By Reggie Reyes, BKin and Mike Carrera, MSc.

For those of you who cringe at the sight of snow and despise the cold chill of the winter season, try and see it as an opportunity to take part in some fun and healthy outdoor winter activities.

If you’re a parent, use this opportunity to get your family out of the house to enjoy some winter fun by tobogganing, snow-shoeing, hiking, cross-country or downhill skiing and snowboarding. These are great ways for you and your kids to get some fresh air, burn a lot of calories, improve your health—and have a great time doing it, too!

Try a Tough Toboggan Workout
From the fitness and health perspective, these activities challenge the body in many ways, depending on the level of difficulty you choose. For example, a simple activity such as tobogganing can turn into an effective and extremely challenging workout. Every time you take the 20-30 second plunge down the hill, the only way to enjoy another ride is to walk or jog back up to the top while dragging the toboggan behind you. Repeat this five to ten times and your body will tell you how hard you’ve exercised. Your heart rate will be high, your leg muscles will burn and your body will be warm and sweaty—not much different than a tough workout at the gym.

Better yet, have any of you parents out there tried pulling your child back up the hill while they sat comfortably on the toboggan? The muscular stress on your arms, shoulders and legs pushes your heart rate to levels well above your average workout level. Those of you who have experienced this feeling will agree that tobogganing can be a lot more challenging than lifting weights or jogging on the treadmill for 40 minutes! This is not to say that outdoor winter sporting activities can replace a formal exercise program. They simply provide an excellent (and fun!) alternative.

Warm up
Because of the physical challenges associated with many outdoor winter activities, it is important that you make sure you warm up before you begin. This will reduce your risk of injury.

A proper warm-up and cool-down includes some form of light aerobic activity that moves your entire body (i.e. jogging on the spot, skipping or jumping jacks) followed by stretches for the entire body. If the activity you’re doing primarily challenges a particular area of the body, make sure you focus your flexibility exercises on that area.

For example, snow-shoeing and hiking challenge mostly the muscles in the lower body. Therefore, stretch your buttocks, upper thigh muscles and your calves. For a detailed warm-up, stretch and cool-down exercise program, log on to the Truestar Exercise section.

The results add up
If one of the main reasons you exercise is weight management, then it is important that you take part in activities that burn a lot of calories. Traditional aerobic activities such as the stationary bike, treadmill walking or jogging and the stair climbing machines are excellent options. The average workout for 45-60 minutes on these machines burns anywhere between 350-650 calories depending on the intensity you choose. However, from a numbers perspective, to ensure that you do not feel short-changed by substituting an outdoor winter sporting activity, a chart containing the number of calories burned during an hour of each activity is listed here.

The figures are estimates based on a male of average height and weight (5’ 10”, 180 lbs. and generally fit) and calculated using the “Calobrator” found in the Truestar Exercise section. Log on to Truestar to determine your personal caloric expenditure for virtually any activity.

As you can see from the above comparisons, outdoor winter sporting activities are a great way to improve your health and fitness.