We may find our activity levels decrease during the months between the holidays and spring, when most of us want to snuggle indoors with a blanket and good book.
Then with the arrival of spring we find ourselves with a few extra and unwanted pounds.
How do we avoid succumbing to the winter “snuggle months”?
Marc Arndt, exercise physiologist with Penny George Institute for Health and Healing is here to suggest people think differently about fitness during winter and take small steps to incorporate exercise into our daily routines.
Selected Podcast
Winter Workouts: Stay Active During The “Snuggle” Months
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Marc Arndt
Marc Arndt, MA, -Exercise Physiologist
Marc Arndt is an exercise physiologist at the LiveWell Fitness Center. Arndt has been a personal trainer for 13 years and received his Cancer Exercise Trainer Certification and Personal Trainer Certification from the American College of Sports Medicine.Learn more about Marc Arndt
Transcription:
Melanie Cole (Host): During the months between the holidays and spring, we feel like we want to snuggle indoors and we may find our activity levels decrease during this time. My guest today is Marc Arndt. He's an exercise physiologist with Penny George Institute for Health and Healing. Welcome to the show, Marc. Tell us a little bit about some of the first best bits of advice you would give somebody as we head into the cold winter months about not letting that activity level drop down.
Marc Arndt (Guest): Just stay motivated and keep active as much as you can and do anything possible to keep yourself moving throughout the day.
Melanie: So, people ask what does that mean, “Keep ourselves moving.” Is just taking a short walk considered that? Is parking a little further? What do you want them to do every single day and how much of it do they need to do?
Marc: Well, ultimately, we always consider 10,000 steps as a very healthy, active lifestyle and that's what we're always aiming for. So, ways that we can manage to do that is exactly like you said: parking a little bit further away from the shopping centers; going for a walk once we're in the shopping centers opposed to just shopping right away and getting back out; doing anything that we can possibly do to go and keep more active.
Melanie: If people do want to take a walk outside or if they're a runner – and you see those runners in the wintertime – and think, “Ah!” with the ice and the cold. What would you like people to know about exercising outdoors in the cold?
Marc: You can exercise outdoors in Minnesota, anytime throughout the year. There's never a cold enough day to say that you would have to stay inside. If you're going to exercise outside, we always recommend that you're doing that during the warmest part of the day. Typically, during the winter, that's going to be around that 10:00 in the morning until 3:00 – 4:00 in the afternoon when the sun is out. Even if the sun's not out, that's still probably your warmest time. Also, make sure that we're dressing in layers. Make sure that you're able to, as you're starting to warm up and start to sweat, that you're able to start taking some layers off so you don't have any other health issues that may arise with that.
Melanie: What about play? People often don't consider play as part of an exercise regime but sledding and snowshoeing and skiing all get your cardiovascular activity levels up. What about play?
Marc: Play is very important because just like any time when we're exercising during the summer, anything that’s going to go and give you a change of routine – you mentioned sledding. Sledding is a great way to go and change up that routine – keep you moving, keep you healthy when you're outside. Most people don't realize how much activity they're actually getting in when they're sledding because they figure that all that they're doing is going up and down a hill. Well, you know what? When you're climbing those hills, that makes a huge difference. When we're cross country skiing, we're staying more than active, typically, for that because we're typically going out for about, I would say the shortest time, normally, is going to be about a mile but, most of the time, when we're cross country skiing, that's typically going to be about a 3 -5 mile jaunt. Snowshoeing is another great way to go and stay active – very physically demanding with snowshoeing depending on how deep the snow is as well.
Melanie: What about injury and reducing the rate of injury? If our muscles are cold and we're exercising outside, are we more at risk for injury like pulling a muscle or slipping and falling on the ice?
Marc: I'd say we are probably more apt to be injury prone during the winter because there are more elements to it. Like you mentioned, slipping on ice or falling down, our muscles are going to get tight very quickly when we're outside. But, if we're able to stay moving and motivated as we're doing our activity, we're typically not going to get too tight or the muscles aren't going to tighten up too much. There's a lot of gear that's built around helping us not slip and slide on the ice if we're outside doing activities.
Melanie: Marc, one thing people don't typically think about – we hear about hydration during those hot summer months but during the cold months, it's just as important, isn't it?
Marc: Yes, it is. Typically, most people realize during the summer that they're sweating a lot more whether they're really engaged in exercise or not. Even just normal general activities when they're out in the summer, they're sweating, typically. However, during the winter, we're just as apt to sweat but it goes and evaporates much quicker off of our skin and, therefore, we don't notice that sweating part of it. So, we want to make sure that we're staying hydrated just like we do during the summer months. We want to make sure we're hydrating during the winter months as well.
Melanie: At the beginning of the segment, you mentioned staying motivated. But, it's darker earlier at night, and it's cold. You feel like you don't want to get out from under the blanket. Give us some advice on staying motivated to exercise and why that's so important.
