One Simple Format for Winter Conditioning in Small Spaces

It’s getting cold and sometimes snowy here in North America at this time of year. If you are in the off season, this is a great time to focus on strength training. However, some conditioning should be done to maintain general fitness.

The important thing to remember about conditioning during the winter is that a little bit goes a long way. For many athletes, winter league, college practices, etc will be enough conditioning for now. For others, conditioning  can be done in very little time. Consider decreasing the volume and increasing the frequency of your training for improved results.

Here is a very simple format to help you get in a few winter workouts with very little space requirements. Beat the winter boredom by varying your exercises each workout.

The Format

Choose 2 exercises from below. Do each exercise at maximum intensity. There is a lot of rest between reps to allow for high-quality movement. If your form starts to fall apart, stop.

	Exercise	Rest	Reps
A	exercise 1, 30 seconds	90 seconds	4
B	exercise 2, 30 seconds	90 seconds	4

The Exercises

5-10-5 Frog


Skater Hops


Shuffles


Short Shuttle

Low Squat Jumps (start with only 12-15 seconds, not 30)

Sprint 5 and back, 5 clap pushups, 10 and back, 5 frog jumps, 15 and back (counts as one rep, not done for time)  

Progressions

You can progress this workout by starting with fewer reps, maybe 4, and working your way up to 8 high quality repetitions. Once you can do 8 high quality reps, try cutting the rest between sets from 4 minutes to 2 minutes.

Alternatively, you can decrease the reps to 4 repetitions and decrease the rest from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. Again add repetitions each week until you're back up to 8 high quality reps.