Cold Weather Training
by Thom Van Vleck
It’s cold outside!
I have always enjoyed cold weather training….up to a point. Fall is my favorite time of year and I do my best lifting in the 50 to 65 degree range. When I built my new house I even put in a heavy duty air conditioner so that I could keep my gym at 68 degrees even on the hottest day. I’m a big guy and hot weather is NOT your friend.
I started out lifting in the old Jackson Weightlifting Club. AKA my Grandparents barn. The club had kind of fallen apart after a good 20 year run that saw membership approach 30 lifters, a couple of team state championships in Olympic lifting, and numerous state Champions, as well as my Uncle Wayne winning the teenage Nationals. Now only a handful of members remained and it was often just me and my Uncle Wayne. Just as often it was just me!
That barn was old. It was wood with no insulation and had tin roof. That tin roof would turn it into an oven in the summer. In the winter there were single incandescent bulbs that hung from the rafters and a small space heater that didn’t even begin to touch the temperature in that barn. All it was good for was warming your hands. I remember warming my hands in front of it one time next to a bucket full of frozen water!
Most of the time I enjoyed it being in the 50s, 40s, and even the 30s and 20s. While I can’t say I enjoyed it being colder than that I did look at it as a challenge. I had a routine and I was sticking to it regardless of the weather. A day off was unacceptable. No matter what the weather.
One time I was working out at 2am. I was working at a pizza place and when I got off at closing time it was workout day and I wasn’t missing it! It was a back workout and I was doing power cleans. I had three layers of sweats as it was literally below zero. Nobody was out so it was extremely quiet except for the weight hitting the platform after every rep. I remember my breath turning to ice crystals and floating to the floor.
At one point I was actually getting a bit of a sweat going. I addressed the bar, pulled, and racked the weight. It was then I realized my neck was wet and as the bar pushed down the collar of my layers of sweats it made contact with the bare, wet skin. It was like the kid from “A Christmas Story” that stuck his tongue to the frozen, metal lamp post! I stood there for a moment, contemplating my fate. Finally, I dropped the weight along with the top layer of skin on my neck!
Another time I had been working out at a nice, heated gym for a time and traveled home for Christmas. I was in the Marines at the time and took a couple weeks leave. Of course, I didn’t want to miss a workout so I went to the old barn. My cousin had started working out and had also been working out in a nice, heated gym. He had really been training hard and showing progress. I thought he was really serious and hooked.
We went to the cold, cold gym. It was about 10 degrees out. I went to work and about 15 minutes in my cousin was shivering and said, “I can’t take this. It’s too cold, you can’t get in a decent workout in this weather. I’m going home. See you later”. I finished my workout and I remember thinking, “He may be right about a decent workout but it’s more than building muscle sometimes. It’s about building a work ethic and dedication.” I also remember thinking, “He won’t last”. A couple of months later he quit weight training and took up bowling. Nothing wrong with that….wait….yes there is.
I once read where the perfect temperature for weight training is between 68 and 72 degrees. Ideally, I would train between 60 and 65 degrees. But sometimes you can’t. I think training in extremes can still be good. Maybe not for purely building strength, but for building perseverance. Right now the thermometer is reading 2 degrees here. Time to work out….in my heated gym where it’s currently 65 degrees!