Cold Weather Acclimatisation? Part 1

I will be taking part in the Melbourne Spartan Super and Sprint Combo in about 2 weeks from now. Dubbed the Winter Spartan by the organisers, the race will be held on the 4th of June at the start of winter in Australia. And thus the biggest issue on my mind is dealing with the cold. Not to forget that there are actually swimming and wading obstacles during the race (even colder!).

The average temperature range in June is between 14.8 and 7.9 degrees in Melbourne City itself. But as we move closer inland the temperature drops further. At the weather station closer to the race site Durdidwarrah and Ballarat, average temperature ranges between 11.4 to 4.7 and 11.1 to 3.5 respectively. It is still the start of June and coming off a long and hot summer, the organisers believe that temperature will be 4 to 5 degrees higher from last year (but what was the temperature last year?). Even then this will be quite a shock for me as I'm currently more used to temperature between 32 to 24 degrees. In addition, I will be arriving on the 3rd, giving me about 1 day to adjust to the weather. Yippee!

So leading up to the race, I have been doing some cold weather acclimatization with a self made ice suit. Human cold weather adaptation is not as well studied as hot weather adaptation. But generally it is divided into insulative (circulatory and fat layering) and metabolic (shivering and non-shivering thermogenesis (NST)) adaptation (1). In particular, I'm interested in inducing some metabolic adaptation, especially in non-shivering thermogenesis (creation of heat).

There are actually two types of fat tissues in mammals, white fat and brown fat. White fat is a energy storage cell in mammals. Then we have brown fat, which is actually used by the body to generate heat (2). Cold adapted animals are shown to have a greater percentage of brown fat in their bodies, and human babies are born with a lot of brown fat which generally disappears as they acquire the ability to shiver.

In humans brown fat can be activated by cold exposure. After a 10 days cold exposure protocol, subjects reported greater tolerance for the cold, feeling warmer and shivering less (3). Exactly what I needed. Unfortunately I can't replicate their protocol, not for lack of trying but for lack of equipment.

Yes, those are ice forming on top.

Thus I decided to design and use my own cold adaptation protocol instead. Basically it is a down vest that would be filled with ice pack on which I will lie in for 1 to 2 hours per day. The ice pack will be placed around my torso and neck and the down vest would help keep the cold in (as opposed to keeping it out). To prevent frostbites, I will be wearing a thin compression top. The ultimate goal is to promote brown fat activation and non-shivering thermogenesis to help me deal with the race in Melbourne.

How well will this work? I can't give a definite answer as this protocol has not been clinically tested and a subject of one does not a research paper make. But at the least I will be more psychologically prepared for the cold cold race. Some people may view this as over preparation, but as they said, when you go for a party, overdress, you can always take a piece off, but you can't put on what you don't already have.

You'll know at the finish line.

Lin Yimian, CSCS, SGX

1. Makinen, T. M. (2010). Different types of cold adaptation in humans. Frontiers in Bioscience (Scholar Edition), 2: 047-1067.

2. Smith, R. E., & Horwitz, B. A. (1969). Brown fat and thermogenesis. Physiological Reviews, 49(2): 330-425.

3. van der Lans, A. A. J. J., Hoeks, J., Brans, B., Vijgen, G. H. E. J., Visser, M. G. W., Vosselman, M. J., Hansen, J., Jorgensen, J. A., Wu, J., Mottaghy, F. M., Schrauwen, P., & van Marken Lichtenbelt, W. D. (2013). Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 123(8): 3395-3403.