Winter Solstice Exercise Guide: Don’t Stay in Bed Anymore

Hello everyone, winter is cold, with insufficient sunlight and dry air. Even small animals have begun to hibernate. Have you also become lazy and unwilling to exercise? Especially in the north, when it snows and freezes, it is difficult to walk, let alone exercise. However, today we still want to talk to you about how to exercise during the winter solstice.

How to choose a form of exercise? First of all, you should choose a peaceful form of exercise. In traditional Chinese medicine, there are Tai Chi, Wu Qin Xi, Ba Duan Jin, etc. Modern popular yoga and meditation are also good choices. The amount of exercise should not be too much, and it is not easy to be overworked. Nowadays, many people like to pursue the feeling of sweating profusely during exercise, but in winter, the amount of exercise should be reduced appropriately, and the body should be slightly sweaty.

In addition, friends who like to exercise outdoors should pay attention to warming up before exercise. The cold temperature and relatively low humidity in winter will cause all organs of the human body to be in a systemic protective contraction state, which directly causes a significant decrease in the flexibility of muscles, ligaments, joints, etc. At the same time, the human body is prone to muscle stiffness after being stimulated by cold wind. If there is a lack of warm-up before exercise, it is easy to get muscle sprains, joint sprains, etc. Therefore, pay attention to warm-up exercises before winter exercise.

When exercising outdoors in winter, you need to warm up appropriately according to the different sports content. For example, morning jogging requires at least warming up the leg joints and muscles, and ensuring that the ears, nose, and hands are well kept warm. In addition, in winter, due to frequent temperature inversions, various harmful gases and smoke are not easy to spread, especially before 8 am and after 5 pm, when the air quality is the worst in the day. Exercising in foggy mornings is particularly harmful to the human body. Noon or when the temperature is highest in winter is the best time to carry out outdoor winter leisure sports and fitness.

Do you really know how to exercise? Winter exercise should be reasonably arranged according to weather conditions and personal physical health. It should be done step by step and within one's ability. The duration of exercise should not be too long, and the heart rate should be controlled below 150 beats/min. Friends with organ diseases such as heart, liver, and kidney should exercise under the guidance of a doctor. Exercise is a long-term process. Long-term exercise can not only improve physical fitness, but also moderate exercise can reduce the production and accumulation of free radicals in the body, reducing the harm of exercise to the body. Therefore, only by persisting in long-term exercise can our physical fitness be significantly improved.

In the cold winter solstice, rubbing your hands often is good for your health. There are many important acupuncture points on the human hand. Rubbing the palms and fingers can fully stimulate the acupuncture points in the palms, which can gradually excite the heart. Rubbing the base of the thumbs frequently can dredge the meridians, enhance the respiratory system function, and prevent colds. When rubbing your hands, it is advisable to hold your fists, join your hands at the base of the thumb, clench your hands, and then move your hands to rotate so that the parts rub against each other during the rotation. The time for rubbing your hands can be long or short, and the key is to persist every day.

As the saying goes, "the cold starts from the feet." The feet are closely related to human health. Once the feet are exposed to cold, the body's resistance will be reduced, causing colds, dysmenorrhea and other diseases in women. Therefore, special attention should be paid to keeping the feet warm during the cold winter solstice. In addition to wearing shoes and socks with good thermal insulation performance, you should also move your feet more often, such as running, walking, and walking, and develop the habit of soaking your feet. Before going to bed at night, scalding your feet with hot water can not only keep out the cold, but also effectively promote local blood circulation, increase the nutritional supply of the feet, keep the skin soft, and reduce the heaviness of the lower limbs and fatigue of the whole body.

In addition, exercise is not only for the body, but also for the maintenance of the spirit. We should keep our mood calm and at ease, and avoid participating in activities that may cause panic and other negative emotions, such as riding roller coasters, bungee jumping, skydiving, etc. In the severe winter, everything withers and there is no vitality, which often makes people feel sad and depressed. We should participate in beneficial activities appropriately, such as listening to music, dancing, etc. to change this situation. Participating in colorful activities can cheer people up, eliminate boredom, and keep them in a good mood.

What are you waiting for after reading this? Even in the cold winter, you should get some exercise!

References:

[1] Wang Zhihua, Li Yanzhi, Yang Jianyu. Appreciation of the 24 solar terms health-preserving songs (24) - Winter Solstice health-preserving [J]. Modern Distance Education of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2012, 10(24):91-92.

[2] Wang Dong. Winter leisure sports and fitness[J]. Ice and Snow Sports, 2009, 31(01): 69-71.