Hi,
I was wondering if it is better to workout in a cold(ish) room or a warm(ish) room? What is the perfect temperature to exercise in?
Thanks,
Madeline Tucker
"MaddieRich"

This is a great question as both have advantages and disadvantages. In a yes or no world I'd say cold but there are arguments for both.

A warm room feels nice when you begin, and there's more to this than the feeling of a warm bed on nice on a cool morning. At rest, and especially when cold, your body is subject to thixotropy, which is the tendency of gels to become less viscous at rest. Basically, it's kind of like the oil in your car pooling when the car is off and why you shouldn't race your engine until it warms up. Your body is literally stiff until it's warm. In a warm room, you warm-up quicker and are far less likely to incur injury.

Once you are warm, however, the parameters begin to change. Cool muscles work much better. This means that once your body has warmed up, the cooler you can keep your muscles the better they will perform. High temperatures cause a reaction called cardiac drift, where you heart rate rises above it's normal working threshold. Due to cardiac drift (other factors can also come into play) your heart rate can exceed your tested max heart rate by 10 to 30%!. This means, in essence, that you are 10 to 30% less efficient. The temps where this occurs are completely variable due to many factors including individual preference, body type, and prior conditioning. Like many things in fitness, there is no one temp that is perfect for everyone.

I think the perfect condition for training would be a room with great climate control that you could step into warm, which would cool quickly as you body temperature rises then slowly warms back up as you move into your cool down post exercise stretching period.

But don't get too caught up in it. Unless you exercise in extreme conditions they don't play a huge role in your success. It's only worth trying to adjust things if you are so cold that your workout never feels like it gets going or so hot that you have to stop and drink water to cool down.