How To Prevent Cold Weather Cramping

Summer is the season to go out, enjoy the beach, and witness the bright blue sky. While winters can be gloomy, it allows earthlings to get cozy and crawl under their blankets, making it the season of comfort and rest. Unfortunately, however, winters also influence your body, particularly your tendons and muscles. That’s right; this leads to cramps accompanied by shivers, making staying active during the winter challenge.

While it is impossible to change the weather as per your needs, it is possible to prevent the cold weather cramping and mitigate the effects by using some practical solution.

Before that, one needs to learn more about how cold weather aches influence you during winters.

Learning How Cold Weather Affects Your Muscles & Tendons

Fluctuations in barometric pressure often accompany cold weather. Fluctuations in pressure have a significant influence on your muscles. Since the muscles and tendons can contract & relax, it is significantly impacted by pressure. Hence, fluctuating barometric pressure brings in a series of cramps and aches to your body.

Additionally, during winter seasons, the atmospheric pressure increases, restricting your muscles from moving. This causes you to stay inactive, causing you to have stiffer and painful joints limiting your movements.

Furthermore, cold weather influences the fluids in your joints that are responsible for maintaining a smooth mechanism. Cold weather thickens the liquids in your joints, causing your body to get thicker. 

Now that you are aware of the influence of cold weather on your body, it is time to learn how to prevent hard weather cramping and aches.

Here are some effective methods allowing you to get rid of the cramps and stay active during cold weather. 

Strengthen Your Muscles

Since your muscles are vulnerable to fluctuating barometric pressure, you must prepare your muscle to get more robust and flexible. You can do this by lifting weight and indulging in resistance training. Additionally, you can have many proteins, allowing your muscles to recover and be ready to face the winters. By strengthening your muscles with exercise, you will notice that you will mitigate the effects of cramps as the muscles resist changing their state due to the pressure. 

Get Warmth From Heat Sources

You can mitigate the effects of cold temperature by introducing heat sources. For example, if you have a fireplace, you can burn some wood and get warmth from it. Additionally, consuming hot beverages like hot chocolates, coffee, and tea allows your body to get the heat needed to function. Further, you can dial up the heaters and take hot steamy showers that will allow your joint fluids to loosen up and ease the cold aches. If you are a non-alcoholic, you can ignore this suggestion, but if you are an alcoholic, you can have a sip of brandy which will bring warmth to your body by increasing blood flow. However, ensure that you do not consume in excess.

Furthermore, you can mitigate pain by using heating pads on the area that will provide comfort. 

Consume Supplements

During winters, your body is not used to getting heat from the sun. This creates vitamin D deficiency in your body which influences your body. Hence, it is essential to consume Vitamin D supplements and consume foods that are rich in Vitamins. 

Hydration Is The Key

Have you noticed that you don’t feel like consuming fluids during cold weather? Yes, almost every individual who has witnessed cold weather is used to this winter’s side effects. However, if your body doesn’t feel like consuming water, you need to consume water. During winters, your body fluids are lower than average, and so you need to maintain it by drinking water even if your body doesn’t demand it. Hydration is vital during winters as it allows your joints to stay lubricated, keeps your system in balance, and rejects toxins. Therefore, it all depends on how much fluids you can intake during winters. 

Add Layers To Your Clothing

It is crucial to maintain your body temperature during cold weather. Getting heat from artificial sources is vital, but it is also essential to get heat naturally. This can be done by adding layers to your clothing and incorporating woolen material. Additionally, you can also shop for cashmere and overcoats with mittens and beanie caps.

Avoid Straining Your Joints & Use Warm Water

You should also avoid straining your joints during winters. This includes not lifting heavy weights or engaging in vigorous exercise. As it is said, anything in excess can be dangerous and so maintain the limit for the physical activities you indulge in. 

Furthermore, you should use warm water for engaging in chores and not dip your hand in the cold water. Coldwater can restrict the movement of your hands and cause cramps. Hence, while doing daily tasks or brushing your teeth in winter, you should always use warm water. 

Stretch Before You Go Out

It is essential to stretch before you go out because it relieves your body from the stiffness of the muscles caused by the thickened fluids in the joints. Hence, stretching your muscles will reduce the stiffness, and you can move out freely. Furthermore, stretching also helps improve blood flow. 

Maintain Your Bodyweight

If your body weight is above average, you will notice that your upper body strains the joints in your legs due to the weight. Hence, to reduce strain on your lower body, you will have to maintain an average body weight to relieve the pain. Therefore, your body will not ache during cold weather, especially in knee caps, as your upper body is not stressing the lower body. You can maintain average body weight by maintaining a proper diet and exercising at least half-hour a day. 

Conclusion

Therefore, there are various ways to mitigate muscle cramps during cold weather. There are also ways to avoid it altogether. However, if the cramps persist or if you are experiencing some constant pain, there can be other underlying causes. So you should consult a physician for an accurate medical diagnosis.