Fitness doesn’t have to stop for the winter
Philip A. Gilly, MD, FAAFP
Family
Practice Board Certified
Fitness is a journey, not a destination. It is critical to keep up your fitness regimen year-round. Yet many people become less active in winter, thereby gaining weight and losing conditioning. Continuing with an exercise program through all four seasons maintains fitness, reduces stress, and strengthens your immune system. As a result, exercise helps to ward off winter illnesses.
Medical research now shows that you can exercise moderately and still benefit from improved health and fitness. If you are a man over 40 or a woman over 50, it is recommended that you consult with your family doctor before embarking on a new exercise program.
For health and longevity, it is important to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity, sustained activity three times a week. This type of activity has been associated with a 55% reduction in deaths from all causes, and up to a 2 ½ year increase in life span. The simplest way to accomplish this is a brisk non-stop 2 mile walk at a fifteen-minutes per mile pace. A window-shopping stroll just doesn’t cut it.
If you also want to become aerobically fit, that is, significantly improve the function of your heart and lungs, then exercise up to 45 minutes three times a week. Ideal outdoor aerobic activities include cross-country skiing, cycling, in-line skating, running and walking. Indoor activities included basketball, tennis, skipping rope, treadmill walking, working out on a cross-country skiing simulator or a stationary bicycle that also works the arms.
Running more than 15 miles a week won’t provide you with much greater aerobic improvement. But it will sharply increase your risk of injury. Overexercising may damage the body, leading to heart disease, cancer, cataracts, a weakened immune system, and a buildup of free radicals that will damage healthy cells.
High doses of antioxidants are needed to protect against damage caused by free radicals. All it takes is five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables daily to provide the necessary levels of beta-carotene and vitamins C and E. If you don’t consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, you would benefit from whole-food supplements such as Juice Plusâ. Recent studies have shown that antioxidant tablets actually increase health problems, probably as a result of giving the body these compounds in a non-natural form that it cannot use.
In the winter, when the air gets colder and drier, warm up longer before you begin exercising. You should spend five to ten minutes warming up and stretching to prevent muscle pulls and other injuries and to improve performance. For example, start with a quarter mile walk until you break into a light sweat. Then slowly stretch the various muscle groups to loosen them before starting your run. Always stretch after you warm up, since cold muscles are easily injured. Do long, static stretches until you feel resistance, but without “bouncing.”
To maintain total body conditioning during cold-weather months, perform activities that combine arm and leg exercises. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids before, during and after your workout. Even though you don’t appear to be perspiring as much during winter as in summer, you can still become severely dehydrated. You just don’t feel the fluid loss as much, and that can be dangerous.
If you stop exercising because of illness, start back up slowly. Don’t try to throw yourself right back into your exercise routine after being sidelined by a cold or flu for a week or two. That can lead to further illness or injury. Instead it’s better to gradually increase your intensity over a two week period. That gives your body time to get back in shape.
For more information contact your family physician-the medical specialist with the broad training to treat nine out of 10 medical problems in patients of all ages and both sexes. Family physicians are specially trained in disease prevention and health maintenance.
This information provides a general overview on this subject and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to learn how to get more information. More health-related information is available on this and many other topics on the World Wide Web from Dr. Gilly’s Health Resource Directory and from the American Academy of Family Physicians.
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