Get Ready for a Cold-Weather Workout
by Peter Shankman
Sat, 17 Nov 2007 at 12:44 AM
updated Sat, 17 Nov 2007 at 12:45 AM
But baby, it's COLD outside!
Yeah, today was a bit chilly, considering what it's been of late, no?
Winter in NYC, without fail, means people stay indoors as much as possible. Gyms get busier (by like, 1 millionth of 1%, so that doesn't really matter), but the parks, basketball courts, and biking and jogging trails around the city definitely drop down a bit in usage.
Which is why, of course, it's a perfect time to work out outside.
Cold is only evil if you think it is.
In fact, the majority of sports-minded people would tell you that they prefer to work out in mild to cold weather any day over a hot and humid NYC summer. And the body agrees — It's a lot easier to keep cool when it's already 30 degrees out, right?
But you gotta dress for it.
Les Stroud, the pioneer on TV's "Survivorman" (which, by the way, is an AWESOME show), has a motto: "In the cold, you sweat, and you die." While that would make for decent ratings, it's not exactly true.
The body regulates temperature in many ways, and one of the most noticeable is by producing sweat. Sweat (in addition to getting rid of a ton of impurities in the skin and in the body) cools you down. This isn't anything new.
BUT … just because you sweat doesn't mean you have to get even more freezing when you're working out. The body is a great regulator — it knows exactly how to keep you at a core temperature — so when you're running, or biking, or scaling a building, and you start sweating, it's the body balancing out your furnace.
The problem comes, though (and the reason for Les's quote), when the clothes on your body get wet from the sweat. If you walked around naked like the cavemen did, you'd simply evaporate the sweat, and all would be well as you chased your woolly mammoth. But we tend to wear clothes, and Prada, Burberry, and yes, even cotton T-shirts don't get rid of sweat as well as our own bodies do.
End result: We work out in wet clothes in the cold, and we can potentially freeze.
Answer? When working out outside, dress in layers — and as you start to get warm, take those layers off. No cotton — it'll turn you into an icicle, not to mention chafe the heck out of your body. (You don't think those two red circles on guy's shirts during races are made with magic marker, do you?)
Try moisture-wicking clothing from UnderArmour or Nike, and however many layers you think you need, wear one less. Remember, if you're not cold for the first five minutes of a workout, you're way overdressed.
This weekend: The City Coach 4-mile race in Brooklyn on Saturday, and the NYRR Race to Deliver on Sunday.
What else is going on sports-wise this weekend? Start emailing me your outdoor activities, and I'll start writing about them!
Have a healthy and sweaty weekend!
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