Winter may have you wanting to do nothing more than hide inside and keep warm, but it is a great season for getting out and active. There are so many sports that you can try your hand at when the weather starts getting colder, helping you to stay fit and healthy, avoiding the curse of winter weight.
If you’re looking for a few different activities to try this winter to fit more exercise into your schedule – even if it does mean having to brave the cold – we’ve got some great ideas for you. Here are some of the best winter sports to give a go:
Skiing
There are several different types of skiing that you can enjoy, each of which offers different benefits. You can try cross-country skiing, which is great for increasing your endurance and burning a lot of calories, or downhill skiing, which helps to strengthen muscles and improve balance.
Hitting the slopes and finding the best style for you is the main way you can find out if this is a sport you can enjoy. Even if you don’t get snow, there are dry ski slopes that are great for practicing so you can still enjoy the sport.
Snowboarding
If you want to give a pretty cool sport a try, you definitely need to get yourself on a snowboard. Not only does this activity look good – if you can stay on your board that is – it is a great workout that will have you using a huge number of different muscles and burning a lot of calories.
Not only is snowboarding good for your body, it is a great way to de-stress and relax your mind, making it great for your mental health too. As with skiing, you can learn to snowboard on dry slopes, but nothing beats shredding the powder.
Ice skating
Ice skating a fun day out for the whole family but it is a pretty good workout too. While it is a relatively low impact form of exercise, it is really good for helping to build strength in your lower body and tone muscles.
On top of this, ice skating is perfect for helping to improve balance, agility and flexibility, with different forms of ice skating offering varying benefits. Once you’ve mastered getting around the rink without falling over, you can start to test your skills on the ice more.
Ice hockey
If you like being on the ice, you might want to challenge yourself even more with a game of ice hockey. This fast-paced game is fun and means you are engaging a lot of different parts of your body, building and toning muscles while also burning calories.
Beyond that, you play as part of a team, which is a lot of fun and helps to spur you on to your best results.
