Going for a walk in the mountains is a fun way to exercise, relax and rediscover yourself. Winter should not deter us from doing so.
When it is cold, we may become lazier and it seems to us that going outside to practice a sport or just to walk is too much effort or even imprudent. But, as we will see, that is not the case and we also have an extra motivation: the sun is no longer a nuisance as in summer, but a pleasure.
Walking also provides obvious health benefits and winter is an optimal season to do so. Those who are well sheltered do not have to fear the cold and can even see it as an advantage: when it is not hot, they sweat and drink less and feel less tired, they get rid of the feeling of numbness caused by the cold, breathing fresh air revitalizes them …
And, above all, it is a very good way to get moving and do some exercise, which has many advantages for health, both physical and mental: winter obesity is prevented, the rhythm of walking appeases us, clarifies thinking, calms agitation, attenuates grief, helps to seek inspiration and regulates and stimulates meditative thinking, reflective, poetic, spiritual…
BENEFITS OF WALKING
Walking also helps to recover and improve deep breathing and with it the improvement of bearing, posture and alignment of the back.
Walking is the best stimulus of the vertebral discs, which becomes a good exercise for recovery from herniated discs.
In relation to posture, it has been shown that the use of high canes at chest or even head height improves dynamics and bearing much more than low canes, which favor postural imbalances and decompensations.
The combination of cold plus exercise is ideal for physical and mental training and above all to enhance what naturopathic medicine has called the vis naturae mediatrix: the healing force of nature.
And also, what current medicine and psychiatry call resilience, that is, the ability to creatively face adverse situations and strengthen oneself with them.
Walking improves circulation and mental relaxation, prevents bone decalcification, raises muscle tone and joint mobility, and reduces discomfort in PMS.
WHY WALKING IN THE COLD IS BETTER
Aerobic metabolism is doubled by the concomitant effect of training and cold, which increases body performance. This translates into:
- A decrease in heart rate at rest and during exercise. A decrease in the myocardial need for oxygen, which saves cardiac work.
- Anti-diabetic effect (helps control body weight and improves glucose tolerance and peripheral insulin sensitivity).
- Increased fibrinolytic activity and decreased aggregability of blood thrombocytes
- Decreased release of catecholamines, hormones associated with stress.
- Improved performance in energy metabolism
- Increased HDL cholesterol or “good” cholesterol
- Greater psychic stability, as they increase self-confidence, tolerance to stress and the joy of living. Feeling the muscles in a pleasant way, their ability to contract and relax, provides security; The feeling of power over one’s own body is recovered.
TIPS FOR GOING FOR A WALK IN THE COLD
One technique that helps in adapting to the cold is to always keep your feet warm, both before and after walking.
If the feet are very cold it is convenient to make an alternate bath of hot water and cold water before starting to walk. First, they are introduced in hot water 2 or 3 minutes, then cold water is applied for a few seconds and then rubbed well to stimulate circulation and warm them. They bundle up and the march begins
If you are in the mountains near a grassy meadow or a stream, or on the shore of the beach, you can take the opportunity to walk in the grass or dip your feet in the water of the stream or the sea for a few seconds.
It is enough to be careful after rubbing them and wrapping them well, putting on shoes and continuing the walk.
This small workout helps to adapt to the cold, but you have to make sure that afterwards the feet are very warm. The exercise in the mountains will allow the bathed part to recover normal heat.
For Sebastián Knipp, the naturist priest who most defended barefoot walking, this was the exercise that most enhances the healing force of the individual.
Doing it in nature, in contact with all the energies that emanate from it, allows you to take advantage of the natural cold as an agent to make the organism react, stimulating it, toning it and balancing it.
The physical strength that derives from such a walk in the countryside does not translate, therefore, into large muscles or competition tests; It is something that is felt deep inside and that helps to recover the feeling of living fluidly and healthily.
HOW TO OPTIMIZE THE RIDE
The cadence of the steps is the oldest music composed by the human being. While walking it is good to observe the landscape. Especially in the mountains, contemplating the scenery that surrounds us places us in nature and magnifies us.
