There comes a point every Massachusetts winter when going outside stops feeling refreshing and starts feeling like a punishment.
You know the day. It’s 28 degrees. The wind is coming off Gloucester Harbor sideways. Yesterday’s snow has turned into that gray mixture of ice, sand and road salt that somehow sticks around until April. The sun looks like it’s getting ready to set at about lunchtime. Unsurprisingly, the five-mile run you planned suddenly doesn’t sound so appealing anymore.
I’ve lived around the North Shore long enough to know that telling yourself you’re going to exercise outside all winter is a dangerous game. Gloucester’s snowy season typically stretches roughly from mid-November into April, with February averaging the most snow. Not even the craziest among us tend to brave the outdoors for a workout on a regular basis.
The good news is you don’t have to spend the next four months sitting on the couch waiting for Good Harbor Beach weather to come back. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep moving when Massachusetts is doing its best to convince you to hibernate.
1. Go Back to the Basics With a Living Room Workout
You can get a surprisingly good workout in the same room where you watched three hours of Patriots football the night before. You don’t need a Peloton or a $3,000 home gym that you panic-stocked during the pandemic. Just clear enough space that you can lie down without hitting the coffee table.
Try something simple:
- 10 bodyweight squats
- 8-10 push-ups
- 10 reverse lunges per leg
- 20-30 seconds of planks
Rest a little and repeat 2 more times.
If regular push-ups are too difficult, put your hands on a sturdy bench or another stable elevated surface. If bodyweight squats are easy, slow them down or hold something heavy like a backpack loaded with books.
Is it glamorous? Absolutely not. Will your legs know you exercised? They sure will.
The biggest mistake people make with home workouts is thinking they need to recreate an entire gym in their living room. But you don’t. Just pick a handful of movements and call it a day.
2. Buy a Couple of Dumbbells
If Massachusetts weather regularly traps you indoors, a couple of dumbbells might be one of the best fitness purchases you can make. My favorite are from Perform Better – I’m not sponsored by them or anything (although Perform Better, if you’re reading this, hit me up!)
You can do goblet squats, Romanian deadlifts, presses and rows with dumbbells. You can also add some lunges and single leg squats.
It’s hard to make excuses when you have dumbbells.
There’s no commute or digging the car out. You don’t have to find a parking spot or even put on pants (although that sounds kind of uncomfortable for a workout).
I’ve had winter days where the thought of getting in the car, driving through Gloucester slush, and then scraping ice off the windshield again after my workout was enough to make me skip the whole thing. Having weights at home eliminates that conversation with yourself.
3. Hit the Cape Ann YMCA
Sometimes you just need to get out of the house. If you’ve been staring at the same four walls while a nor’easter works its way through Cape Ann, exercising somewhere else starts sounding pretty good.
The Glen T. MacLeod Cape Ann YMCA is over at Gloucester Crossing, just off Route 128. The current facility has workout equipment, basketball courts, group fitness classes and an indoor pool. There are also options including pickleball and Pilates.
Personally, I’m always going to have a soft spot for basketball. If you’ve read anything else on TeamGloster, you probably know that already. There’s something about getting onto an indoor court in January that takes me right back to being a kid.
Swimming is another good option, especially if your knees aren’t thrilled about pounding pavement all winter. The Cape Ann Y has an indoor pool, so you can get your conditioning in without worrying about black ice.
4. Play Basketball Instead of “Doing Cardio”
I have a complicated relationship with cardio machines. I understand why they exist, and I appreciate what they do. I also start checking the clock about six minutes after getting on one. Give me a basketball and suddenly I’ll run around for an hour without thinking about it.
If you’re wired the same way, maybe it’s time to find an indoor court. The Cape Ann YMCA has basketball courts, and the facility has teams you can sign up for as well as open court hours.
You don’t even need a full pickup game. Just shoot around and run after your rebounds. Do some layup drills. Maybe you’ll meet someone on the court to play one-on-one.
If you’re moving, changing direction, and getting your heart rate up, that’s conditioning.
5. Become a Winter Swimmer Without Going Anywhere Near the Atlantic
There are people around Cape Ann who willingly get into the ocean during winter. I respect those people. I am not necessarily trying to become one of those people.
Fortunately, Gloucester has an indoor alternative. The Cape Ann YMCA’s pool has eight 25-yard lanes. This is a great choice when you want something completely different from lifting or running.
One reason I think people fall off their fitness routines around January or February is boredom. They keep trying to force themselves through the exact same workout while the rest of their life has become darker and considerably more annoying.
Switch it up! If you’ve spent the fall running around Stacy Boulevard, swim for a few weeks. Your running shoes will be there for you in the spring.