Marc: Staying motivated can be just an internal peace, many people do have that internal drive to stay active and so forth throughout the winter. If you're not one of those people where it's as easy to do, I always typically tell some of my patients and so forth that they should go and try to find a group of people, whether it be neighbors or something like that, that they can go and go out for a walk with, or maybe they go to a shopping center and they just wander throughout the area before they actually do some shopping or just use the wide aisles and so forth so that they can go and walk through and get their activity. Like I mentioned, 10,000 steps isn't all that difficult to get typically from most individuals, but we do need to stay motivated to get there.
Melanie: What about for people who just really don't want to go outside? You mentioned mall walking, and going inside. Is that the time to join a gym or possibly investigate getting home equipment?
Marc: Exactly. We would want to go and start looking at the advantages and disadvantages to having the stuff there at our own house, especially if you're one of those that once they come home from work, or once they come home say, “I don't want to go back outside.” That would be a great place to go and start looking. What's the cost going to be for some dumbbells or resistance bands? And, maybe something small like a bike or something small of that nature that we can go and put inside our house. If you're working and you think, “You know what? I can stop on my way home from work before I get home to do my exercise, what's that gym membership going to cost at that point?” And make sure that you're asking all the important questions when you get there to the gym. See if there's any—you now, what your term limits are. Is it a full year that you have to pay whether it's during the summer, or not during the summer? See if you can put things on hold. If there are any medical issues that do arise or anything like that, we definitely do want to make sure that you're using your money wisely.
Melanie: So, in just the last few minutes, Marc, give your best advice to help people turn those snuggle months of winter into opportunities for maybe a new exercise routine.
Marc: Some of the fun things that I like to do is, if nothing else, try something brand new to you. Go out and try some snowshoeing. I know in Minnesota, we have all the snow in the world out there, but typically, we don't see that many people out snowshoeing. So, try something new, whether it just be once or twice throughout the winter but it just goes and breaks up that monotony of walking all the time or maybe you are constantly are cross-country skiing. Snowshoeing is a great adjunct to go and throw in. Using other devices like the Fitbits that are a big, hot issue right now. Using those to go and track what you're getting for a number of steps or just using a simple pedometer, something that you can track your numbers. And use logs, to go on logs. “How many steps am I doing?” That's one of the nice things about the Fitbit is it will a lot of the time sync to your computer or sync to your telephone--to your smartphones and so forth--and you can go and track all of that information.
Melanie: That's great advice to keep a log, to keep a journal, use a Fitbit because there are so many apps and bits of advice out there now that really can help people get motivated. It's such great information. Thank you so much, Marc, for being with us. You're listening to The WELLCast with Allina Health. For more information, you can go to AllinaHealth.org. That's AllinaHealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Melanie Cole (Host): During the months between the holidays and spring, we feel like we want to snuggle indoors and we may find our activity levels decrease during this time. My guest today is Marc Arndt. He's an exercise physiologist with Penny George Institute for Health and Healing. Welcome to the show, Marc. Tell us a little bit about some of the first best bits of advice you would give somebody as we head into the cold winter months about not letting that activity level drop down.
Marc Arndt (Guest): Just stay motivated and keep active as much as you can and do anything possible to keep yourself moving throughout the day.
Melanie: So, people ask what does that mean, “Keep ourselves moving.” Is just taking a short walk considered that? Is parking a little further? What do you want them to do every single day and how much of it do they need to do?
Marc: Well, ultimately, we always consider 10,000 steps as a very healthy, active lifestyle and that's what we're always aiming for. So, ways that we can manage to do that is exactly like you said: parking a little bit further away from the shopping centers; going for a walk once we're in the shopping centers opposed to just shopping right away and getting back out; doing anything that we can possibly do to go and keep more active.
Melanie: If people do want to take a walk outside or if they're a runner – and you see those runners in the wintertime – and think, “Ah!” with the ice and the cold. What would you like people to know about exercising outdoors in the cold?
Marc: You can exercise outdoors in Minnesota, anytime throughout the year. There's never a cold enough day to say that you would have to stay inside. If you're going to exercise outside, we always recommend that you're doing that during the warmest part of the day. Typically, during the winter, that's going to be around that 10:00 in the morning until 3:00 – 4:00 in the afternoon when the sun is out. Even if the sun's not out, that's still probably your warmest time. Also, make sure that we're dressing in layers. Make sure that you're able to, as you're starting to warm up and start to sweat, that you're able to start taking some layers off so you don't have any other health issues that may arise with that.
Melanie: What about play? People often don't consider play as part of an exercise regime but sledding and snowshoeing and skiing all get your cardiovascular activity levels up. What about play?
