Why cold weather exercise is good for you

If you, like me, hate being cooped up inside all day in the winter, it might be comforting to know that the cold weather also comes with health benefits. So, take this as your push to get out in the cold weather, soak up that sunshine and reap the benefits of wintertime.

Benefits of exercising in cold weather:

-       As your body temperature drops, your metabolism increases, creating more energy for your body which as a result helps to burn more calories.

-       Cold weather also helps to increase brown fat production. This is a type of fat that, like the name suggests, is brown and gets produced when the body is put in cold situations. It helps to burn more calories and can help permanently increases metabolism.

-       The cold can also help decrease inflammation. While some inflammation is good and healthy and helps repair overworked tissues and muscles, chronic inflammation leads to chronic diseases. While that’s a whole other topic, simply being out in the cold can act as a natural “ice pack” for your muscles, decreasing local inflammation.

-        Cold weather also boosts the immune system by strengthening it and making it easier for your body to fight off colds and flus.

-       Cold weather exercise can also be good for the cardiovascular system. Your heart must pump harder in the cold, which helps to strengthen the muscle and exercise your heart rate.

-       Cold weather exercise is a great mood booster. I mean, exercise is already a mood booster and doing it in the cold can increase your mood even more, helping to get rid of those winter blues, increase vitamin D levels and get some sunshine.

-       Cold weather can also give you a good night’s sleep. By physically exhausting your body during the day, and even opening the windows for a few minutes before bed to get the bedroom temperature down and to get in clean, fresh air before bed is a great way to go to sleep.

-       And lastly, it can help greatly with skin health. In the cold, your blood vessels get constricted so any swelling will decrease as well as give your skin a nice rosy glow from the cold weather exercise.