If you find yourself feeling cold on these frigid winter days we’ve been having, you have two tools at your disposal all the time that can help you warm up: movement and specific breathing patterns.
Our muscles are efficient little furnaces They are great at heating us up. In fact, when we engage our muscles around 80% of the energy created becomes heat. Only about 20% goes into the muscle movement. To heat up quickly you’ll want to do a few full body moves that use big muscles. For example squats brining your arms over head, jumping jacks, or large marches in place while pumping the arms. Use your whole body, but definitely involve the legs and glutes because they have some of our biggest muscles. You can even simply tense your muscles. Try that with me now. Tense you arms, legs, glutes, abs. I feel that heat right away, do you?
Now, the key to remember when you want to move to heat yourself up is not to do so much. You don’t want to do squats or jumping jacks until you start sweating because then you’ll just get cold again. Try 5- 15 reps of any exercise. If you’re doing the muscle tension, try 3-5 times. Experiment with what works best for you, but know if you push too far the body always tries to regulate our temperature so it will make you sweat to cool you down, defeating the purpose.
Muscle mass is key to keeping us warm. That’s one of the reasons that as we get older we complain about feeling cold. My grandma is about to turn 96 and she keeps the temperature at 80. But research has shown that if she started a strength training program in two years, she could raise her body temperature by building muscles mass. For anyone you know who is chilly all the time, not just in winter, encourage them to start a regular strength routine.
Breathing can also help heat up the body. You may have heard of Wim Hof. He’s an extreme athlete who moves in the cold. He has run marathons in negative temperatures barefoot and in shorts. He’s hiked Everest and other peaks in shorts. Researchers have studied him, but they don’t fully understand how or why his techniques work. They somewhat understand how he keeps his core temperature up, but not how his limbs don’t get frost bite. You can find more about his breathing online.
But he’s not the only person who can warm up with breathwork. Tibetan monks heat themselves using a breath pattern called Tummo, also know as fire breathing or vase breathing. In conditions you or I would normally develop hypothermia, they not only keep their core temperature up, they can dry wet towels with their body heat. Again, researchers are a little baffled. The technique utilizes breath-work and visualization. Research has shown the two paired together are more effective than either on their own. You’ll also notice there is a component of muscle tensing which we just learned can heat our body up.
Here’s how to Tummo/Fire/Vase Breathe:
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- Place hands on your stomach around belly button and lower.
- Throughout the breath envision a fire in your belly fueled by your own breath.
- Take five deep breaths—in through the nose and out through the mouth.
- As you inhale sit up tall. As you exhale round forward. *Remember to visualize the breathing fueling the fire.*
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On your last inhale hold the breath as long as you can.
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Immediately swallow, do a Kegel, tense your ab muscles and picture the breath and fire intermingling as the fire builds.
- When you can no longer hold your breath, exhale slowly like you are blowing through a straw.
- Repeat for a total of three times.
How do you feel? Warmer?
Remember these tools are always right there for you to utilize any time you can’t warm up.
For more info and to see the Tummo Breath pattern, check out this video:
Keep Reading
Looking for other ways your breath can impact your workout? Check this out!
Interested in the other unconventional workouts? Read Maggie’s take on Yamuna Body Rolling!
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