Cold in winter? You're not breathing properly

  • February 24, 2014
  • Alex Blackman

You might have known that controlling your breathing can help to lower your heart rate and even improve physical recovery after strenuous exercise, but did you know that slow, deep belly breathing can also raise your body temperature, not only in your core but also your peripheral regions (hands and feet).

How it's done:

With a breathing rhythm of two seconds in through your nose and four seconds out through your mouth, and a short pause of two seconds before your next breath, you can regulate your respiratory system.

As you breath in, allow your diaphragm to lift and hold you up. As you exhale the lift should stay with you. This will also see you sitting up straighter and if done frequently will help to strengthen your back muscles and improve posture too. You can try it at your desk, in the car or at home watching tv.

What happens to your body:

Often in cold weather there will be a tendency towards short and shallow breathing. This means that the carbon dioxide concentration in your blood increases. As a result, your blood vessels become constricted and blood flow decreases in relative terms. However, if you exhale for longer this gives your body time to build up a proper ratio of carbon dioxide in your blood vessels.

If we breathe too fast, when we're in pain, anxious, stressed or angry, this causes chemical changes in the blood

Dr Dan Rutherford

By exhaling for longer you give your blood vessels a better opportunity to widen and fill your hands and feet with warm blood (vasodilation). This has precisely the opposite effect of what normally happens to your blood vessels in the cold which is to constrict to reduce blood flow near the body's surface (vasoconstriction), which is why in cold weather people's skin may appear paler, whereas in warm weather or after exercise your skin seems to be redder.

Did you know that it takes approximately 7 seconds before your inhaled air (oxygen) finally reaches your feet?

So next time you and your players are standing in the cold:

  1. Stretch out your arms and put your hands on your hips,
  2. Push your chest out and exhale twice as long as you inhale...

So with just a short warm up run, mostly through the exertion involved, you can regulate your breathing and increase your body's temperature.

The moral of this story? Cold weather is no excuse for not taking part in sport!