How not to vegetate in winter

In winter, particularly when it is frosty cold, people stay static most of the time, whether indoors or outdoors. It happens mostly with the people who work nine to five or with the teachers who are the "selective few" enjoying the prerogative of winter vacation that are often extended owing to the menacing climatic conditions like smog and sharp dips in temperature.

Winter is a season that savours the sugary palate. High sugar desserts and high protein food are consumed as sources of high energy required to keep the body warm and reinforce it against the arctic cold outside. But kilocalories are taken in without sparing the least thought to burning them through physical movement and exercise.

Whether it is book reading or binge-watching of web series, they constitute easy go-to pastimes in restrictive winter. Walks and workouts are put to oblivion as snuggling down in cosy beds and sofas lulls mind and body into hibernation, which may make one a couch potato.

The backwash of all this stagnancy is hypertension and constipation as the humdrum routine benumbs people into dullsville. Water intake touches the millilitre calibration, which proves dangerous for the elderly people.

In urban life, where the nuclear family system is the norm, the lack of cuddling parental company as well as the hush of frigid cold makes lonely people nostalgic. Dwelling in the past sucks all happiness out of oneself.

Fitness trainers have come up with a solution. They prescribe micro-workouts that can be done at home easily. A few rounds of stair-climbing can work wonders. Desk exercises, e.g., stretches, seated leg lifts or desk push-ups, must be incorporated into the workday. To stand, genuflect and prostrate in five prayers a day is a natural exercise for couch potatoes, particularly for their lower back strain.

The traditional sit-stands, an effective indoor exercise, burn calories quickly. Even while sitting in the snug sofa, one can move one's feet up and down to speed up the metabolism that slows down in wintry hibernation. Inhibitive winter disturbs circadian rhythms which can only be regulated by physical activities.

Overexposure to the digital screen stiffens our neck muscles and jams the neck vertebrae. We should gyrate, nod or shake our head for a few seconds to relieve neck muscles of strain. Better tend to the digital screen or read a book while we stand or walk in the room. Upright posture always burns calories.

These cameo stints of exercise are called exercise snacks that can be frequently taken 24/7. Making these micro-workouts more intense and vigorous delivers the same benefits equal to longer workouts or walks, reveals comprehensive research on high intensity interval training (HIIT). The time span of brief bursts of exercise may range from 20 to 60 seconds.

Children may suffer from cabin fever, defined as a condition of restlessness and irritability caused by being in a confined space for long. Binge habits of using digital gadgets must be broken and punctuated with physical activities to sublimate the extra loads of latent energy. To vegetate goes against the grain of children. They must be made to hop, skip the rope and fight dummy wrestling.

In winter, students of Generation Z and Generation Alpha spend three-fourths of their daytime at schools or colleges. The remaining daytime they spend either at home doing homework or at academies. Some schools do not offer breaktime because of infrastructural constraints.

All this reduces the body's exposure to sunshine. Consequently, students show a deficiency in vitamin D formed by the human body in sunlight. The parents of public school students have neither awareness of the need of vitamin D for the body's immunity system nor resources to afford vitamin D supplements.

A little relaxation of rules is needed in schools. On sunny days in winter, at least a compulsory period of forty minutes must be reserved to let students bask in sunshine. It can be achieved by making sessions of physical education training and sports mandatory on a daily basis on sunny days.

Adopting a new hobby or learning a new skill can go a long way in engaging the brain and staving off somnolent boredom of winter.