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Get strong feet this winter  WINTER CAN UNLOCK YOUR SUPERPOWERS |
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When the crunch and tingle of winter takes root, only one thing tops a fireside snuggle: a fireside snuggle after an amazing adventure. |
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| We’ve been devouring Chris Hemsworth’s National Geographic series Limitless, about unlocking natural-health superpowers. In one episode, he joins Vivobarefoot ambassador Ross Edgley to explore the benefits of ice-water swimming - with awesome lessons for us all, which we share in this edit. |
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THE ART OF GETTING WINTERED |
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Ross Edgley is a wild human. He’s the only person to have swam around Great Britain - over 157 consecutive days! “Humans thrive in the face of adversity,” Ross says in Limitless. “You find out about your physiology, your mentality.” With this in mind, Ross decided to write Blueprint, which explores cutting-edge sports science for adventure. In it he discusses his idea of ‘getting wintered’: welcoming winter’s powerful natural-health benefits head on (or foot first). It’s very barefoot, and doesn’t actually require swimming around multiple countries or diving through an ice hole. |
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Acclimatise to control cold shock Cold shock is panicking and hyperventilating in cold water1. Dangerous, but also avoidable. As little as 30 seconds of cold to finish your shower is a great way to start acclimatising. |
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| Warm up slowly When exposed to cold, your body restricts blood flow to your fingers and toes to protect your vital organs - ‘peripheral vasoconstriction’. This process reverses as you warm up, and warming up too quickly can lead to shivering or hypothermia as your core temperature drops too fast2. Patience is key. |
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Habituation, habituation, habituation As ever, practice makes perfect. Repeated cold water exposure will typically reduce your shivering and discomfort3. More generally, exposing your body to stress in a controlled way reduces that stress - an insight for cold swimming, barefoot walking and nature immersion generally. All the more reason to step out this winter. |
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Learning to control your breath under stress is really helpful - for chilly lakes and exercise generally. So helpful, in fact, that we created VIVOHEALTH’s Breathwork for Performance course, which will change how you think, feel, move and perform through breathwork. Think you know how to breathe? Think again! |
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TO GET WINTERED, GET THE RIGHT KIT |
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Knowledge is crucial, but so is kit - especially during deep winter. All Outdoor Vivo’s are made with thin, wide, flexible soles so you can feel winter, not hide away from it. Throw in winterproof features like the Tracker Forest ESC’s rugged Michelin© sole, or the Tracker II’s removable thermal insole, and you’ll b getting wintered in no time, barefoot style. |
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1. Bierens JJ, Lunetta P, Tipton MJ & Warner DS (2016). Physiology of drowning: a review. Physiology (Bethesda) 31, 147–66 2. Nuckton TJ, Claman DM, Goldreich D, Wendt FC and Nuckton JG (2000) “Hypothermia and afterdrop following open water swimming: The Alcatraz/San Francisco swim study” The American Journal of Emergency Medicine Volume 18, Issue 6, October 2000, Pages 703-707 3. Ruth Burstein, PhD, Andy W. Coward, PhD, Wane E. Askew, PhD, Keren Carmel, MSc, Charles Irving, PhD, Ofer Shpilberg, MD, Daniel Moran, PhD, Alon Pikarsky, MD, Gad Ginot, MSc, Melcolm Sawyer, BA, Rachel Golan, PhD, Yoram Epstein, PhD, Energy Expenditure Variations in Soldiers Performing Military Activities under Cold and Hot Climate Conditions, Military Medicine, Volume 161, Issue 12, December 1996, Pages 750–754
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