Marc: Play is very important because just like any time when we're exercising during the summer, anything that’s going to go and give you a change of routine – you mentioned sledding. Sledding is a great way to go and change up that routine – keep you moving, keep you healthy when you're outside. Most people don't realize how much activity they're actually getting in when they're sledding because they figure that all that they're doing is going up and down a hill. Well, you know what? When you're climbing those hills, that makes a huge difference. When we're cross country skiing, we're staying more than active, typically, for that because we're typically going out for about, I would say the shortest time, normally, is going to be about a mile but, most of the time, when we're cross country skiing, that's typically going to be about a 3 -5 mile jaunt. Snowshoeing is another great way to go and stay active – very physically demanding with snowshoeing depending on how deep the snow is as well.
Melanie: What about injury and reducing the rate of injury? If our muscles are cold and we're exercising outside, are we more at risk for injury like pulling a muscle or slipping and falling on the ice?
Marc: I'd say we are probably more apt to be injury prone during the winter because there are more elements to it. Like you mentioned, slipping on ice or falling down, our muscles are going to get tight very quickly when we're outside. But, if we're able to stay moving and motivated as we're doing our activity, we're typically not going to get too tight or the muscles aren't going to tighten up too much. There's a lot of gear that's built around helping us not slip and slide on the ice if we're outside doing activities.
Melanie: Marc, one thing people don't typically think about – we hear about hydration during those hot summer months but during the cold months, it's just as important, isn't it?
Marc: Yes, it is. Typically, most people realize during the summer that they're sweating a lot more whether they're really engaged in exercise or not. Even just normal general activities when they're out in the summer, they're sweating, typically. However, during the winter, we're just as apt to sweat but it goes and evaporates much quicker off of our skin and, therefore, we don't notice that sweating part of it. So, we want to make sure that we're staying hydrated just like we do during the summer months. We want to make sure we're hydrating during the winter months as well.
Melanie: At the beginning of the segment, you mentioned staying motivated. But, it's darker earlier at night, and it's cold. You feel like you don't want to get out from under the blanket. Give us some advice on staying motivated to exercise and why that's so important.
Marc: Staying motivated can be just an internal peace, many people do have that internal drive to stay active and so forth throughout the winter. If you're not one of those people where it's as easy to do, I always typically tell some of my patients and so forth that they should go and try to find a group of people, whether it be neighbors or something like that, that they can go and go out for a walk with, or maybe they go to a shopping center and they just wander throughout the area before they actually do some shopping or just use the wide aisles and so forth so that they can go and walk through and get their activity. Like I mentioned, 10,000 steps isn't all that difficult to get typically from most individuals, but we do need to stay motivated to get there.
Melanie: What about for people who just really don't want to go outside? You mentioned mall walking, and going inside. Is that the time to join a gym or possibly investigate getting home equipment?
Marc: Exactly. We would want to go and start looking at the advantages and disadvantages to having the stuff there at our own house, especially if you're one of those that once they come home from work, or once they come home say, “I don't want to go back outside.” That would be a great place to go and start looking. What's the cost going to be for some dumbbells or resistance bands? And, maybe something small like a bike or something small of that nature that we can go and put inside our house. If you're working and you think, “You know what? I can stop on my way home from work before I get home to do my exercise, what's that gym membership going to cost at that point?” And make sure that you're asking all the important questions when you get there to the gym. See if there's any—you now, what your term limits are. Is it a full year that you have to pay whether it's during the summer, or not during the summer? See if you can put things on hold. If there are any medical issues that do arise or anything like that, we definitely do want to make sure that you're using your money wisely.
Melanie: So, in just the last few minutes, Marc, give your best advice to help people turn those snuggle months of winter into opportunities for maybe a new exercise routine.
Marc: Some of the fun things that I like to do is, if nothing else, try something brand new to you. Go out and try some snowshoeing. I know in Minnesota, we have all the snow in the world out there, but typically, we don't see that many people out snowshoeing. So, try something new, whether it just be once or twice throughout the winter but it just goes and breaks up that monotony of walking all the time or maybe you are constantly are cross-country skiing. Snowshoeing is a great adjunct to go and throw in. Using other devices like the Fitbits that are a big, hot issue right now. Using those to go and track what you're getting for a number of steps or just using a simple pedometer, something that you can track your numbers. And use logs, to go on logs. “How many steps am I doing?” That's one of the nice things about the Fitbit is it will a lot of the time sync to your computer or sync to your telephone--to your smartphones and so forth--and you can go and track all of that information.
Melanie: That's great advice to keep a log, to keep a journal, use a Fitbit because there are so many apps and bits of advice out there now that really can help people get motivated. It's such great information. Thank you so much, Marc, for being with us. You're listening to The WELLCast with Allina Health. For more information, you can go to AllinaHealth.org. That's AllinaHealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.