Winter can be a great time of year to exercise, especially in the outdoors. There are winter-only sports such as skiing and snowboarding, however going for a run or ride on a fresh winter morning can also be exhilarating!
Exercising in the winter can, however, challenge the skin. So how can you enjoy keeping fit in the colder months without compromising the health of your skin? Here’s a few tips on what to do and some Premax products that can help.
How to Care for Your Skin in Winter
Moisturise Regularly
Skin can become dehydrated in the winter. When exercising outdoors, the skin can be exposed to dry, cold air for hours. Indoor air conditioning and heating can also cause the skin to dehydrate quickly, as can long hot showers!
Replenish the moisture lost in the skin by drinking plenty of water, and also using a high quality restorative and soothing cream such as Premax Recovery Cream.
Wear Sunscreen
To prevent long term skin damage and premature aging, protecting your skin from the sun is crucial. Whilst many people may think that they don’t need to apply sunscreen during the winter months, when the UV index is 3 or greater, sun protection is recommended by the Cancer Council of Australia.
Many winter days meet or exceed a UV index of 3, and if you’re at the snow or on the water, the reflection of the sunlight can increase the risk of getting burn substantially.
When exercising on sunny days in winter, cover up, or apply a sports specific sunscreen such as the Premax Sunscreen for Sport which is light and dry and allows the skin to breathe.
Protect Your Skin from the Wind & Cold
If you watched the Winter Olympics this year you might have noticed many of the athletes wearing sports tape across their face! They did this to protect their facial skin from the combination of the wind and cold which together can cause irritation and damage to the skin.
The wind especially can be detrimental to skin – sloughing off superficial skin cells, exposing younger more delicate skin underneath. This ‘newer’ skin exposure may also lead to increased damage from UV radiation, so it’s important to be mindful of, and protect especially your facial skin from the sun, wind and cold.
If you can cover-up, great. However, you don’t have to wear tape on your facial like the athletes in the Olympics! Pair up the Premax Weather Defence Facial Cream, which will protect your skin from the wind and cold, with the Sunscreen for Sport which will provide broad spectrum UVA & UVB protection.
One technique tip; apply the sunscreen first, rub it in well and allow to dry, then apply the weather defence over the top.
Prevent Chafing
Exercising in the winter usually means wearing more apparel and layers, and with this - more areas where the body can get chafed from fabric to skin rubbing. The seams in clothing can be especially troublesome, so ensure you have great fitting clothes and apply an anti-chafe balm such as the Premax Anti Friction Balm to vulnerable areas and hot spots.
For cyclists, doing a session on the trainer indoors may make you even more vulnerable to saddle sores, as you tend to sweat more and the bike moves less on the trainer. Consider the Premax Chamois Cream to keep your saddle area injury free!
Stay Warm
For many sports people, exercising in the cold usually means applying a heat rub or embrocation cream to ‘keep things warm’ in the frigid conditions. Whilst heat rubs/creams don’t actually provide a true physical warmth to the muscles, the perception of warmth can be comforting and can also help keep the muscles relaxed by the sensory stimulation of the nerves.
As mentioned earlier, protecting yourself from the wind is also a key consideration in the winter, so a unique cream such as the Premax Warm Up Cream which combines a no-scent, comfortable warmth with magnesium, caffeine, sodium bicarb and natural ingredients that also protects your skin from the wind is an ideal choice.
