4 Great Ways to Keep Training When the Weather Sucks

I do believe that if you’ve got the right gear, go for it. Hiking and running in the rain can actually be pretty fun. And weathering out a -20 degree night on the ridge-line of New Hampshire’s Presidential Range is an epic experience to have, assuming you’ve got the gear to stay alive.

jefferson bivy

But I also look forward to the rainy days that keep me indoors. I’m not talking about sitting on the couch marathoning The Lord of The Rings. I mean, that is awesome, but I’m talking about letting the crappy weather motivate your training. For me, that’s getting over to BKB Somerville and breaking myself in on the bouldering wall. For you, if not a rock gym, it might be a treadmill in the basement or a pull up bar in the closet. Either way, embrace the indoors.

If you’ve been anywhere near Boston lately, you understand the difficulties with outdoor training. So here are 4 ways I’ve been making the most of this crap weather we’ve been having.

1. Yoga: This is a great way to get started. If you’re easing into the rainy day workouts, yoga is definitely in between a serious workout and a morning on the couch. Hot yoga is great, vinyasa is cool, and I’ve been wanting to try acro-yoga for months now! It looks like a ton of fun.

2. Slack-lining: One of my favorite new activities, slack-lining is a meditative exercise that combines balance with serious core training. You can start on the low 2-inch line to get going, work your way up to the 1-inch, and eventually you might be trick-lining or high-lining!

highlining

3. Parkour: This is another super fun sport I’m just starting to try out. Parkour is basically movement based obstacle training. You’re trying to get from one place to another in the quickest way possible. It involves a lot of jumping, spinning, and swinging, and it’s a crazy good workout. The following video demonstrates what parkour can train you to do, but in the gym, it’s much tamer, and more about just pushing your body movements and strength than it is about jumping buildings.

4. Rock climbing: This is what keeps me going. Days on the walls. Dark, light, early, late, cold, hot, snowing, or not, climbing is the best workout there is. But those days where it’s too gross to go play outside, the indoor climbing gym is that much sweeter. If you’ve never gone before, try signing up for a class and test your technique. You’ll find yourself scrambling along the bouldering wall or crushing the top-ropes in no time. Then you can start pushing yourself with lead climbing on the indoor routes!

climbingbkb

Looking out the window to find a cold damp fog rolling in is of course not the most motivating way to start the day, but next time, don’t let the rain dampen your spirit. Instead, train harder. Get up when it’s early. Get up when it’s shitty. You should try heading to your local rock gym, but realistically, you don’t even have to leave the house. Push-ups,  pull-ups, burpees…it’s all good. Just get the blood flowing and after the initial hurt, you’ll be happy you did.

Jonathan Ronzio
Jonathan Ronzio

Founder & Host

Founder, Explore Inspired | CMO, Trainual | Co-Host of The Stokecast Podcast | Mountain Athlete | Award-Winning Adventure Filmmaker | Keynote Speaker

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.