How to prepare your body for physical activity in the cold

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Whether you'll be running a half-marathon or just shoveling snow, there are some key tips you should know to keep yourself safe in the cold.

Transcript

00:00Now, what can you do to prepare and protect your body?

00:05Michael Malish is a Clinical Rehabilitation Specialist with the Cleveland Clinic.

00:09Thank you so much for joining us, Michael, and I literally wore pants today so you can

00:13lead us through some stretches.

00:14Oh, that's right.

00:15Yeah.

00:16Absolutely.

00:17Now we're your members.

00:18Yeah, yeah.

00:19We talked about this yesterday, stretching.

00:20I told, we have to be very careful with me because if I do something suddenly, we can

00:25pull a muscle.

00:26Yeah.

00:27So, yeah.

00:28So, we don't want to do anything suddenly.

00:30We want to do it slowly and in a controlled fashion.

00:34So extreme cold definitely impacts musculoskeletal performance because it restricts blood flow

00:42to tissue and therefore, you know, our muscles and our joints are less flexible, feel stiffer.

00:51We can fatigue a lot faster and this can result in sprains or strains.

00:59So we, you know, to prepare to do something like shoveling, which is out in the cold and

01:05it's cold in Cleveland today, we want to prepare all the tissues that are going to be involved

01:12in the task.

01:14So before we even do stretching, ideally, we'd like to do some cardiovascular exercise

01:21for five or ten minutes, walking on the treadmill.

01:26It could be as simple as marching in place.

01:29If you don't have a treadmill, kind of get the blood flowing.

01:34And then we're going to kind of go from top down.

01:37I think it's easiest to think of it like that.

01:40And the first stretch I would do would be a cervical rotation.

01:45So I'm going to turn my head towards my left shoulder, hold that.

01:51We can even do some gentle overpressure at the chin to get even a little bit more stretch.

01:57And again, we're going to work within our comfortable range of motion.

02:03We do the same thing to the opposite side.

02:06Typically, we'd hold these for 10 to 30 seconds and do kind of multiple reps of each of these.

02:16But for the sake of the brief time, we're just going to do one rep of each of these.

02:22The next one that I would do, the shoulders are definitely strongly involved in shoveling.

02:27And so I would do some shoulder rolls, both backwards and forwards.

02:34Oh, forwards.

02:36Uh-oh.

02:37Right?

02:38Here we go.

02:39I'm feeling warm.

02:40Doctor, is it bad if you start hearing noise in there when you're doing this?

02:43That's the intent.

02:44Is it bad if you start hearing noise in there when you're doing this?

02:46If I start to hear noise in there, is that a problem?

02:50I hear noise in mine.

02:53Okay.

02:54Good.

02:55So, you know, certainly if we are around long enough, you know, having some arthritis in

03:04some of our joints is not uncommon.

03:08to be concerned about unless it's painful.

03:14But with all these stretches, you should kind of work within your comfortable range.

03:20So don't push it too hard, ease into the stretches.

03:25The next one would be an overhead reach.

03:27So reach your right hand over your head, side bend to the left.

03:34You see, I'm kind of opening up the right side of my trunk.

03:39If you don't have that kind of range of motion in your shoulder, you can lower your shoulder

03:44to your arm to where you're comfortable.

03:47And then you would do the other side.

03:48We'll be in the middle.

03:50We'll be in the middle.

03:52Yeah.

03:53You can see I have no range of motion, by the way.

03:55I think you're doing the wrong arm with the lean.

03:57All right.

03:58But I don't mean to be the choreographer.

03:59All right.

04:00What about working out in cold conditions?

04:02For those who maybe aren't just shoveling, but want to get outside, how do you get ready

04:07for outdoor exercise differently than maybe being in a gym that's more climate controlled?

04:12Well, you know, number one, you need to consider, you know, the elements.

04:19So what are the risks?

04:22You know, hypothermia, your body temperature lowering below 95 degrees, which in your response

04:31would be shivering, confusion.

04:34Obviously, you want to be concerned about frostbite.

04:39So to keep the extremities, the face, the hands, the feet warmed.

04:49You know, wearing layers of clothing is important, kind of layers of wool and fleece are kind

04:58of best.

04:59Cotton tends to kind of absorb the sweat and makes you feel colder.

05:11Absolutely consider the windchill and limit your exposure.

05:17And certainly if you have lung or cardiac issues, you should speak to your physician

05:23and, you know, to help determine any precautions that you specifically should have.

05:31Michael Melissa, a clinical rehabilitation specialist with the Cleveland Clinic.

05:36Thanks for joining.

05:37You gave us a lot of stuff to think about.

05:39I feel better already.

05:40That was nice.

05:41I'm glad you told me things are making noise in here.

05:46This is part of the normal.

05:47Yeah.

05:48Well, we appreciate you being with us and joining us.

05:50We hope you stay safe and warm this winter as well.

05:52My pleasure.

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