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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.