Why does working out in the summer feel so much better than winter?

Growing up, I was never a sporty kid. In fact, I would do anything and everything in my power to avoid PE. I liked dancing and I did a lot of that, but sports?! No thanks.

To be honest, I still don’t do much sports, and I still hate cardio. I don’t understand this runner’s high thing people talk about. I did Couch to 5K during lockdown like lots of people, and though I’m glad I did it, at no point did I ever felt ecstatic while doing it.

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I haven’t continued running. I keep telling myself maybe I should pick it back up and re-do Couch to 5K, but to be honest I don’t really see it happening in the near future 😅 But over the last few years I’ve been trying to move my body a bit more, particularly with yoga, and more recently pilates. These days, I don’t even say no anymore to things like bouldering or hiking — what happened?!

I’m getting really into it — it’s nice feeling like you’re gaining a bit of strength. Though I must say, some things are just not for me. I went to a cross-fit class with my boyfriend and I don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon…

But anyway.

I have been regularly doing ashtanga yoga for the past 5 years now, and I can definitively say some days are better than others. Now that it feels like spring has properly sprung, everything feels a lot brighter and lighter. Everyone is happier, waking up in the morning is easier, and doing yoga in the morning just feels so much better than it does in the winter.

It’s quite lame how much I think about this, but I am telling you — it’s real. Or at least, it feels real. Doing yoga in the spring and summer time is the best thing ever. I genuinely feel stronger and more flexible — poses feel easier to do and my body feels so much more open. And of course, it’s way easier to get myself to do it in the first place, because waking up early in the morning doesn’t feel quite as torturous.

Of course, in the winter when it’s colder we’re more likely to just want to stay warm under the blanket and have a big cup of hot chocolate — not the most conducive things to exercising. But I’m curious about the effect of heat on our body, if there is any.

Is this just a placebo effect, or is there actually something happening in the body? Does heat have an effect on flexibility and physical performance?

Does temperature have an effect on performance during exercise?

The short answer is: yes it does.

Studies show that cold temperatures can actually negatively impact exercise performance and endurance time. According to this study, muscle temperature seems to be key, and our body seems to like it when it’s relatively warm. Anything below 27ºC seems to decrease the body’s maximal voluntary isometric force, or the “highest amount of muscular force an individual can generate during a still position or holding one position”. To put this simply, anything below that temperature will generally reduce your muscle strength.

Now although exercising in cold temperatures may not be preferable, your body is a clever thing and it can adapt cooler temperatures, which will in turn help with exercise performance. One of the things that reduces the body’s performance and dexterity in cold temperatures is shivering. If our body adapts to cooler temperatures and habituates to shivering, our fine motor control is less likely to be disturbed, improving exercise performance as a result.

The hotter, (not necessarily) the better

So cold temperatures aren’t necessarily conducive to exercise performance. But this doesn’t mean that exercising in hot temperatures is always favourable. Extreme conditions such as really hot temperatures can also impair our performance and capacity, as well as increase risks of heat-related health problems such as the development of hyperthermia. According to this paper, environmental heat stress in temperatures of 30ºC or greater can reduce mean power output by 15%, which is not insignificant.

Though acclimatising the body to warmer temperatures can help mitigate these negative effects when the body is exposed to hot temperatures, it’s important to note that exercising in extremely hot temperatures can be dangerous.

In hot temperatures, cooling down during exercise can be beneficial. Cooling the muscle temperature during prolonged exercise or intermittent sprint performance can improve performance and capacity in hot environments. However, it could also impair shorter and isolated sprint performance, especially when the active muscles are directly cooled. This is likely because cooler muscles have a decreased voluntary power output as well as a decreased rate of anaerobic metabolism during high-intensity exercise.

Effects of heat on flexibility

It seems like it’s all about getting our muscle temperature to hit the right spot — we don’t want it to be too cold, but we also don’t want it to be too hot. But am I simply just experiencing placebo effects when I find it slightly easier to achieve certain yoga poses during these spring and summer months?

I don’t think so!

What this paper tells me is that heat improve the muscle and ligament flexibility and may even help reduce athletic injuries. Heat is also shown to increase the flexibility of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments of the knee.

Interestingly, the paper also notes that women are especially susceptible to ACL tears — with a sports injury rate being 3 times higher than in men — particularly during the late luteal and early follicular phases, when the body temperature is low. If you’re interested to read more about the menstruation cycle, I’ve written about that in this issue of Carved. The difference in body temperatures between men and women is an interesting one. According to this article, it seems that even though women have higher core temperatures than men, it seems that women also have lower skin temperatures then men. I suspect that this may have something to do with overall temperature differences and women’s susceptibility to ACL tears.

What I’ve been up to

I have just finished a 4 day yoga workshop (which I haven’t been able to shut up about). It was magical! There’s nothing quite like practicing with a community of people in a studio, guided by people you trust.

In slightly less exciting news, I have just discovered that one of my pants is now infested with what’s called fungus gnat — my friend gave me a full crash course on what fungus gnats are, what they do, how to get rid of them, and what brought them here in the first place. It was golden — I never felt so informed or educated on plants before — thank you! Fly traps and soil topper are on their way, bye bye fungus gnats 👋🏻

Oh one more thing! Same as the last issue of Carved, this one is also powered by Kernel — a tool my friend and I have been building to explore academic papers easily and quickly. It’s a work in progress but if you decide to try it out, I’d love to hear how you get on!

What’s on my radar

Podcast by Science Vs → Skin Care: Is Anti-Aging a Scam?

I am a skin-care enthusiast, so when I saw this podcast pop-up on my Spotify homepage, I had to listen to it. As the name of the episode suggests, it goes into the science of skin care and all these fancy chemicals we’ve been hearing about (think retinols, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid), and discusses whether they’re really worth the investment…

Serpentine Lido at Hyde Park

We went to the Serpentine yesterday to go for a little dip, because the sun was out. Well it wasn’t actually as sunny or as warm as we’d hoped it would be, but we did have a little dip anyway and it was marvelous! Mind you, I didn’t really do any proper swimming and do any laps (which the majority of people there were doing — they definitely seemed like serious swimmers) — it was a quick dip. It was nice to do a little cold plunge and hang out in the sun 😆

As always, thank you for supporting this little side project of mine and for getting to the end of this week’s newsletter! If you’ve enjoyed this week’s issue, please share with your friends! 😊