When the temperatures drop, heading indoors and hibernating with a cup of hot coffee till the sun comes seems like the best option. Some people, in fact, drop working out during cold seasons. However, the gloomy weather presents a good opportunity to try new workouts and experience.
Our writer compiled five benefits of doing work out in the cold weather.
- Boost your Immune system
As the cold weather grip tightens on all of us, bugs and viruses become common place and do the rounds, only a few escape without being hit hard by the common cold or flu.
Doing exercise will not only help you fight off any symptoms of a cold or flu but reduce the likelihood of you even being affected. Your immune system works harder and is more prepared to fight off foreign invaders and their nasty symptoms.
- Burn more calories
Working out when it is cold forces you to expend more energy to raise your body temperature thus, whatever workout you do, the cold weather will max out your caloric burn. This is due to the body working much harder to keep its core temperature regulated. As the body works to stay warm, the metabolism is kicked into overdrive and your body burns through more calories and fat.
- Improves your mood
When the temperatures outside drops, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) feeling down, is bound to happen. This happens due to shorter days and your body/mind not getting enough light and endorphin’s. Exercise can boost your mood at any time of year, but it has a particularly profound effect during the cold season, sending those all-important feel-good hormones soaring. In fact, research has shown that a good workout can be up to four times more effective than taking antidepressants, for improving symptoms of depression. Getting outdoors in the fresh air in cold weather can help replenish vitamin D levels in the skin.
{ Read: Climbing stairs: The best exercise ever! }
- Great cardiovascular workout
Cold weather forces your body to work harder during training, and this also applies to your cardiovascular system. Exercising in cold weather challenges your body further and can help strengthen a healthy heart. As the heart works harder to pump blood around the body during cold weather exercise, this invigorating workout helps to keep your heart health in tip-top shape.
- Increasing intensity is less difficult
Whether you like to walk, run, or bike, the heat on warm season makes it pretty difficult to up ones intensity or mileage. The cold season, on the other hand, makes it a lot easier to handle since one is not subjected to the same stresses. A 2007 study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found marathon runners clocked progressively worse times as temperature increased. If you do choose to race in the cold, just be sure you do an adequate warm-up so you don’t feel tight when the gun goes off.
{ See Also: Regular aerobic exercise improves thinking skills }
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