Stay Active, Stay Connected, Stay Bright All Season Long
Winters in Michigan can be quite lovely, with scenic snowfall, warm and cozy evenings, and festive activities. However, for some individuals, the reduced daylight hours, cold weather, and lower levels of sunlight could affect their moods and energy levels. If this is how you have been feeling this winter season, know that you’re not the only one who experiences this phenomenon.
Our Michigan Athletic Club knows that it isn’t enough to keep up a fitness routine during winter to be assured of a healthy body and mind during these months, when it is common for a person to experience isolation brought by the weather, a lack of sunlight, and a lack of energy in a body and mind when a lack of physical fitness hampers it.
Here are 10 easy and effective ways to overcome winter blues at the MAC because you deserve to feel energized, connected, and happy throughout the year, including winter.
Understanding the Winter Blues
In contrast, the winter blues, also referred to as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is caused by limited light. A change in serotonin and melatonin translates to a lack of sunlight, which, in effect, sends a message to a person’s biological clock, causing them to feel depressed, tired, and antisocial.
Studies have shown that physical activity, socialization, light, and routines can greatly benefit people who experience seasonal changes in their mood. The MAC will now serve as your winter wellness hub.
1. Begin Your Day by Attending Morning Classes
Winter blues can be beaten by starting your day with some exercise. Exercise in the morning allows your body to get more sunlight exposure, boosts your metabolism, enhances the mood-boosting hormones called endorphins, and gets your body into a routine.
The MAC’s morning schedule has something for every taste, from high-energy boot camps to spin classes to gentle yoga and aquatic programs.
2. Embrace the Warmth of Aquatics
There is nothing like the therapeutic effect associated with immersing oneself in warm water during the cold weather seasons. This is precisely where the aquatic programs provided by the MAC offer the greatest balance of effective exercise and comfort. These services ensure a perfect workout by engaging in aerobics, lap swimming, or pool classes.
The warm environment surrounding the pool offers a pleasant experience that acts as a buffer against the chill that is present outside. Moreover, the aquatic community at the MAC is very welcoming and helps break the feelings of isolation that come with winter.
3. Build Better Balance
Build better balance by redesigning your daily habits for lower stress and stronger overall health. Each week, try to aim for 2–3 strength workouts, 2 cardio sessions, daily movement (walking, mobility, or flexibility), a 5-minute daily stress reset, and/or a mind-body class, plus 1–2 community activities like a class, club event, or group workout.
The well-lit facilities at the MAC offer an invigorating environment that helps combat winter doldrums. When you combine this atmosphere with regular movement and exercise, you get a powerful effect—boosting levels of serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, which are the very chemicals suppressed by lower levels of sunlight. Just one hour at the MAC can work wonders on your disposition and energy.
If you’d like personalized strategies and extra motivation, meet with a Health & Wellness Coach. You’ll leave with clear, realistic steps you can use immediately, tailored to your goals, schedule, and lifestyle.
4. Find Your Tribe in Group Fitness
Winter isolation is a very real reality. It only takes a chill in the air, an absence of sunlight, and a person may feel the urge to stay home in spades. However, winter isolation can contribute to the winter blues. It is exactly at this point that the MAC’s group fitness classes are crucial to winter wellness.
Group Exercise offers socialization, accountability, and group energy. The companionship of exercising with other people, the inspiration of an energetic class instructor, and the combined efforts of a group of people participating in class offer a powerful experience that will help to alleviate seasonal challenges of mood.
5. Prioritize Mind-Body Practices
Winter is also an ideal time to enhance your mind and body practices. Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and meditation classes at the MAC are beneficial, not only physically but also help you cope with stress, anxiety, and depression triggered by change.
These techniques can be learned to be aware, to breathe when faced with pain, and to be calm when experiencing turmoil. They promote better sleeping patterns, reduce rumination, and control emotions, which are essential in maintaining mental well-being throughout winter.
6. Establish a Consistent Routine
The change that makes winter blues more problematic is the break from routine. To have and maintain an effective routine for MAC is an actual blessing within the unpredictably rough seasons.
Attempt to go to the MAC during the same times and days of the week. Consistency will allow you to continue your fitness routines, keep social interactions fresh, and add positive activities that can be counted on every week. Nothing increases mental and physical performance like a predictable routine.
7. Try Something New
While consistency is key, winter is also a great time to shake up what you do and experience something different. The change of pace that comes with trying something new can help motivate you when winter boredom strikes.
Always wanted to learn about pickleball? Never kick-boxed before? Want to learn how to weight train properly? The prospect of trying something new, combined with feeling a sense of accomplishment once completed, is a mental lift in and of itself, and especially welcome during the winter.
8. Indulge in Recovery and Self-Care
Winter is a natural resting phase for nature, and there is great logic behind honoring this. While it is important to remain active, it is also necessary to have some downtime for your body and mind. The amenities offered by the MAC are ideal for such purposes.
The sauna and steam room offer warmth, relaxation, and a meditative setting that serves to reduce winter stress directly. Taking sauna baths has been known to improve mood, alleviate nervousness, and ensure proper sleep.
Massage therapy provides several physical and psychological benefits to patients. The human touch and muscle relaxation release could be an effective method to treat patients in months when they may feel isolated and alone.
9. Get Nutrition Support
Boost your energy this winter by building better nutrition habits that fuel your fitness goals and help you shake off seasonal tiredness. Stop into Courtside Grill for an energizing smoothie or Superfood Salad when you need a quick, healthy boost.
Our onsite nutrition coaches can help you make smart choices day to day or collaborate with your registered dietitian to provide support in creating sustainable, personalized food habits that truly work for you.
10. Set Small, Achievable Goals
Goals of a large scale may be difficult to achieve when the time of the year is not conducive to motivating oneself. Small goals of a positive nature could be the way to go.
Perhaps what you are trying to achieve is coming to the MAC three times a week. Maybe your aim is a new class a month. Goals like these are manageable and add meaning and motivation, things that combat the winter blues.
The MAC Winter Wellness Advantage
What sets the MAC apart and makes it so well-suited to help you overcome winter blues? It is only when all of its amenities, programs, highly trained staff, and true community come together that an atmosphere of winter wellness is developed.
Your Winter Wellness Plan Starts Now
You do not have to endure the winter months. You do not have to experience lower energy, isolation, and mood changes as the only outcome. Using deliberate action and the help of the MAC community, you can experience the health benefits through the winter months.
The trick is to get started before the winter blues set in. This is how you build your support system, your routines, and your habit of taking care of yourself, even on the tough days. Consistency beats intensity every time.
Everything you need is right here: bright spaces, warm water, energizing classes, encouraging people, and qualified leaders. Just missing is YOU.
This winter, opt for energy and not laziness. Choose connection and not isolation. Choose light and not darkness. Choose the Michigan Athletic Club.