Overcoming the Winter Woes

inter in Boston: it’s cold, it’s gray, it’s dangerous—and I’m not just talking about the icy strips of black metal on the BU Bridge.

This is the time of year that gives rise to winter workout woes, which so many of us experience when the cold winter air has officially killed your desire to get a sweat on and the idea of lacing up your sneakers is grossly unappealing. It’s also the time of the year when the motivation to keep up your summer health and body goals typically fades away, only to be resurrected for a brief time in January (resolution season).

There’s good news, though: struggling to keep up with your personal wellness in the winter is not a challenge unique to just you. According to a 2011 Gallup poll, “The percentage of adults who reported exercising frequently—for at least 30 minutes three or more days per week—fell to 49.8 percent in November, from 52.2 percent in October and from the year’s high of 54.5 percent in July.” It’s evident that lacking motivation is not just a personal problem, but a national one.

Motivation is colloquially defined as “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way,” and “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.” As explained in the scientific article “Motivation: Psychological Factors That Guide Behavior” on the web wellness platform “Very Well”, motivation is said to “refer to factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior,” and it can be broken down into three major parts: activation, persistence and intensity.

Activation is the first concrete decisional step toward achieving a goal, persistence is the tenacity required to overcome obstacles so you can accomplish said goal and intensity is the cognizant effort an individual puts into a goal-focused task.

Lacking motivation in the wintertime does not make you lazy or unfocused. A wide array of factors can go into the “de-motivational” process, one of which is seasonal depression. In the most basic sense, seasonal depression is a specific subcategory of depression that occurs with the onset of particular times of year. It is a real mental health issue, and it is not something that can be simply overcome by just “picking yourself up and dusting yourself off.” According to Psychology Today, “Seasonal affective disorder is estimated to affect 10 million Americans. Another 10 percent to 20 percent may have mild SAD.” Many factors contribute to this feeling of apathy, one of which is the potential onset of seasonal depression. Psychology Today further said, “SAD may be related to changes in the amount of daylight a person receives.”

Winter, which tends to be a droll and dreary time, therefore becomes prime time for SAD onset. Those who may be suffering from SAD are advised to seek professional medical attention—nobody should have to go through these things alone. However, this is not by any means to say that everyone who struggles with a lack of workout motivation in the winter has a form of depression. SAD has characteristics that are reflected in many individuals who struggle with motivation at this time of year, although to a far less heightened degree and in fewer instances.

Mayo Clinic provides several remedies for SAD. Unfortunately, these remedies all suggest that individuals “get active,” which is exactly what someone might be struggling to do in the first place. The medical institute’s online health guide suggests that the afflicted “get outside” and “exercise regularly.” The guide goes on to say that, “Exercise and other types of physical activity help relieve stress and anxiety, both of which can increase SAD symptoms. Being more fit can make you feel better about yourself, too, which can lift your mood.”

The Mayo Clinic SAD solution is to exercise because “it can make you feel better about yourself” is vague in its meaning. It seems to subtly hint toward extrinsic motivations of diet and weight loss.

In discussions of theories of motivation, it has been established that there are two distinct types of motivation known as extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is a force that comes from outside yourself, such as the desire to impress others or earn money. Intrinsic motivation comes from a simple, internal desire to feel a sense of achievement or pride in oneself. Extrinsic motivation is widely accepted as the less sustainable of the two, as it is completely conditional.

“The thing about external (extrinsic) motivation is this: it can take you to a certain level,” said professional volleyball player and Olympian Sara Pavan on her personal website, “but it is not always healthy… and it is unsustainable.”

A key component of discovering and utilizing intrinsic motivation is one’s ability to focus on the present, as opposed to far-off goals to be achieved down the road. For instance, appreciating the post-workout endorphin rush rather than the weight you’ll eventually lose if you stick to your fitness plan.

Intrinsic motivation is clearly a factor within the fitness practices of Boston University student athletes and active individuals.

Gabrielle DiRenzo (CAS ’18), a former Division I Cross Country runner said that, “In the winters, I know that working out will make my day brighter. It’s easy to get into a funk come the winter months, but forcing myself to get outside really helps me feel productive.”

Triathlete and half-marathoner Dianne Omire-Mayor (CAS ’18) additionally chooses to view working out as a positive activity rather than a chore.

“For me, I manage to stay motivated by looking at working out as my little piece of happiness,” Mayor said. “There’s no deadline. There’s no homework grade. It’s just me and the barbell. The barbell doesn’t get disappointed. The barbell rewards me no matter what. The treadmill lets me choose my own pace. Walking around in the cold seems hard, but missing out on my own piece of happiness is harder.”

Both of these individuals are passionate about what they do and how they do it. They have found their niche in a world of fitness and health crazes and have effectively marched through the snowy landscape of winter woes.

Winter does not have to be the time to hide inside, and it certainly should not be a time that leaves you feeling devoid of motivation and severely stressed. Be gentle with yourself and explore the world of activity in order to find what makes you excited to get up in the morning.

This is the key to overcoming the winter workout woes: find your intrinsic passion, your fire and use it to keep you warm through the cold winter months.

By Casey Douglas and Nicole Wilkes | Photography by Ece Yavuz | Design by Harshetha Girish