4 Moves to Keep You Healthy This Winter
These simple exercises will keep your body active and balanced
With power and energy, ready for winter
With power and energy, ready for winter Despite our best wishes, perfect temperatures don’t last all year; the cold of winter must arrive eventually. When it does, you can still keep your body healthy and fight the winter blues with these simple exercises we’ve prepared, with the help of certified personal fitness instructor, Claudia Reichl.
We recommend that you do this sequence every morning – and it’s best in front of an open window! Why? Simply stated, it will help you wake up and give you energy to start the day. Fresh air might not be your first choice in winter, but even a little bit is a great motivator.
Work to your own intensity level and motivation, which may be different every day. And remember to breathe correctly: it should be natural and flow along with the movements. Ready? Play the video above for a demonstration of our very gentle fitness training.
1. Breathing and Extending
Goal: To make you aware of your breathing, and loosen arms and back
Movement: Stand in an upright position. Breathe in through your nose when you move your hands to the body, exhale through your mouth when you push your hands away from your body. You can do this with different intensity of tension in your body (arms).
Repetition: 3-6 times
2. Balancing
Goal: To increase your balance and stability. This one is great during seasonal shifts when everything in nature is changing, to keep yourself in balance.
Movement: Stay on one leg around 5 seconds; you don’t have to hold it very high. Extend one arm up, and the opposite leg back. You can touch the ground with your toe if it helps you balance. Make sure your hips stay straight and don’t rotate. Keep the center of your body strong by pulling your belly button towards your spine.
Repetition: 10 times each side.
3. Relaxing your back
Goal: To relax your back and calm down your breath.
Movement: As you exhale, bend forward slowly by letting the weight of your arms and head pull you down, as shown. To reduce the pressure on your back you can slightly bend your knees. Come up slowly as you inhale.
Repetition: Stay like this for 4 or 5 breaths.
4. Opening your shoulders
Goal: To mobilize and energize your shoulders while strengthening the back muscles and opening the chest (thorax) – you will feel warm afterwards!
Movement: Keep your shoulders low while rotating through the elbows. In the second version, with long arms, keep your thumbs facing forward into the movement, follow your hand with your eyes, rotate with your upper body – your hips stay straight.
Repetition: 4 times on each side.
How do you feel now?
All these exercises are also perfect to do in the office for a stress-relieving break.
Please note: Consult your doctor before doing any strenuous exercise, and don’t do anything which hurts.
