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Prakash Chandran:  The weather gets cold right alongside the holidays. And typically, we spend more time inside eating, which leads to weight gain. Let's face it. We all want to stay healthy, but the thought of exercising outside when it's cold or snowy is not only uncomfortable, but it sounds a little dangerous. But is there a safe way to be healthy and stay fit during the winter months?

Today, we'll be talking about tips for exercising safely during the winter. Here with us to discuss is Nicole Clements, a certified athletic trainer at Pullman Regional Hospital. Nicole, it is great to have you here today. My first question is how important is it for people to stay active during the winter months?

Nicole Clements: It's very important for people to stay active during winter months. Really, it's good for everyone to stay active all year long is possible, but especially if you're someone who wants to be active during warmer months, whether that's through outdoor activities like hiking, sports or exercise, or you just want to exercise all throughout the year. It's important to remain active in winter months as well. But especially if you're wanting to do those outdoor activities as well during the warmer months, you want to make sure that you stay active during the winter months, because that will lower your risk of injuring yourself once you take up those activities again. And you'll also be able to get back into your activity more quickly.

Prakash Chandran: And you talk about staying active, especially when you've done so in the summer, thinking about doing the same things in the winter, feel almost inaccessible. So for example, like if I like to go and do trail running, now that's covered with snow and that may be icy. So how do you recommend that people stay active even though the climate outside has changed?

Nicole Clements: Yeah, that's a really good question. So there are a lot of ways people can stay active when it's really cold or icy even outside. Obviously, first one is exercising indoors if that's possible for you, whether that's at your own home or at an exercise facility. That's one of the easiest ways to stay active during the winter.

If you don't have access to an exercise facility, there are plenty of free or inexpensive exercise programs to help guide you at home if you don't really know what to do or where to start. But if exercise or indoor exercise particularly isn't really something you're interested in-- I know for me, I enjoy running and I really dislike running on a treadmill. I prefer running outside whenever possible. So if that's not really your thing, there's still a number of activities you can do to remain active during the winter months. Again, there's lots of indoor activities, like rock climbing, basketball, swimming, et cetera. Obviously, some of those aren't really available to us at this moment due to COVID.

But there are still plenty of creative options. You can check with your local parks department and they may have some great opportunities for you to safely participate still in indoor activities. It may just be as simple as reserving a space ahead of time. And then of course you can still be active outdoors when it's cold and icy. The Norwegians have a great saying that I love. It goes, "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes."

So there are plenty of wonderful activities to participate in during the cold weather. And many of them are already naturally socially distanced, so for us in this moment, that's helpful. Skiing, both downhill and cross-country, snowshoeing, even something as simple as sledding gets you outside and moving your body around. And of course, many of these require proper equipment to do them. And if you don't already own the equipment and don't know anyone who can loan it to you, you can often rent it. I know here where I live in Pullman, the university here rents skis, snowboards, snowshoes, and plenty of other equipment through their outdoor rec center for a really a reasonable price.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that's really helpful. And I love that Norwegian phrase that you shared. "There's no such thing as bad weather, but bad clothing." And isn't that the truth? I wanted to talk a little bit about warming up. Today, for example, when I went running, I thought to myself, "Maybe I should be warming up before the run because it's cold outside." But isn't running itself a form of warming up? So I think there's a lot of confusion around what warming up is. So can you speak to that a little bit?

Nicole Clements: That's a little tricky, because that's going to vary a lot from person to person and it's going to depend on what activity you're wanting to participate in. So if you are maybe just going for a vigorous walk or even a hike, probably warming up isn't as big of a deal as if you're going to go run a marathon or sprint or do something that's a lot more rigorous.

So research does show that prevention programs can help reduce injury for a number of reasons. They improve proprioception and strength, biomechanics, and can also help train muscle memory patterns, and warming up your muscles prior to exercise can also prevent injuries by increasing the length to failure and elasticity of your muscles. So meaning, how far they can be pushed basically before they get injured.

So warming up is important. Typically, dynamic warmups, so moving your body where you are using progressive movements to stretch and warm up different muscles and parts of your body, seems to be more effective than static stretching where you're just standing or sitting in one spot and stretching one muscle or body part.

Prakash Chandran: And what about after the workout? I've heard that it's important to cool down or do like a cool-down stretch after you exert yourself. Is there a truth in that?