6. Try an Indoor Fitness Class
I used to be one of those guys who thought fitness classes weren’t really my thing, but then I realized there was something pretty nice about showing up and having somebody else decide what I was doing for the next hour.
The Cape Ann YMCA currently offers group fitness options and has dedicated spaces for group exercise and mind-body training. The broader YMCA of the North Shore also offers wellness programming that includes strength, cardiovascular work and flexibility-focused classes.
If you’ve never taken a class because you think everybody in there is going to be some kind of fitness machine, give it a shot. Most people are way more focused on surviving their own workout than evaluating yours.
7. Make the Treadmill Less Miserable
Sometimes the treadmill is unavoidable. If the sidewalks around Gloucester are covered in ice and you have running goals, you’re probably going to end up indoors occasionally.
My trick is to stop trying to recreate a long outdoor run.
Instead of:
Run 45 minutes.
Try:
5 minutes easy
2 minutes faster
3 minutes easy
And then repeat.
Changing speeds gives you something to think about besides the giant red STOP button staring at you. You can also use incline to imitate some of the terrain we have around Gloucester – anybody who’s run through East Gloucester knows we aren’t exactly living in Kansas. Throw some incline into the workout and make your treadmill miles count.
8. Walk Indoors
This sounds almost too easy, which is probably why people overlook it. You don’t have to crush yourself every time you exercise. If you’ve been sitting at a desk all day and the sidewalks are a mess, go somewhere indoors and walk.
Gloucester Crossing is an obvious local destination where you’re already going to be indoors for errands anyway. Big stores can also give you some room to move when the weather is lousy. I’m not claiming that walking around a shopping center is equivalent to climbing Mount Washington, but I AM saying that doing a little shopping can count as movement. You’re welcome.
9. Turn Your Stairs Into a Workout
If you live in one of Gloucester’s older multi-story houses, congratulations. You own a StairMaster.
Walk up the stairs.
Walk down.
Repeat.
Sounds easy until about the fifth round.
You can mix stair climbs with push-ups or squats and put together a pretty nasty little conditioning session without leaving the house. Just use some common sense here. Don’t sprint down a narrow staircase in socks because Matt Sullivan told you stairs were exercise. I’m not explaining that one to the emergency room.
10. Use Winter to Finally Start Strength Training
This might actually be my favorite suggestion. If you’re like any runner, cyclist, hiker or I know, you are probably not doing enough strength training. Winter is the perfect time to do something about that.
In June, I’d rather be outside around Cape Ann than inside lifting for five days a week. In February? Fine. Give me the squat rack.
Spend the winter getting stronger. Work on movements you’ve neglected and build up your legs and upper body. Then when spring finally shows up and you head back toward Ravenswood, Dogtown or the Back Shore, you’ve actually accomplished something different.
11. Make a Cheap Basement Gym
Basements and Massachusetts go together pretty well. Some of them are beautiful finished spaces, and some of them look like the setting for a horror movie. Both can hold dumbbells.
You really don’t need much. A couple of adjustable dumbbells and a sturdy bench can give you dozens or hundreds of exercises. Resistance bands take up almost no room. If you have more space and know you’re going to use it, you can eventually add heavier equipment.
I know people who have spent thousands building gorgeous home gyms that gradually became extremely expensive laundry storage, so I think you should start small and make yourself earn the upgrade. If you’re consistently using the equipment you’ve got, then go buy more.
12. Do a “Cape Ann Winter 20”
Here’s one I’ve used when I don’t feel like exercising at all. I give myself 20 minutes and pick 4 exercises.
For example:
- Squats
- Push-ups
- Reverse lunges
- Mountain climbers
Move through them at a reasonable pace, and when 20 minutes is over, you’re done.
The trick is that twenty minutes doesn’t sound intimidating. An hour-long workout when it’s dark and miserable outside sounds like a commitment. As Tony Horton used to say in my favorite P90X videos back in the day: “You can do anything for 20 minutes!” (Ok, I’m pretty sure he was saying “60 seconds,” but you get it.))
The Hardest Part of Winter Fitness Is Usually Showing Up
I don’t think Massachusetts winters make exercise physically impossible for most of us. They just make it easier to talk ourselves out of it.
When you leave work and it’s already dark, and your car is cold, and your gloves are somewhere in the house but apparently no longer exist, and there’s a pile of frozen brown snow at the end of the driveway that’s been there since the last storm, and…
It’s easy to say “I’ll work out tomorrow.” And sometimes you really will. But string enough of those tomorrows together and suddenly it’s April and you’ve done nothing.
Keep yourself moving until that first weird 60-degree March day arrives and every person in Gloucester simultaneously decides it’s summer. THEN get back outside.
I’ll see you there.
Matt Sullivan
TeamGloster