Originally Posted by
elcruxio
Do you have trouble understanding examples. Or rather do you have trouble understanding the concept of what an example is? Walking the dog, taking the stairs etc. were just that.
Also I though (falsely apparently) that you understood what the whole point of this discussion was. It's not the exercising in the cold that's the supposed issue. It's the cold itself. If you go outside when it's (actually) cold, ie. near or below freezing your systolic blood pressure can spike 20 mm hg just by stepping out the door. If you get cold your blood pressure can further increase and then you can start getting those aforementioned clotting issues. Just by being outside you breathe the cold dry air. There are other effects as well, but those are a bit on the nitpicky side
When properly dressed and exercising outside you'll unlikely to be cold. Probably the opposite in fact. Exercise raises blood pressure for the duration of said exercise but the effect is slightly different as it also trains the vascular system. You'll still be breathing the cold dry air and doing it more frequently. However it takes a lot lower temps than freezing and quite high intensities for long durations to damage the lungs in the cold (it is possible though).
But if you're an old out of shape male and going out doing zone 4 or 5 work (shovelling snow like you have something to prove) you're potentially gonna have a bad time.
First of all, your examples sucked because they basically ran counter to the point you were trying to make (I can run up and down the stairs all day if I want exercise), but otherwise, wow, that's some pretty good sophistry you got going on.
You are actually telling me that the main concern of an article entitled "Exercising in Cold Weather" is not exercising in cold weather but the effects of cold weather itself!? That's just utter nonsense.. So no, it's not about just going outside, it's about exertion in cold weather which will clearly exacerbate those CV/respiration effects endemic to breathing in cold air, exposure, etc. Absolutely no one has stated that you should not go outside as merely taking a walk or similar exertion is not going to have those add-on effects. As far as hypothermic effects, this is obviously a much bigger concern when one is exerting oneself. News flash, people exerting themselves breathe in more cold air and exhale more of their body heat and moisture than people just walking leisurely and their heart rates and blood pressure are also going to increase more than just the increase in baseline effects of the cold air on non-exerting people.
The recommendation that
people with heart and/or lung problems should probably prefer warmer environment exercise does not seem at all controversial . My only point was that you set up a false dichotomy (straw man) where that meant being sedentary vs. exercising outdoors, and now you're going through the mental gymnastics above to try to avoid your obvious logical fallacy. To do that, you've had to completely fabricate an elaborate argument that absolutely no one has made. Please show me where
ANYONE has said that these effects are so pronounced that some people shouldn't go outside for any purpose whatsoever other than exercise.
As to my own case, I already have lung damage. I'm not particularly interested in testing the exact boundary where the intense inhalation of cold air causes me discomfort or worse, thank you. I'm perfectly comfortable breathing below freezing air for hours at a walking pace, but I don't enjoy cycling at such a low intensity and I'm able to be much more intense indoors without having to play with these factors.
I really don't think I should have to explain that winter cycling presents particular issues with dressing just warm enough to deal with increased wind chill due to the speed and balancing that against the hazards and discomforts of over-dressing, that seems rather obvious and well besides the point I was making.