The Benefits of Staying Active in Cold Weather

The cold can be a prominent barrier for many in terms of getting out and staying active. It can hinder solid progress toward health and wellness in your exercise routine. If maintaining your exercise and movement goals is an important part of life, it’s crucial to determine how to work with the cold. It’s essential t to understand how the cold can help you in your goals, and second, how to prepare properly for it. Here are some of the benefits of exercising in cold weather:

 

Burn more calories – Your body has to work harder to stabilize its core body temperature; while it is working harder to do so, it requires more calories to do that job.

 

Strengthen your heart – Your heart has to work harder to pump and distribute blood throughout the body in cold temperatures. When you then add to that the stress of the exercise, it calls the heart to work even harder. If this is done with consistency, the heart gets stronger because it is regularly being called to work more efficiently under healthily stressful situations.

 

Increase your tolerance – It takes grit to exercise regularly in the cold temperatures and do what we don’t actually want to do. There is a mental aspect that we work regularly and this grit translates to every other area of your life like tackling a lengthy day or finishing a mile run.

 

Get more Vitamin D – Natural Vitamin D obtained by spending time in sunlight can feel hard to come by in the winter months. Vitamin D is an essential component of health on many levels in the body from bone health to calcium absorption to optimal mental health and feeling good. Most folks see the sun a whole lot less in the winter time. If you can create runs or exercise outside during the daytime and get 15-20 minutes of sunlight while you’re at it, you’re doing your body and mind a world of good.

 

Part of the reason winter exercise seems so daunting is because people don’t prepare properly. Prepare properly and wear appropriate attire. You should wear moisture wicking fabrics that pull the sweat away from your body. These will help you stay a bit warmer. When you start your exercise, you do want to be a little chilly because your body temperature will rise as you get moving.

 

Warm up with stretches in the house and start out light when you get outside so as not to shock your body and ask it to do too much too soon. When you finish, walk it off, do a brisk and gentle slowdown of your exercise, and then ease back into your indoor temperatures.

 

Don’t let the cold derail your exercise success. Work with it and embrace the challenge of it. Understand the benefits that the cold offers in your goals toward better health and improved body performance, and then prepare properly.

 

Dr. Brian Augustine of Augustine Chiropractic in Wesley Chapel, FL, has over 31 years of experience treating patients for their neck pain and other ailments through personalized chiropractic care treatments. The locally owned and operated chiropractic clinic offers both in-office treatments and at-home therapy regimens to help people recover and heal from auto injuries and other conditions. The staff is dedicated to providing alternative and therapeutic solutions for better overall health. Give them a call today at (813) 994-6008 to schedule an appointment or visit their website to learn more about their services!