Pull your finger out! You are definitely giving me the winter Blues!

Brad Carroll

4 U Body Fitness

Mobile Personal Training Specialist