2023-10-18 08:03:24
by Anna Fregonara
Strategies to continue carrying out outdoor sporting activities. It’s not true that you get sick by training in the cold: the immune system is instead strengthened
Let’s face it. When we start to see the temperature drop in autumn, for many the first instinct is to feel less like training outdoors. natural. The cold is a historic enemy of life. Especially for us mammals, “anchored” to a body temperature of around 37C, begins Matteo Cerri, neurophysiologist and professor at the University of Bologna. In fact, the colder we are, the more we have to use energy resources to heat our body. Physical activity, although also a way to generate heat, requires a lot of energy so our brain instinctively tells us to be careful about how much we use. So we prefer to stay indoors.
Because we have less desire
There are also other factors that influence the reluctance to go out and do physical activity. The reduction of daylight hours reduces the possibility of training before and after working hours. Training in the dark or with artificial lights, in fact, limits not only the pleasure of being surrounded by greenery and seeing the surrounding landscape. Light acts directly on mood, lucidity, reaction times, quantity and quality of sleep and is essential for psycho-physical balance. Reducing outdoor training decreases the production of endorphins, the good mood hormones, and the possibility of exposure to ultraviolet rays which are essential for the production of vitamin D. All this leads to greater laziness and less motivation to train outdoors, explains Gianfranco Beltrami, specialist in Sports Medicine and Cardiology, vice president of the Italian Sports Medical Federation who suggests 6 practical tips to overcome fear of the cold.
1. Layer clothing. Choose breathable technical clothing such as microfibre underwear to let your skin breathe and therefore eliminate humidity and maintain body heat. If necessary, wear a warmer intermediate layer, made of fleece or wool. Especially in the mountains, complete with a light thermal breathable windproof jacket. Add and remove layers as needed. Avoid cotton which absorbs sweat and cools the body. Much attention should be paid to protecting the most sensitive areas such as the head, hands and feet from the cold. Therefore use headgear, gloves, neck warmers, warm socks, perhaps woolen, and the right shoes for the weather conditions. For the legs, thermal tights made of breathable material are ideal. Avoid staying in the cold once you have finished exercising and immediately change sweaty clothing. As Alfred Wainwright, British author of hiking guides, said, there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
2. Hydrate. In the cold the thirst stimulus is perceived less and therefore you don’t drink enough. This happens because to reduce heat loss, the blood flow in the periphery decreases without the brain noticing this reduction. This determines a lower secretion of the hormone vasopressin and, consequently, the kidneys slow down the production of urine and the thirst stimulus decreases by up to 40%. For this reason I recommend drinking continuously, even when the physiological stimulus of thirst disappears. How much to drink? The amount of liquids to be introduced varies based on the intensity and duration of the training and on the amount of sweat produced. In general, the athlete should pre-hydrate if the effort lasts more than an hour, continuing to drink during the exercise to compensate for losses. Dehydration can cause premature fatigue, muscle weakness and cramps, dizziness, reduced ability to concentrate, lower resistance to fatigue and increased heart rate, all conditions that worsen performance.
3. Eat varied. The diet should be varied and balanced so as to introduce all the nutrients necessary to cope with energy expenditure. It is justified to eat a little more when training in the cold. The amount of increased calorie intake varies depending on the duration and intensity of the exercise and the outside temperature.
4. How much to train. It is essential to respect your body and gradually increase your work, avoiding excessive loads in both duration and intensity, encouraging recovery with a restorative rest. The advice is to train at least three times a week with a variable duration depending on the level of preparation, the external temperature and the climatic conditions because wind and humidity must also be taken into consideration. The most trained people can also practice every day, as long as they are certain that they have recovered well between one session and another. Don’t go out in case of a storm.
5. Breathe through your nose. By breathing through the mouth the mucous membranes dry out more and impurities and bacteria reach the lungs without any preventive filtering. On the contrary, by breathing through your nose, the air is filtered, humidified and warmed. For very low temperatures, using a light scarf or balaclava in front of your nose and mouth helps collect moisture and warm the air a little before inhaling it. In winter, endurance sports such as jogging, cross-country skiing and hiking are preferable, where the effort remains constant because you breathe less quickly.
6. Stretching. It is not advisable to do it cold, before starting training. A good warm-up is better to bring muscles and tendons to the right temperature. The cold is a vasoconstrictor factor, that is, it prevents the optimal flow of blood to the muscle tissues and, therefore, all those substances that make the muscles elastic and ready to contract for physical activity also decrease. Generally speaking, with a 15 minute warm-up done gradually, you can greatly reduce the risk of injury. A short activation phase may include a light jog for a few minutes followed by dynamic stretching exercises which allows you to lengthen the muscles with controlled movements close to those of the activity we are going to do, such as swings or swings of the arms, light twists of the torso and so on.
How our body reacts to cold
The body knows how to adapt to the cold thanks to the help of the brain which protects us with a hierarchy of interventions. First of all, it reduces the amount of blood circulating in the skin, particularly in the hands, feet and face, specifies the neurophysiologist Cerri. In these regions, in fact, the warm blood is very close, almost in contact, with the cold environment and a flow of heat is generated that exits the body. a very economical defense mechanism that we can observe for ourselves in winter, when our hands feel much colder than our body. If this strategy is not sufficient, the brain activates two other defenses which, however, have a cost in terms of metabolism. In fact, a metabolic response is activated which involves multiple organs, thyroid, brown adipose tissue, heart, white adipose tissue, liver. The goal is to generate metabolic heat. If our exposure to the cold becomes chronic, the system that the body uses to adapt to the cold can be significantly strengthened, continues Cerri. The other defense strategy is to resort to shivering, that is, a particular muscular activity that generates heat through mechanical work. It is also very expensive and, moreover, compromises fine mobility. Just think, for example, of when our teeth chatter from the cold and we struggle to speak. These responses are borne by the Autonomic Nervous System, but, obviously, the brain can also use behavioral regulation to defend itself from the cold: look for a warm place and wait there for the external temperature to increase.
A myth to dispel
Finally, let’s dispel a belief. It’s not true that you get sick from training in the cold. Often the opposite is the case and many people observe that when they start practicing physical activity, illnesses of viral or bacterial origin are reduced in the winter months, concludes sports doctor Beltrami. This is because physical exercise, correctly performed, has the effect of strengthening the immune system. It is only excesses in the intensity and duration of exercise or failure to respect recovery times between one workout and another that can induce overtraining, weakening our defenses and causing infections.
October 18, 2023 (modified October 18, 2023 | 08:02)
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