The 7 degree rule of thumb!

As the typically British weather gets cold and then gets surprisingly warm, it's hard to know how much to wear when under taking exercise. Take the first week of November: Snow and ice one day and double figures several days later. If you're waiting for a group of friends to perform in a social exercise activity, you don't want to be stood around waiting for them getting cold but then you probably know, once you get into your activity and you start to warm up, you feel you are about to melt away in a pool of sweat!

So what do you do? The 7 degree rule! it's as simple as that. Check the weather forecast and temperature. If the temperature is going to be 7 degrees centigrade or more then you do not need those extra layers. If it is below this temperature then you may wish to consider some base layers, hat, gloves and buffs for example. Why? What harm can this do? Actually quite a lot! If you over layer when it is warm, you will almost certainly sweat more. During sweat, our body exudes (leaks) necessary electrolytes (salts and minerals) through the skin. If we sweat too many minerals, we are at risk of severe dehydration and intravenous fluids may be required. Now this is extreme and rare, but like anything, a plausible risk. Not only that, if you sweat and you have too many layers on, the sweat get traps and cannot evaporate, meaning the cold air dries it to your skin once you have completed and you actually end up feeling colder in the long run! What to wear? Again, like anything, this is personal choice. Even though it is below 7 degrees, you can still over layer. The evidence points towards thin layers to trap air as an insulator. It is also important to keep the extremities warm, for example: gloves and hats to prevent to much heat loss as the body will draw blood from these extremities to place blood towards the vital organs.

Asthmatic?

If you are asthmatic or struggle with breathing in the winter, you may want to consider wearing a buff over your mouth to allow your own breath to warm the air you are inhaling. The cold air, constricts our airways meaning it is harder to get air into your lungs. By warming the air, it becomes easier to inhale air. Now this is not a hard and fast rule, but it is a very good rule of thumb. As I have stated in previous blogs; just because it works for one person does not mean we can generalise this to the wider audience. With this in mind, I find this does work for me. What is important is that you find the right layer of clothing for you so that you don't over heat once you are conducting your activity or conversely get too cold in other areas. Because, whatever is your temperature for changing your layers, the principles are the same. Remember, we exercise to improve our health and quality of life, let's not do anything that can have a detrimental effect upon that.