It is not necessary to walk like automatons: we can, for example, stop suddenly and turn as if someone were calling us, that is, practice spontaneous movements on the fly.
If we walk in company, this makes it easier for us to talk and communicate. You should never force the march to the point that it makes you lose your breath. Being able to chat on foot is a good sign that the step is right; In addition, conversations on the go improve the ability of the intellect and memory to remember thoughts.
The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle already realized this when they set up their academies and their teaching around the dialogues on walks.
Subsequently, other pedagogues have rediscovered this method as an ideal way to learn and teach. Communication in motion makes us adopt rhythmic postures in communication; Two who communicate well acquire the same rhythm of movement and walking favors it.
MOUNTAIN STRETCHING
Before and after the walk it is advisable to stretch and properly stretch the muscles. Stretching your legs, back, and shoulders before and after walking prevents injury. Doing it in the breaks helps to rest and recover.
- Squatting. It can be done on flat ground or, if difficult, somewhere with some slope, looking down. The feet should be well supported, while the heels can be separated according to the flexibility of each one. This position stretches the back, front of the legs, knees, ankles, Achilles tendons, and groin. It should be held for about 30 seconds. It provides a great rest and relieves tensions in the lower back.
- Elevate your feet. Putting your feet up is an excellent and relaxed way to provide rest to your legs. It also prevents and relieves varicose veins. You have to lie on the ground, lift your legs and rest them on a large rock or tree with a thick trunk. The buttocks should be about 8 centimeters from the point of support and the back, flat on the ground. The arms rest open, with the hands on the back of the neck.
- Stretch the groin. Lying on their backs, they bend their knees and open relaxed to the sides, with the soles of their feet together. You have to let the force of gravity be the one that maintains the stretch, for at least 30 seconds.
- Tilt the trunk forward. With the feet separated by the distance between the shoulders, the trunk is slowly dropped forward, flexing the hips and slightly bending the knees. It advances, without forcing, until you feel a gentle stretch in the back of the legs and stays between 15 and 25 seconds, relaxing. This posture stretches the hamstrings and the back of the knees and relaxes the back.
ACCLIMATIZATION IS HEALTHY: THE GROUND CURE
When walking in winter and with cold we not only get warm, but when we go out to the street, to the mountains, to the beach … It gives us the sun and we take advantage of the benefits of light, scarcer in winter. With this we practice what is called a cure of adaptation to the terrain.
The healing of the ground is carried out by performing gentle exercise, such as walking under conditions of adaptation to the cold or the ambient temperature. The first to define this type of cure was Max J. Oertel, a German physician (1835-1897).
Thus, something that should be totally normal and natural, in a society like ours becomes a therapy for the many people, especially in large cities, who are maladapted to the environment where they live.
The increasingly frequent conditions of artificial life and urban climate, with people living with heating in winter or air conditioning in summer, make it increasingly important to stay in places of adaptation of the organism to adverse situations so that it can acclimatize and harden, putting its homeostasis mechanisms in tune.
Already in the last century, the transformation of cities made these acclimatization points, sanatoriums or spas famous. Nowadays these places proliferate, but you can also favor this acclimatization by turning off the heating or air conditioning and stimulating exercise in our own home.
The climatic cure of the terrain is based on two fundamental principles applied simultaneously: the cure of the land itself and the use of climatic stimuli in a controlled way.
The union of these two methods enhances the beneficial influences of the climate through body exercise. As a terrain cure is understood in this case to walk on mountainous roads with slopes of inclination previously known at a certain speed of passage.
The duration of the exercise varies between 20 and 40 minutes, with a periodicity of 3 to 4 times a week, for a minimum period of time of three weeks. The most important condition for the success of the cure is a correct dosage.
For this, pulse and blood pressure parameters are used as a measure of physiological reaction, performance and body overload.
The therapeutic objective of this technique is to stimulate cardiovascular functional capacity, muscle metabolic exchange, the musculoskeletal system and the respiratory system.
The thermal conditions of the high mountain climate in combination with the possibility of choosing trails with different slopes offer the ideal circumstances for this climate and movement therapy. But any of our cities can also serve us in winter: we can train during the week in the city and take advantage of the weekend to do it in the mountains.
If you do not stop training in the city the adaptation to the mountain on the weekend will be much better and there will be no loss of the physical form that is acquired with this practice.
TRAIN LITTLE BY LITTLE
The cold ambient temperature exerts a favorable effect on aerobic training.
According to a study conducted in Bavaria, in the seaside resort of Bad Worrisome, when the ambient temperature or the feeling of cold drops to 2 ºC, there is a decrease in the concentration of blood lactic acid of 0.5 millimoles per liter, compared to people who exercise in thermally neutral conditions.
This difference is accentuated after four weeks of aerobic training and can reach 1 millimole per liter, which improves aerobic capacity.
The fundamental element of the field healing is the progressive body training and adapted to the forces of each one.
It is not worth, then, to want to get the effects on a weekend: the ideal is progressive training. Its purpose is to affect various organic functions, such as cardiocirculatory, muscle metabolic exchange, coordination of movements and the respiratory sphere.
The so-called group dynamics also exert a considerable influence on the success of this cure, that is, the psychic effects derived from group training in a pleasant environment, which tend to favor perseverance and to solve or mitigate conflicts of an emotional nature.
Beware of those who, in order to succeed in the cure, believe that they must exaggerate the effort! It must be made clear that the effort must always be gradual and appropriate to the individual conditions of each person.
HEALING WITH SNOW AND ICE
Water continues to be an element to be discovered. It is surprising how when it solidifies in the form of ice or snow it loses density and floats.
It is also surprising that each type of ice water differs, as Masaru Emoto’s photographs demonstrate, and that large differences are observed when the water is contaminated or has received “bad vibrations”.
Feeling the cold while contemplating the beauty of the snow produces a bodily reaction either of adaptation or rejection. This simple reflex conditions the possibilities that snow and ice exert preventive and therapeutic effects.
Ice and snow have been used for therapeutic purposes since ancient times. There are still remains of the ice pits that were made in the villages to collect the snow and prepare the ice that was then used for the sick or to store some delicate food.
The reaction to cold is one of the mechanisms by which the immune and thermoregulatory systems are stimulated, and by which the oxidizing systems that delay aging are stabilized,
You can apply to the skin ice and snow collected directly from nature, packets with ice and iced gel (hydrocolloid) or even packages of frozen vegetables. They also serve cold baths.
Ice is usually used after receiving a strong blow to avoid edema or swelling and pain, because the cold acts by slowing or stimulating the inflammatory response.
The ice also cools the tissues before, during or after a surgical act, and during the rehabilitation of certain musculoskeletal pathologies: it manages to reduce pain and allows early movement and stretching,
The cold soothes the pain in points. tender or painful and decreases metabolism, which in turn decreases oxygen demand as cellular needs are reduced. This hypothermia is used in organ preservation banks for transplants and in cardiac surgeries.
Prompt treatment of burns with hypothermia also decreases pain, edema, fluid loss, tissue damage, and decreased blood volume.
The application of cold is capable of causing pain or pain relief to some extent depending on the attitude with which it is received, but it must be borne in mind that a bad application or excessive sensitivity can cause frostbite. To avoid the risk of burning, do not apply the ice for a long time.
People with vascular disorders, arterial insufficiency, decompensated heart disease, heart attack or recent angina pectoris should also be careful with the cold.
3 ADVANTAGES OF WALKING IF IT’S COLD
- Improves circulation. As a consequence of the vasoconstriction produced by cold on the skin surface, the muscles are more irrigated during physical exercise, which can lead, through repeated training and exposure to cold, to an increase in blood capillarization.
- Accelerates muscle metabolism. When it is cold, during exercise a greater number of red muscle fibers are activated, which work aerobically, which stimulates muscle metabolism.
- Burns fat. The stimulus of cold increases fat metabolism, which ultimately increases the anaerobic metabolism of lactic acid. Cold helps burn fat, reducing insulin resistance more than any other exercise.
