Most track and field athletes advice me to wear jacket while working out. Is there any weight in this concept?
Please advice. Water loss yes but does it do anything for fat burn!
That depends on the jacket. Some are pretty lightweight though. I doubt you’d notice the extra weight unless it’s a weighted vest.
Nah, I don’t think you understand how jackets work. They insulate from heat loss. Although, there are jackets that have heat pads built in. I suppose if they malfunctioned, it’d burn your skirt/fat.
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Bro-sciency but sweating can help for like 50% of the population(myself included)… Other 50 makes no real difference, have to try for oneself.
Obviously get plenty water and electrolytes
A warm muscle is less prone to injury than a cold one.
Thinking of track and field athletes and dancers wearing warm layers prior to training, during warmup. Ballet studios are ideally kept very warm.
Anyway, I was just reading about this. Benefits of warm muscles, from an article for ballet, but applies.
Increased elasticity of the muscle/ tendon unit.
This allows greater flexibility of the joints and reduces the risk of injury. Muscle elasticity is dependent upon blood saturation, therefore cold muscles with a low blood saturation are more susceptible to injury or damage. Think of muscle being like a blob of Blu-tack. When Blu-tack is cold you can stretch it so far and then it will snap. But when Blu-tack is warm you can stretch and stretch it and it feels gooey. So it is with your muscles – it is simply the warm blood rushing through the muscle that warms it up on the way past and makes the muscle fibres more elastic.
More efficient transmission of signals along motor nerves.
This allows quicker and smoother muscle contractions, so the muscles can react in a more co-ordinated manner.
Improved proprioception.
There is a greater awareness of joint and muscle positions and movements due to improved transmission of feedback messages along the sensory nerves.
Increased joint range of movement.
This is due to an increase in the extensibility of the tendons, muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues.
Hey dchris. Do you remember a few years ago, there were studies about people sitting in very cold water for weight loss? The body has to burn more calories trying to maintain a normal body temperature. Apparently sitting in an ice bath is effective in getting your body to burn more calories, but it just sounds sooo miserable.
I don’t believe I can link it, but Ben Greenfield Fitness has quite a bit on thermogenesis for fat loss.
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There’s also a T-Nation article entitled “Cold Temps for a Hot Body”
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Sitting in ice water
@dchris, and @shralpinist, that TN article is less extreme, but still sounds bad. Ugh. I hate being cold.
There would have to be some life threatening situation to get me to sit in ice water. Or maybe Sports Illustrated calls. They’re doing a Swimsuit Edition with middle-aged moms, and the shoot is in three weeks. This could happen. Haha. We’re talking, I’d have to be highly motivated.
Agreed. I’ve never followed a contrived cold temperature exposure routine. However, I used to lead backpacking expeditions and can say from personal experience that thermo-regulation is the BIGGEST calorie-burner of anything I’ve ever done. Even in 50-degree weather, being outside all day requires a lot of effort from the body. I’d come back from 5-day, low-mileage, warm-weather trips leaner. On high-mileage, cold-weather trips I’d be so much leaner in 5 days that everyone would notice it when I got back. I wouldn’t lose muscle either, although I’d usually do push-ups and pull-ups while wearing my pack so that my upper body would be doing something.
I only have anecdotal evidence, although it’s anecdotal evidence from hundreds of people. I believe going backpacking for a week is an amazing way to quickly drop fat. I imagine bringing some Mag-10 along could completely prevent muscle loss, and possibly even cause muscle gain in less trained individuals.
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@ high-mileage backpacking in cold weather. Yeah, that’s so interesting. I’ll bet you dropped some fat doing that. Picture people backpacking or cross country skiing, and roughing it with regard to food a bit, not coming back to civilization and eating really hearty food every evening. Sounds terrible! Haha.
As an anecdote, I’m sure most people have noticed this. I’m naturally more hungry when it’s cold. It’s easier to eat light in warm months. I’ve thought that the heat suppresses my appetite.
I’d usually weigh the same but have a noticeably different body composition. Also, for some of the women I worked with, it seemed to have the opposite effect. I don’t know if there are other variables responsible for that. We tended to eat tons of carbs, maybe women typically store carbs as fat more easily?..
…I did once hear a woman with 10+ years guiding experience say that when women’s bodies are shocked, so to speak, they tend to store fat to promote child-bearing, whereas men drop fat to be lighter and faster. Seems like there could be some truth there although it’s just a hypothesis.
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