When Is It Too Cold to Exercise?

When is it too cold to exercise? The short answer, according to John W. Castellani, an exercise physiologist at the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, is "never." Castellani tells NYT health writer Gina Kolata that more people are injured exercising in the heat than exercising in the cold. Perhaps that because very few people exercise in the cold and a great many people exercise in heat. Whatev. Castellani, who is the lead author of a 2006 position paper from the American College of Sports Medicine on exercising in the cold, gets backup from Dr. Timothy Noakes, an exercise physiologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The experts, Kolata tell us, are persuaded that the real problem with exercising in the cold is
that people may be hobbled by myths that lead them to overdress or to
stop moving, risky things to do.
Sounds possible, but what about frostbite and hypothermia? They happen, the experts say, but they don’t happen to people who dress warm and stay dry. Read more about the mythical dangers of exercising in extreme cold in the New York Times.