Nicole Clements: So there's not really any evidence to suggest that stretching after workout necessarily prevents injuries, but it does feel good sometimes. And it's not likely going to injure you unless you're stretching really aggressively, which I certainly don't recommend. But as far as your cardiovascular health goes, warmup and cool-down periods are definitely important to get you into and take you out of that workout phase, so you're not putting a lot of stress all at once on your body.

Prakash Chandran: Okay, understood. And when we talk about warming up, I know that you said that it depends, but is there a rule of thumb around how long a person should be warming up before they exert themselves?

Nicole Clements: Not to my knowledge. Typically, the advice that I give people is that's going to depend on you individually, on your level of activity in general, and where your body is at. And so just listen to your body and I would try to make it more than just a 30-second warmup. But, aside from that, whenever you feel like your body has gotten a little bit of movement in, and it feels like it's ready to go and ready to move, it's probably okay.

Prakash Chandran: Okay. So let's move on to injury in cold conditions. I assume that people are more prone to injury, just because things are more rigid. Maybe they're more likely to slip and hurt them. Can you talk a little bit about the injuries that you see happen in cold conditions?

Nicole Clements: Yeah. So cold conditions. It's funny that you say that you assume that you're more likely to injure yourself when it's cold outside, and that is true. But not necessarily for the reason you think. There is evidence to suggest that muscles that are warmer are less likely to sustain an injury. But we're more talking on localized level when we say that. So the weather being cold outside, unless it's really cold, which it can be in some parts of the world, that's not likely contributing that much to the elasticity of your muscles, especially if you're coming from a warm place, your house and you've warmed up there or you warmed up immediately after leaving your house.

Now if you've been outside for a really long time, and then you decide to exercise, that could contribute to that. But typically the reason we see an increase in injuries over the winter is mostly due to people slipping and falling on ice.

Prakash Chandran: Okay. I see. And that kind of goes back to that Norwegian phrase around the clothing that you go outside with.

Nicole Clements: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It's definitely important to make sure you wear proper clothing. like you said, going back to that comment I made earlier, that Norwegian phrase. when you're exercising or taking part in activities outside, and that definitely does include your shoes. So in general, your clothing, if it's going to be cold and/or wet, definitely make sure to wear lots of layers. Make sure the layer closest to your body is lightweight and breathable. Wool is a really great option or a blend of fabrics like nylon or spandex. Anything that will help wick the moisture away from your body, rather than trapping it against your body. And definitely cotton is something to stay away from when it's really cold like this.

And then as far as shoe wear goes, you want to make sure you're wearing proper shoes just in general, not just in the winter months. You want to make sure you're wearing shoes that fit you well, that aren't rubbing anywhere, that have good arch support, things like that. But especially if it's icy, you want to make sure you wear shoes or boots with really good traction. Or you can also add on traction cleats, like Yaktrax for example, to give you a better grip on the ice if you're wanting to run or exercise outside.

Prakash Chandran: And just as we close here, do you think that there's anything else that people should know about how to exercise safely during the wintertime?

Nicole Clements: So one more thing I will say along those same lines, that if you're going to be exercising outside and it is snowy and icy, make sure you know how to fall right. So if you do feel yourself start to fall, do your best to direct your fall onto your butt or onto your side. Falling on an outstretched arm is a really common mechanism of injury and it frequently leads to sprains or fractures.

And then also you want to make sure you exercise caution in regards to weather. So before you go outside, check the temperature. If it's very cold, especially if you have underlying conditions like asthma, I would recommend finding an option you can participate in indoors.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that's very helpful advice. And just final question here. As a certified athletic trainer, you probably see all sorts of people with different positions and different fitness levels. If you could offer them one piece of advice around staying healthy throughout the seasons, what would that be?

Nicole Clements: I would say listen to your body. That kind of goes a couple of different directions. So on the one hand, I think the majority of people I know, I certainly feel this way, tend to feel better about themselves and their body just feels better when they're active more frequently. But then also listen to your body when you're exercising or taking part in activities, whatever that may be and make sure you're listening to your body when it's telling you're pushing yourself too hard and you need to take a rest.

Prakash Chandran: Nicole, I think that is the perfect place to end. Thank you so much for your time today. That's Nicole Clements, a certified athletic trainer at Pullman Regional Hospital. For more information, please visit PullmanRegional.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

This has been the Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm Prakash Chandran. Thanks so much for listening.