To tell you not to run around if caught in snow- exercise cools you down

[Nimbostratus100]

I am quite alarmed at the level of ignorance shown about this, so just in case anyone here gets caught in snow today

Please don't exercise to warm up - or tell your children to - this cools you down and leaves you vulnerable to hypothermia

Insulate yourself as well as you can, and huddle as close together as you can instead.

Yet again, i forget to add the link...

Paradoxical Undressing

I think you're both right.....or wrong. It really depends what you mean by 'caught in the snow'. If I'm in the park and home is 10 mins away its probably gonna feel warmer for me if I 'run around' or a least walk home briskly....initially I will warm up, then ill start to sweat and give out (lose) heat, but as long as im home to relative warmth ill be fine and pretty comfortable. If I kept that up for too long though, and my home is icy cold I'd probably end up with hypothermia.
if I was stuck on the moors and lost...running around won't help. I'll warm up for a few mins then lose all my heat through sweating. If I had a super insulated coat on I might last a bit longer but there's not enough heat in me to warm the Moor. Lose enough heat and that's hypothermia.
I guess the trick really is to guage correctly how much effort it will take for you to get help or if it's wiser just to stay put. For most of us the most likely way to get caught out would be in a car on a road in which case I'd probably stay put preserving as much heat energy as possible. Even having a newspaper over your head will help keep heat in and your breath warm.

Exercise warms you up. Sweat from exercise cools you down.

Your body has many systems to keep you alive, it's a process called Homeostasis.

The various physiological processes all try to keep your body in equilibrium.

With temperature your body works to keep your core at 37 degrees.

You can't say that exercise cools you because it doesn't, it warms you but the processes that follows that cool you, well cools you.

Your body will do all it can to protect your core, it will stop supplying blood to your extremities in order to protect your core, heart, lungs and brain.

This is why you should sip room temperature water in cold weather, a drink with lots of ice will immediately make you feel cooler but your body will try to warm your core.

A hot drink can, however, have the effect of cooling you over a longer time.

Ex clinical physiologist and teacher of anatomy and physiology.

thebiologynotes.com/homeostasis/

I work outside. I’m either walking and doing jobs or still and waiting. When it’s freezing cold I get a bad chill standing around and find it impossible to warm up but if moving I mostly manage the cold ok, apart from my fingers

I am talking about a situation in which you are stuck outside in the cold - it will happen to lots of people today, it has already happened to a friend of mine and her daughter on a railway platform.

Did people start running around? 😅 I assume everyone just stood there or went into the nearest building if they were freezing.

If I get caught in the snow I make snow angels, that is unless its yellow snow.

Any skiier will tell you, you warm up exercising, get cold waiting round.

There’s some people who are stuck behind 9 feet of hard snow/ice in the mountains of Southern California right now because the Einsteins of snow removal plowed the road and blocked their exits.
Last I heard they were down to the bare minimum of food and tap water. They’re out of essential meds and everything else.
When they escape, I’m sure they’ll exercise first thing. Yep. Sit-ups, push-ups and jumping-jacks. To hell with starvation.

Thank you OP

i work outside with groups of children, mostly exercising, and I didn’t know this

Huh?!? So why do you get warm when skiing but really cold just standing around? I actually know someone who died of hypothermia - they fell asleep at a bus stop (in winter in Russia). How do you explain that OP?

There’s a very good explanation of the process in Outside magazine: nieman.harvard.edu/stories/peter-stark-and-as-freezing-persons-recollect-the-snow-first-chill-then-stupor-then-the-letting-go/
Which includes the phenomena of people trying to strip off when hypothermic because they feel like they’re burning up. Which isn’t great.
But basically exercise brings blood to the surface where it cools more rapidly. Alcohol does the same thing and is also a bad idea in the cold.

how did you not know?

surely if o/p’s assertion hold you must be very familiar with children regularly getting hypothermia from exercising in the cold?

I have absolutely no skin in this game but the OP interested me so I googled it. I'm not sure how people thought every source undermined what the OP says and I sure as hell don't know for certain one way or another. But this advice on what to do if caught outside tends to support. I guess the issue here is that we rarely have a lot of snow to the extent that we get stuck (without a vehicle) so it's not such a huge risk.

Why are people so quick to scorn and ridicule on here?

There is a huge difference between walking briskly/playing in snow into a heated building where your body will cool down without risk and being trapped outside in snow for extended periods where (as this thread shows) instinct may suggest we move around a lot to keep warm. If you then stop but are still in the freezing cold then it's not impossible to see that can impact on your health is it?

because the o/p’s assertion that “exercise cools you down” is quite plainly ridiculous.

do you really agree that if you exercise you cool down?

everyone has agreed that exercising to keep warm isn’t always the best choice, but exercise to cool down is physiologically impossible.

Exercise warms you up because it increases your circulation. You haven't provided a shred of evidence to say otherwise and you haven't provided it because it only exists in your imagination.

Your "advice" is nonsensical, fictitious bollocks which I will not be following.

I think this is a troll

You’d hope, or they’re rather stupid.

People are quick to ridicule because the OP posted some batshit crazy ignorant nonsense after starting their post "I am quite alarmed at the level of ignorance shown about this...."

The thing is there is a tiny grain of truth in what the OP says, but the OP has misunderstood the full picture.

Sweat cools you down. Getting your clothes wet with sweat will accelerate cooling. Running out of energy will also stop your body being able to warm itself.

But the action moving your muscles quite literally converts stored energy in your body into heat energy. That heat wouldn't otherwise be generated if you sat still - it would remain as stored energy. So yes, your body will throw out some heat if you move about, but that's because it is generating additional heat.

Provided you aren't making yourself sweat, or exhausting yourself with extremely vigorous exercise, movement will warm your body and help keep you alive in the cold.

Someone who gets stuck in the snow and walks for an hour or two to access the nearest shelter/town etc. will be far less likely to suffer from hypothermia than someone who sits still and awaits rescue.

And the Lyme Bay disaster definitely wasn't caused by the victims being told to kick their legs. The water would have conducted their heat away whether they moved or not.

Uh, the op is wrong, so please don't apply their advice in your childcare setting.

Someone who gets stuck in the snow and walks for an hour or two to access the nearest shelter/town etc. will be far less likely to suffer from hypothermia than someone who sits still and awaits rescue.

Exactly! As I said above,I know one person who died of hypothermia when he fell asleep at a bus stop waiting for a bus in the Russian winter

Had he been moving around, he would have been ok