Most of us follow the "grin-and-bear it" philosophy regarding the winter season here in Minnesota. I would have to agree with them when the wind chill temps are subzero, as they have been very early this year. In fact, we are technically still in the fall season until December 21st! As early and fierce as the season change has been, a dire state of cabin fever will follow unless one gets up and moves their body! Snowshoeing is the perfect winter activity for most as it is relatively inexpensive, easy to learn and not very time consuming. Snow shoe prices have come down over the years, in fact, I recently saw snowshoes plus poles at Costco for under 100 dollars. By adding ski poles to your snowshoe workout, it becomes more of an entire body workout, thus having more caloric burn. On average, one can burn between 400-900 calories per hours while snowshoeing. The variation of caloric burn, is dependant upon many variables such as: Type of terrain, duration, utilization of poles, etc. It is advised to do muscle stretches before beginning as well as dressing in layers, similar to that of other winter sport enthusiasts. It will be chilly for the first ten minutes of snowshoeing, but, one warms up rather quickly. I often snowshoe in the woods which appears rather mystical in the winter time. The snow provides a blanket of insulation which provides a sound barrier and provides a very serene setting. My husband and I were out during the huge snow storm on Saturday, December 11, 2010...it was a brisk 45 minutes snowshoe in which we covered only about 1.5 miles, but, holy, moly did it wear us out! I would suggest for those wanting to get going and try it out to either rent snowshoes at a local park reserve, or purchase a pair of them at a local sporting goods outlet or online. One great online discount company for all sorts of sporting goods is: http://www.sierratradingpost.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment