{"id":42764,"date":"2016-12-21T15:07:14","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T19:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=42764"},"modified":"2016-12-21T15:07:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T19:07:29","slug":"its-officially-winter-how-to-stay-safe-during-cold-weather-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/12\/its-officially-winter-how-to-stay-safe-during-cold-weather-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s officially winter: How to stay safe during cold-weather activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re an out-of-shape snow shoveler, a hearty winter runner or a New Year\u2019s Day polar bear dipper, Brock University\u2019s Dr. Freeze has advice on how to deal with frigid temperatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a>

Professor Stephen Cheung, known as Dr. Freeze for his cold weather-related research.<\/p><\/div>\n

Professor Stephen Cheung, who runs a research lab at Brock that can simulate -30 degree temperatures, says precautions need to be taken when doing physical activity outdoors.<\/p>\n

As a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Ergonomics, Cheung is the country\u2019s leading expert on how the body handles extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n

He listed four common winter activities and gave his advice for those venturing outdoors.<\/p>\n

Snow shoveling:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWith many of the stories you hear about people having heart attacks when shoveling snow, it\u2019s not because of the cold, it\u2019s because of the high exertion,\u201d Cheung said. \u201cIt really comes down to people who may not regularly exercise going out and trying to clear the snow as rapidly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people who don\u2019t often exercise need to take it easy when shoveling and treat it as the weightlifting workout that it is.<\/p>\n

Outdoor workouts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor people who still want to get outside and exercise by running or biking or cross-country skiing, besides needing to be careful not to slip and slide, from a physical standpoint you want to keep a steady pace,\u201d Cheung said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s safe to exercise, but rather than doing those really hard efforts like intervals where you\u2019re building up sweat and then cooling off, go at a light, but steady pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said research has shown that heavy breathing in extremely cold temperatures isn\u2019t going to damage your lungs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe body is very good at warming up the air before it hits your lungs,\u201d Cheung said.<\/p>\n

Polar Bear dips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a long tradition of stripping down to bathing suits and jumping into a cold lake on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Cheung said for those with no heart issues, the brief cold-water plunges are not particularly dangerous, but it\u2019s important to avoid drinking alcohol before you try them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the worst thing you can do because it\u2019s going to cause the blood vessels in your skin to open up so you\u2019re going to lose more heat that way,\u201d he said. \u201cAlcohol will also decrease your perception of cold, so you\u2019re not going to take the simple precautions after of trying to get yourself dry and warm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking on ice:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA very big danger at this time of year is going out on the water before it freezes,\u201d Cheung said. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely dangerous falling into cold water. Water conducts heat 25 times faster than air, so even if it\u2019s shallow and you\u2019re just falling into a stream, your clothes are going to be wet and it\u2019s going to cause you to lose heat a lot faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheung said if you fall into cold water, it\u2019s important to immediately get into dry clothing, \u201cotherwise those wet clothes will suck away heat very, very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re an out-of-shape snow shoveler, a hearty winter runner or a New Year\u2019s Day polar bear dipper, Brock University\u2019s Dr. Freeze has advice on how to deal with frigid temperatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,3319,1,4,5],"tags":[423,4771,2998],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42766,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42764\/revisions\/42766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}