Conditioning to Cold Weather

Description

We all have the ability to enjoy the cold weather by intentionally conditioning our bodies and minds to cold weather. This video shows you how. For the full tutorial, visit: http://rewildu.com/conditioning-to-cold-weather/

Visit http://rewildu.com/classes/ for unique educational opportunities in rewilding, wilderness skills, mindfulness, martial arts, primal fitness, homesteading, and more.

Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods,conditioning to the cold,cold weather conditioning,getting used to the cold,getting ready for winter,conditioning for winter,conditioning for low temperatures

Video Transcription

all of us have the ability to become more comfortable in the cold weather if you are someone that loves adventuring getting out in the winter woods this is going to add immensely to your time in nature physical acclamation is fairly straightforward and I'll explain exactly how to do it psychological acclamation is a completely different sort of beast and this is where true comfort in the cold comes into play so most of this video will be spent in learning how to become psychologically comfortable in cold weather to actually enjoy the sensation of cold

physical acclamation is fairly straightforward all we're doing is trying to get our body to respond more appropriately to cold weather initially for summer conditions to temperatures at 80 90 degrees Fahrenheit or more our body is learning when to take blood from the extremities and shuttle it to the core in warm weather what is always out in the extremities we're never getting that response or that practice of shoveling blood into the core as soon as we hit cold weather then all the blood in my extremities go into the core it says cold emergency cold emergency get all the blood inside and warm the vital organs the brain heart lungs then what happens is my extremities begin to get cold and that is where most of us feel our feet and our hands then our arms our nose everything starting to really get uncomfortably cold as soon as cool weather starts to come in the autumn that is our chance start driving with your window down especially when it's a little bit uncomfortable don't do this to the point where your hands are going to be compromised are going to be compromised on the wheel but allow yourself to get cold and to experience that

get out barefoot walk especially when those first couple of snowfalls come walk barefoot in the snow and see what that's like

when it snows we have the opportunity to go barefoot if this seems too extreme don't worry it is not a necessary component of your cold-weather conditioning but it does give your feet a little head start helps them to stay warmer when you have them in Boots in the winter and it will give you another little bonus on your overall cold conditioning when you first put your feet into the snow in the winter it's almost electric the feeling but over time you'll be able to send longer and longer in the snow and after a couple of weeks of practicing this you'll be amazed at how long of walks you can take barefoot in the snow make sure that you're aware of frostbite you don't want to stay out until you start to freeze tissues this snow that I'm in is icy it doesn't cling to the skin and it's a great way to begin because there's much less danger of frostbite and you just get the sensation of cold another technique you can use is at night when you're sleeping to shed all those layers of blankets if you're sleeping and it's just your skin against the air especially if it starts you get slightly uncomfortably cool sit with it for a little while lay there and experience that and see what happens your again I just busy physically conditioning your body physiologically conditioning your body to start to become more tolerant of cold weather finally if you're brave enough do the hot and cold shower trick when you're in that shower it's nice and warm and you're really enjoying it switch it all the way to cold it's going to take your breath away give you a gasp but it really really is going to keep your body conditioned to cold weather and that one you can do all summer long psychologically we have a greater challenge ahead of us and at reweld university we we really teach a surrender might be the wrong word but a yielding which does not compromise your strength it's actually stronger than trying to meet something head-on in our culture we often learning that appears oppositional force we push against it and when you take that out into nature you get your butt kicked every time so if this cold if the snow is coming down onto my flesh and I'm resisting it fighting it you see people like this all the time right and they go on the rain and some are even in there just muha they're fighting and resisting it and that's trying to meet it like this with resistance which actually fosters the condition of not enjoying the gold that we're trying to get over instead if we can feel the actual sensation that we're feeling they've been standing out here for quite a while and if I feel the actual sensation it tickles and there's all these tickles of the of the snow falling onto my flesh and as it melts and drips off of me this isn't an unpleasant feeling at all but as soon as I mentally resist then it can start to get unpleasant and quite cold same with my bare feet which you can't see that is a great great technique is to go barefoot in the snow when your feet start feeling that resistance like get me out of here stop feel what you're actually feeling and you'll feel that there's sort of a burning tingling sensation that is not as unpleasant

as you think if you devote yourself to coal conditioning start early in the autumn and really really allow yourself to start experiencing some cold what's going to happen is you're going to get into the depths of winter when it's really chilly out and you're going to be able to enjoy your time outside in a way that otherwise you would not be able to it doesn't mean that I can go and spend all day like this out in the woods I will start to lose body heat and go hypothermic doesn't mean I can just go swimming over there in the pond you know through the ice every day and not again go hypothermic we're not becoming proof against that but we are expanding the range of what we find pleasant as far as coal goes to a huge degree so that when other people around us are shivering and freezing we are still feeling comfortable in the cold physiologically we're still able to have dexterity in our fingers dexterity in our toes and be keeping blood out in those extremities you