Brrr.. It’s cold out there
The clocks have been set back and now you have an extra hour in your day. What are you going to do?
Exercise of course!
Andy Prishack of Select Physical Therapy of Fairfax has a few suggestions for how to exercise in the cold weather.
Remember this fun acronym that may not make much sense..but go with it
BOS SHOT
- B-uddy.. find one, it’s so much easier to get outside and get moving when you have someone encouraging you to get out there. Remember when your parents told you about the buddy system? Well it applies to workouts as well.
- O-overdress… don’t do it. I know it’s going to be freezing when you get out there.. hey it’s the truth. We’re supposed to get a really cold winter this year. But when you start moving you’re going to regret over dressing. A good rule of thumb is to dress like it’s 20 degrees warmer outside than it really is.
- S-hades.. Wear some. For some odd reason many people only think to wear sunglasses in the summer. But the sun shines year around people! The combination of the sun and the snow can cause blindness so go get those shades that you packed away with your summer wardrobe and get going!
- S-unscreen.. Okay now you probably think our friend at Select Physical Therapy are crazy. But you need to protect your skin and yourself during the winter months because the sun can still be harmful.
- H-ydrate… In the summer months its easier to know when your dehydrated and need to replenish yourself but when its freezing outside the last thing you want to think about is drinking something cold.
- O-pen your eyes.. When you exercise outside you probably aren’t thinking about frostbite, but you should because it has negative effects. Be aware of the effects of the weather and what they may do to your body
- T-emperature… Make sure you pay attention to it. Believe it or not you may eventually get used to exercising outside but you shouldn’t if the temperature is below zero.