There are good reasons to stay warm as you cool down
On Friday last week the temperature in New York fluctuated from a minimum of one degree to a maximum of six. Johannesburg went from 16 degrees to about 30. No doubt, a New Yorker would have followed their run by covering themselves in wonderfully warm clothes.
We’d bet that the average Joburger looked around for a swimming pool or cool shower because during stage four load-shedding fans are hard to come by.
A little perspective goes a long way, but that’s not the sexy sauce that fuels dogma. There is most certainly merit in keeping muscles warm, or at the very least cooling down slowly and keeping one’s core temperature stable after exercising. But this is SA in a heatwave, and a little common sense is welcomed.
Almost every piece of content that one can find on staying warm after exercise comes from the global north, where shovelling snow in winter is a daily reality, where indoor temperatures are dramatically different from outdoor temperatures.
No trainer on this planet would have convinced me, after training for 65 minutes in 32°C temperatures last Saturday, in a gym billowing with circulated air coming from metal wind tunnels, to put a tracksuit on to “moderate my temperature and prevent injury”. I’d have developed heat stroke and you’d have had something more entertaining to read. Running the next day I had to finish by 9am simply to avoid the worst of the heat.
Let’s pretend there’s no heatwave and we have jumped forward to the middle of July. Now we’re talking a different language, even if our 1°C to 16°C days are nothing compared with doing a Crossfit class in Winnipeg, which, for your reading pleasure, enjoyed a low of -28°C and a high of 21°C on Saturday. When you exercise in Winnipeg, you become obsessed with staying warm; it ’ s called survival.
Let’s discuss keeping warm after exercise even if few of us have any real comprehension of how important it is to protect limbs and hearts in such dangerously low temperatures.
When watching rugby games on TV during our winter months, or when our players play in France or Ireland in January, one will always see the athletes immediately put on warm jackets after playing, meaning there is good reason to ensure the body doesn’t experience dramatic shifts in temperature after exercise — even if they still “feel warm” from running around and jumping on people for 72 minutes.
That professional sports teams are accompanied by the best sports scientists, biokineticists and physiotherapists, tells you everything you need to know. If you start using muscles that are still cold, you risk injury. The opposite is also true.
Staying warm, it is said, will gradually bring the heart rate and blood pressure back to normal. Any trainer will instinctively tell you that staying warm helps to prevent injury, reduces aches and pains, and even goes a long way to reducing post-exercise stiffness. This appears to be as a result of blood vessels remaining dilated, meaning the blood can transport nutrients to muscles and remove the toxic byproducts of metabolic strain. It supports the body’s natural recovery process, the opposite of jumping in an ice bath. Ah, the paradox, right?
Ultimately, in the high stakes of professional sport, thermoregulation is vital for ensuring healthy athletes, supporting muscle recovery and keeping them from being susceptible to becoming ill. This column recently explained the science behind the link between being cold and catching a cold.
The same principles affect you and I. It is important to “warm down” after exercise and cover ourselves — after removing sweaty clothes — after exercising in winter or early in the morning or later in the evening. It’s common sense.
However, we ’ re blessed, especially on the highveld, with a climate made for exercising so there ’ s almost no reason not to slip on some training clothes and work up a sweat.