Work Out and Chill?

Looks like an Orthopedist’s and Neurosurgeon’s full employment and early retirement plan to me.

Rich people problems. The temperature almost never drops below 76 degrees in Singapore. I run before sunrise and I sweat a lot. Guess I should pack up and move to a cold climate to run faster? No thanks.

It seems easier to exercise in cool temps because it is, and, because it is, one would burn less calories, minute for minute, than if they were exercising in the heat. Sure, exercising in the heat is harder- much harder as it gets really hot- and that's why it takes acclimation and strength of character (IMO) to do it.

I have often said I prefer cold yoga to hot!

Wonder when this fad will die.

Since when did exercise devolve to a race to burn more calories?

I totally agree with this, much easier to exercise in cooler temperatures and less humidity. Equally, swimming laps in a cooler-temperature pool is much easier. Some gym pools are way too warm, to cater to swim classes for kids and elderly people.

Working out in the cold is great unless you have a circulatory disorder - then it's painful and makes you accident-prone. Severe Raynaud's causes my hands and feet to go ice cold and lose blood circulation to the point of painfully crippling me and drastically reducing my dexterity and speed. My hands and feet can seize up inside at 60 degrees - 45 degree or less outside and I don't have feeling. Gloves don't help, disposable hot packs like Hot Paws don't help, and even if I use both of those layers on top of cardio, it can still take me 45 to 60 minutes to get heat back. My ideal workout and living temp is 80 Farenheit or higher. I will always be a hot yoga fan.

Everyone is different and I think it may depend on where you grew up. I hate, hate, hate exercising in the cold and breathing hard in cold air triggers my asthma. Cold makes me tense up and want to curl into a ball. A little heat and humidity makes me feel like moving around and working up a sweat. I appreciate that lots of people love exercising in the cold and I hope they can all find cold places to do it (although better if it doesn't come at the expense of the planet).

In San Antonio, forget cool temps in the winter, let alone summer.

Now I know why I find it so easy to spend all day skiing but feel like a used rag after 20 minutes at the gym!

In the age of global warming, when the future of humanity and much of life on Earth is threatened with extinction, the flagrant, vain, and unnecessary waste of resources represented by this nonsense and other exercise fads like it, such as Hot Yoga, strikes me as hatefully selfish, offensive, and utterly disgusting.

I have been doing cold workouts for decades now. I pop in a Jane Fonda workout video, grab a dish towel and large spoon, pop open the newest flavor of Ben and Jerry's, and sit down and chill.

I enjoy working outside in the spring and fall for the obvious reason -- it's refreshing. Working outside in the baking heat of August is not. I never understood the appeal of hot yoga with a crowd of sardines in brine. I once took such a class where we had to leave to drink water. Never went back. Heat does not make one more flexible, but more flush. That flush means less blood flow where needed in the core and higher heart rates for the same workout performed in a moderate temperature. It's not so much about calories burned as blood flow. If the blood is busy dumping heat to the periphery, it's not feeding the central pump or fueling muscle.

Hard to exercise above 65 degrees? Those are night time temperatures in April in Texas, forget it! For all that, I have to agree - I get faint in real heat, and it took me a long time to quit imitating those working out in milder temperatures and different situations. My preferred exercise during summer is walking at 6am before the sun is up (still 80 degrees out). I would love a cold gym to work out in, but this is impossible environmentally. Can you imagine the energy required to keep a gym that cold in the south? There has to be another way.

This is old news. Here is Tim Noakes in The Lore of Running (1985): "One of the physiological problems that runners face during exercise is how to lose the excess body heat produced by muscle contraction." That's the first sentence of chapter 4, "Temperature Regulation During Exercise". He goes into great detail about the various effects of heat. Perhaps the most interesting section, journalistically speaking, is the one entitled "Why All Great Marathoners Are Small". I'll leave you to join the dots (or buy the book)...

Interesting... I just worked out, at a park down hear on Miami Beach. It was 85 outside with about 90 percent humidity. Super tough workout for my 57 year old body. But you feel extremely fit..Flamingo Park down hear hosts football stars like - Gronk, Antonio Brown along with numerous other professional athletes come down to workout in the heat & humidity. It’s not comfortable, but the pros must be doing it for a reason.

How is this study a revelation? Of course, high impact exercise is easier when it’s cooler! What’s news is that someone finally realized a lot of people - especially women of a certain age - hate to work out strenuously in hot weather, or in indoor temperatures that rise above 65. Bring it on BRRRN!

sounds like a good way to get an injury

I am heat-intolerant and always have been. I don't like running the a/c, but it's getting terribly difficult to find places that are cool enough to run in. When I ran outside, over 65 was a deal-breaker. My gym is routinely 80, or feels like it is, and it definitely worsens my work out. I just feel so guilty about running the air conditioner, my own or anyone else's. (And I don't run my own.)

I totally agree with this article. I always thought it was just me, but when I work out in an un-airconditioned space I feel like I am going to pass out. When I cross country ski in below freezing temps with light layers of clothing, I work up a sweat and get hot fast. And marathoners prefer cool temperatures. So yes, I think we should be exercising in cool temperatures. Kind of a no brainer.

As someone who easily gets heat-triggered migraines, I would gladly pay higher fees for a cooler gym. I’d like to be fitter, but years of migraines have trained me to avoid exercise in all but the coldest months.

I respect the scientists quoted in the story, but the story itself seems a little short on rigor. It paraphrases someone as saying, "this temperature range is too warm for endurance workouts such as intense cardio sessions." Which is it? An endurance workout or an intense cardio session? Those are not the same thing in my exercise lexicon. It looks like a story that set out with a point of view and tried to back it up. Until I read something more convincing, I'll keep exercising in cool temps because I like it that way, not because I believe it will make me a better athlete or cause me to lose more weight.

This is the dumbest fad I've ever read about. Goodness. Sweating is normal. Why waste all this AC to NOT sweat when you workout. Counter-productive-idiocy.

Oh great. Here comes the next fad. One can only imagine how many kilowatts will be expended to air-condition these places to help the wealthy and feebleminded get 'buns of steel' and brains of mush. By the way what's a "certified personal trainer?" Is that like an MD? I'm a certified commentator... Does that count?

I find curling accomplishes all this with great effectiveness. You can stretch in the warm room and then do interval training in the cold room while sweeping stones and having fun with teammates.

Isn’t this bad for the environment?

Wow. Talk about wasteful. Let’s all turn our air conditioners on full blast because we can’t stand the reality that is our natural environment. I hope this does NOT catch on as a trend.

Going to gym @6:30 am @method3 in San Jose, CA, I will have jacket and hat, once you get to gym, leave them in car and while working out, after 10 minute warm up, doors are open and fans are running, it does help to push more, after the work out, I am so hot and sweaty, roll down the window and cool off, even when I get home takes some time to get to room temp, love working out in the cold, I can do more for sure

Do you know why endurance athletes train at high altitude? Because it's harder (less oxygen) which, after acclimation, makes it easier to compete at sea level. In the same manner, it makes sense to train in somewhat warm weather, so that it will feel easier to compete at lower temperatures. So, there you have it. It's a fallacy to think training under "easier" conditions will make you better. You actually want to train under harsher conditions. Running downhill in cold weather with a tailwind is not how you'll get better.

Cardio might feel good and be good for your heart but as a fat burner it's a waste of time. There's no way to burn enough calories to counteract the increase in appetite from the workout, etc...Lifting weights and adding/maintaining some muscle mass is sooooo much better for everyone.

I've heard that elite level marathoners think 45 degrees is the perfect temperature to run. I'm not in their league but I do agree that it's easier to run in a cold morning than a warm morning. And this is coming from someone who thinks anything below 75 is chilly.

The only problem is that AFTER I have finished exercising in the cold, I find that once I get back to a standard room temperature, I very quickly soak through my shirt, since the engine inside of me is still running. As a fan of cold, mountain streams, I found that lying in the cold water (during the summer, typically) has a Fountain of Youth effect--seriously! It just rejuvenates you. I don't know if it's because my core temperature falls (um, I have plenty of "insulation," so there's that) or just what, but it absolutely revitalizes you. Which brings me to Lewis and Clark.... In the book "Undaunted Courage" about the Corps of Discovery, I read with interest about their return from the west. One man's back was hurting so badly, he could hardly get along. The Indians built a small sweat "lodge." Then, when he was hot, the would drag him to the ice cold river and throw him in. They repeated this a few times, and by the next morning, he was back at full steam (of course, he might have just wanted to end the process!). Oddly enough, on the American Ex. Ex., the sailors also used cold/hot therapy with equal good results. There must be something about the cold that we are largely missing. If we ever figure it out, it might do more than we dreamed.

This is laughable. I work out in the cycling studio (alone) at my gym. The room temperature is kept at about 60 degrees; maybe less. I wear summer bike clothing to do my spin, and by the end of my 35 or so minutes, My face is bright red and my hair and clothing are literally drenched. Also, I take a few cross-country ski vacations each year, and sometimes the temperature is 10 degrees or less. And yes, I sweat profusely, and my clothes and hair are wet after skiing for a bit. Back in my running days, I always found 33 degrees ideal.

My wife and I have been arguing with people at the gym about this for decades. One of the many problems of exercising among others. Needless to say, those who workout more intensely are our allies. To those who like it hot - it's called Earn Your Sweat! To state the obvious, you can always wear more layers. There's a limit to how many layers we can shed. And to those aghast about our "carbon footprint," it goes both ways. We'd PREFER for the gym to be un-heated during the winter. It's the gyms and (some of) their members who choose to blast the heat. Sixty-eight degrees is fine for an apartment; it's too hot for a gym.

Having just gotten off the treadmill due to being unable to walk outside because of the heat, I totally agree with colder is better when working out. During chillier months I love walking outside...the cold energizes me, I walk longer and burn more calories. In the summer, I'm stuck on the treadmill sweating bullets. Give me a day under 40 degrees, cloudy with little or no wind and I'm good to go.

I hope this also applies to working out in a coolish swimming pool.

Ridiculous. If that fad proliferates, the environmental and CO2 footprint of it will be gargantuan, only for the effect that a few people can say that “they pushed themselves harder”. If you really want to push yourself harder, then go out and run the Marathon des Sables (it’s in the Moroccan Sahara). There isn’t any air conditioning there.

Milwaukee, WI. Exercise paradise.

YES YES YES YES! I hate how warm most gyms and yoga studios are. I'm way less effective at my workouts when I'm overheated. Would love to see a gym like this near me.

and I thought I was the strange one to like this..... on Thursday HIIT class we do 15 station Tabatas in 4 minutes blocks of two exercises each. At two stations we jump rope for half the time (2 mins) and do another, which changes weekly. Whenever the temp is above freezing and winds are light, I go outside to jump. I've jumped for years and used to fight, so rope time is always fun and intense for me whether I just cross, skip backwards, do one legs or double-unders. I can go full out for the entire two minutes no rest and see how many I can do hopefully w/o missing. And cold temps is why I can jump harder than at rest of the stations tho I'm not mailing in any of them. And everyone thinks I'm crazy but I feel just so much better when I can dump heat faster. Its also why I cant wear synthetic clingy fabrics that are supposed to wick esp in summer. All they do for me is prevent me from dumping heat. And a plain cotton T under a singlet in the winter seems to both keep shoulders warm as well as keep my core temp down. Anyone who winter hikes esp when its below 30 knows how much you sweat doing so. I guess maybe its an extension of that.

Sounds like a great idea if you have no regard for your carbon footprint. If working out involves blasting the air-con, using more energy, adding more to global warming, etc -- it all seems utterly selfish. For the sake of the planet, I hope this trend doesn't spread beyond W 20th St.

Coming from an avid skater, skier and biker, no thank you to sweaty sports!

I can definitely see the trend expand. My favorite time to go for long runs is in the spring and fall when it is cool out, but not so cold you have to worry about ice. That being said, doing the same in heat has other benefits as I feel like the constant sweat and frequent hydration cleans out the insides of my body and leave me feeling on a more intense runner's high than in cooler temperatures. And as an added bonus when summer turns into fall and the temperatures drop I experience a brief period of increased performance, similar to when I travel to sea level, because my body doesn't have to work so hard.

I have always preferred any form of exercise in a cooler environment. As a kid, my parents signed me up for tennis lessons - on an outdoor court, during the summer, in full sun. I hated it because I was so hot and miserable. Flash forward 50 years, and the last gym where I worked out had the heat set at 68, which I found to be simply oppressive. I would open a window when possible, or choose a machine with a tiny built-in fan. Hallelujah, now retired with gym equipment at home, my own thermostat to control and windows to open and fan to use, and living along the Colorado Rocky Mountain range where we hike several times per week - starting early, when it's cool outside!

This must have been invented for me! I am the Fan Girl at yoga and cardio class. Classmates complain of the breeze, but it saves me from red-faced collapse.

Um, any middle-aged, slightly (?) over-weight morning runner will confirm it's easier to run in Spring and Fall temps than Summer.