What is the easiest way to get fit and turn your health goals into reality? Starting when you feel like it? Trying to turn your New Years’s resolutions into reality on January 1st? Why not take a hint from nature’s clockwork and go with the seasons?

Spring Is In The Air?

Have you ever noticed how different you feel motivation-wise depending on the time of year?  There is a reason for that!  Nature changes every three months and since we are part of nature, we change along with it.  Why work against that rhythm? The best and the easiest way to get in shape may be to start at the right time of the year, following the flow.

Many people begin working out around spring time. By the time summer approaches, it seems everybody wants to diet and work out like crazy, because our more or less dreaded swimsuits soon have to be dug out of the hidden depths in our drawers.

But the problem with this approach is that  spring is the time when we should actually decrease our training not increase it, and summer should only be used to maintain our results.

Why? It’s simple: in nature everything has its season, and summer is meant for relaxation. If you listen to your internal clock, you may notice that in summer you feel more need to relax, and it becomes much harder to push yourself into working out. If you again look at your internal clock in autumn, you will notice that you are back to having a bigger drive to push yourself, as well as analyze your life and your goals in general.  By winter that drive diminishes, in spring it does so even more and will be, closing our circle, at its lowest in the summer.

The Smart And Easy Way Of Getting In Shape

Start setting your goals in autumn (so, uh, right now would be a good time), and for the next three months give it your all in training.  You will likely find that your body will be more receptive to training and the results will come much faster, because you are going along with nature. This will give you a huge start to get in the best shape for the summer, and you won’t be in a rush so you can start slowly and build up to more intense training.

Autumn: Maybe the best season to start your fitness goals?

As winter begins, continue training, but with a bit  less intensity than you did in autumn; you can still push yourself pretty hard and your body will be quite receptive to working out.  That way you will have another 3 months of some solid training without being in a rush to get into your swimsuit.

When finally spring approaches and people start behaving like crazy monkeys trying to get in shape for the summer, you can relax. Because you will be six months ahead of everyone else and can start taking it easy with your training, enjoying the beauty of spring. By that time you should be in a pretty good shape, and you still will have three months until bikini season.

Enjoy The Results In Summer

In summer, finally, you are going to be in an amazing shape. Since you started in autumn you didn’t have to work as hard as everyone else did, because you weren’t in a rush. You will be able to cut down your training to twice a week, which is enough to maintain your results, and all you will be doing is looking great in your bikini and relaxing – just as nature intended it.

Pictures courtesy of Nikos Koutoulas and Gareth Williams.