Healthy Swellness: Shivering is like exercise

February 12, 2014

In this polar-vortex winter that is draining the life out of many of us (I know this is just about the toughest winter I’ve had to train for a race in — my new neck gaiter is my new BFF, I don’t even care that I look like I’m about to mug someone), perhaps this can be seen as a bit of a silver lining:

Shivering for 10 to 15 minutes has the similar effect on our body as exercise at triggering our body’s white fat (the kind we store) into “good” brown fat (brown fat being the fat that we burns energy and keeps us warm). Shivering muscles release a hormone called irisin and the new research from the Institute of Medical Research in Sydney,  Australia, found that when exercising on a bike for one hour, participants released the same amout of irisin as when they shiver for 10 to 15 minutes.

At the rate this winter is going, maybe we’ll all emerge in spring as svelte little foxes.

(And that pic above, btw? Not Antarctica. Lake Ontario. As in just a few blocks away from where I live. Snapped it a couple of weeks ago during a frigid, frigid, frigid run…did I mention how cold it was? Freezing.)

Filed under: Healthy Swellness

Tags: brown fat, burn fat, cold, exercise, fat, fitness, irisin, polar vortex, shiver, white fat, winter