'Do a few star jumps' to keep warm.

I'm sure we all saw the headline a little while ago advising us all to do a few star jumps to keep warm over winter.

‘Do star jumps’: energy supplier criticised over advice on keeping warm

It received all the mockery and criticism it deserved.

But, being serious for a moment, there are obvious benefits to getting the body moving and the blood pumping. I won't lecture on that because we all know this.

If anyone is thinking about this as an option to keep warm though, I want to share a few important points from someone who does quite a lot of fitness activities, and has suffered many minor injuries as a result, and learned from them.

First point is, when we're cold, we're not motivated to exercise. This is probably an evolutionary thing. But there's a safety element. When you're cold, blood vessels close to the skin constrict to keep heat in for your vital organs. Suddenly bursting into vigorous exercise gets the old heart pumping with fewer routes to pump blood. That's asking for trouble, especially if you already have high blood pressure.

It's also asking for trouble because cold muscles don't have much blood flow, so if you suddenly load them, you're effectively running them on reserve, and injuries are more likely.

So if anyone is thinking of busting out some funky moves in the living room, please do light exercise first. Nothing specific. Just move around for a few minutes at whatever pace is comfortable until everything starts to wake up and loosen off. Build up gradually, and never get to the point where you're too out of breath to speak. Especially if you're on your own.

And when you're done, whatever you do, don't just suddenly stop and sit down. This point is crucial. It will take some period of time before your heart rate returns to normal resting rate. It will take far less time for your skin to cool down and those surface blood vessels to constrict again, meaning there'll be a period of probably a minute or more where your blood pressure spikes. So don't just suddenly stop. Ease back off gradually, and don't stop moving about until your breathing rate is back to normal resting state.

Stay safe everyone and have fun jumping around the lounge like a kangaroo on amphetamines.

 

“having a cuddle with your pets”, and eating “hearty bowls of porridge” I can do (although I don't think they would keep me warm enough) but if I did star jumps I'd be out of puff after the first one,
and if I tried doing any more my knees would give in and I'd probably fall over which could easily result in me being taken to A&E and costing the NHS even more than it can afford at the present moment

Bella doesn't like cuddles anyway and I must say I'm not too keen on them myself ...

 

You'd be nice and warm there though.

 

Not if they left you stuck out in the ambulance for four hours!