Fall into fitness: 5 benefits of exercising in Autumn

Written by Martin Ebner,
Last updated October 2026

Autumn often gets bad press. One minute you’re sitting outside at nine in the evening, the next it’s dark before dinner and every shop smells of cinnamon. I understand why people see it as summer’s miserable little brother.

For training, though, autumn is brilliant.

Each summer, I eat a little less and try to reduce my body fat. I enjoy looking leaner, but by September I’m ready to stop organising my life around it. I want bigger meals, heavier weights and a good leg day. I want to see what my body can do, rather than keep checking whether my abs are still visible.

If your training disappeared during the holidays, don’t make a drama out of it. You haven’t ruined anything. Autumn gives you a calmer diary, cooler weather and enough time to build some momentum before Christmas.

1. YOUR WEEK HAS SOME STRUCTURE AGAIN

Summer is great, but it can be chaos. Holidays, visitors, late dinners and weekends away don’t always leave much room for a consistent training routine.

Autumn usually brings some order back. Work settles down, children return to school and the week starts behaving like a week again. That makes it much easier to decide when you’re training and protect that time.

You don’t need to train every day. I’ve been doing this for more than 25 years and I still train three times a week. The sessions are demanding, but they fit my life and give me enough time to recover.

If you’ve been inconsistent, choose two or three realistic training slots and start there. Don’t wait until you feel wildly enthusiastic. Motivation comes and goes, but a routine gives you something to follow when motivation has gone missing.

2. EXERCISING OUTSIDE BECOMES ENJOYABLE AGAIN

Barcelona in July can make a brisk walk feel like a survival challenge. By autumn, you can walk, run, hike or cycle without feeling as though the pavement is trying to cook you.

Outdoor exercise doesn’t need to be complicated. Go for a long walk, take your bike out, find a set of stairs or do part of your workout in a park. If you’re local, I’ve put together some of my favourite outdoor workout spots in Barcelona.

A systematic review of green exercise found signs that exercising in natural surroundings may make the experience more enjoyable and improve how people feel during it. The evidence wasn’t strong enough to pretend trees have magical powers, but enjoying your workout matters. You’re far more likely to repeat something you don’t hate.

Fallen leaves won’t make your squats more effective. They might make the walk home nicer.

3. YOU CAN CHASE SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING THAN A SMALLER WAIST

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good. I do. Most people do, even if they occasionally pretend otherwise.

But training becomes much more rewarding when appearance isn’t the only thing you measure. Autumn is a great time to choose a performance goal. You might want to complete your first pull-up, add weight to your squat, walk further without getting tired or finally run five kilometres without feeling personally betrayed by your lungs.

Pick something you can measure, then give yourself enough time to improve it. Add a repetition, use slightly more weight, improve your technique or make the exercise a little harder when you’re ready. That’s progressive overload, and it’s how training produces results rather than simply making you sweaty.

This is the part of the year when I enjoy pushing my strength again. Summer was about reducing body fat. Autumn means more fuel, better sessions and the return of a serious leg day.

4. SHORTER DAYS MAKE YOU PLAN PROPERLY

I’m not going to pretend that darkness at six in the evening is a wonderful health benefit. It isn’t. It does, however, stop you assuming you’ll somehow fit a workout in later.

Decide when it’s happening. Train before work, use your lunch break, go straight to the gym afterwards or protect part of the weekend. If evenings keep falling apart, move the session rather than repeatedly blaming yourself for missing it.

Try to get outside during daylight as well, particularly in the morning. A systematic review of 45 studies found that the timing and brightness of light exposure were linked with sleep timing and sleep quality. Morning daylight won’t fix every sleep problem, but it gives your body a useful signal that the day has started.

It’s also worth having an indoor backup. A short home session is better than cancelling because the weather is dreadful. You don’t need a room full of equipment either. Here’s my guide to setting up a useful home gym without turning your spare room into a branch of Decathlon.

5. YOU CAN REACH CHRISTMAS WITH SOME MOMENTUM

Trying to build a fitness routine from nothing during December is difficult. There are meals, parties, travel and enough chocolate in circulation to supply a small country.

Starting in autumn gives you time to make training feel normal before all that begins. You’re not exercising to earn your Christmas dinner, and you don’t need to punish yourself for enjoying it. You’re building a routine that can bend without disappearing.

If you normally train three times a week and only manage two during a busy week, that’s fine. If you miss a session, continue with the next one. A reduced program is still a program. The trouble starts when one missed workout becomes a reason to abandon the rest of the month.

WHAT I’D DO THIS AUTUMN

I’d begin with two or three full-body strength sessions each week, plenty of walking and one form of cardio you don’t dread. Get outside when the weather is good and keep an indoor option ready for the days when it isn’t.

Choose one goal that interests you and track it. It could be strength, distance, fitness, consistency or simply feeling less exhausted at the top of the stairs. Give the goal enough time to become interesting.

Most importantly, don’t attempt to transform your entire life by Monday. Make one or two deliberate changes, repeat them and let the results build.

DON’T WAIT FOR JANUARY

January has no special powers. It’s simply the month when everyone suddenly remembers gyms exist.

Start now and you won’t need a dramatic reinvention after New Year. You’ll already have a routine, a bit of progress and a much clearer idea of what works for you. If January still gives you a useful kick, my guide to making your New Year’s fitness resolution stick will help you use it properly.

If you’ve ever started autumn with a plan, blinked and found yourself in December with one hand in a tub of Quality Street, Check It Oot will probably feel familiar. It’s one email once or twice a month, written by me, with the useful bits of fitness left in and delivered straight to your inbox.