(dpa / tmn) – Wet and cold weather should not deter us from our training routine. Exercise can help you get through the winter healthy and energized, especially in the darker months of the year.
“Exercising in winter is like a booster for our immune system,” says sports scientist Prof. Ingo Froböse. “Because from the first second of physical activity this is stimulated and activated and thus also trained sustainably, so that we get a much stronger defense,” explains the head of the Institute for Movement Therapy and Movement-Oriented Prevention and Rehabilitation at the German Sport University Cologne.
Muscles as the body’s own heating system
It’s not just about stamina, which you can do on jogging laps, for example. Muscle training, on the other hand, can be a weapon against the cold in the winter months. Because muscles warm us from the inside, like “the body’s own heating system”, according to the expert. That also explains why men often freeze less than women in winter – because they have 20 to 30 percent more muscle mass on average.
Muscles also have a second welcome effect: they burn energy throughout the day. That would help, for example, to get rid of Christmas pounds. This is like a “natural calorie balance”.
New stimuli for body and mind
Another advice from the expert: If the weather really does not allow training on the doorstep – for example because it is slippery – you should take this as an opportunity to do something new. For example, going to the swimming pool or the squash hall.
This is not only good for the body, the mind also benefits, says Froböse. New sports and movements made the nerves in the brain communicate better with each other.
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