Just speaking to a guy at our office, and he came out with this piece of wisdom that is mean't to work because it gets your body pumping blood to your feet before the shoes go on.
He admitted he hadn't tried it himself!
Anyone out there tried this or other equally bizare methods for keeping feet warm?
(Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this!)
[i]bizare methods for keeping feet warm[/i]
I've always found winter socks and appropriate footwear to be the best solution...when it's snowing I wear overshoes over my shimano winter boots.
My mate's a farmer and swears by this for his hands. He doesn't bother with gloves, washes his hands in the water troughs at or below freezing (breaking the ice to get at it if needs be) and then reckons his hands are fine for the rest of the day.
It's great. When it's really cold spend an hour in the freezer before a ride, warms you up a treat.
I would say the opposite - get your feet nice and warm before you put your insulating layers on, then they stay warm for longer. Starting cold seems a daft thing to do!
I can see starting a ride mildy hypothermic would make you grateful for every erg of heat your body could subsequently generate.
I'm going to avoid cold hands by having pockets cut in my ample paunch. I've plenty of fat there to keep me warm.
I have tried this for the feet and it works provided the rest of you is warm.
If you are cold and you try this you just get colder
cheers for the tip when you actually think about it makes perfect sense- making yourself colder is the way to make your self warmer
Would similar work for a hangover? If I lick some sandpaper and get Mrs FBJ to tw4t me round the head with a frying pan 15 minutes before I go to the pub, would I avoid the gravel mouth and headache in the morning?
On the motorbike, I always found that keeping arms and legs warm was the key to keeping hands and feet warm. It stops the blood cooling too much before it gets there.
Two icebreaker tops, one gillet and one DPM army jacket.
I don't even notice my feet then, even if they are soaked all of the ride.
Sort your core temp out then you wont have to pull heat away from your extremities to warm your core...
Sort your core temp out then you wont have to pull heat away from your extremities to warm your core...
+1
It's so barmy I must try it. I'm very doubtful, but I lost fingers this morning. Ouch.
And Jim, I'll disagree very strongly with "Keep your core warm". My core is often so warm that I'm sweating wanting to strip off layers, only my fingers are too cold to undo the zips.
Keeping the core warm doesn't work for me
I'm sat here at my desk in a very warm office & my feet are freezing - always like that in Winter, I just can't keep them warm
I can however ride gloveless at any temp over freezing & keep warm hands
I used to do this for hands when rock climbing in winter. It works!
Get them mind numbingly cold and endure the sickening hot aches. Could then climb for much, much longer than if starting from normal warm hands.
The effect does wear off though :((
P.S. It was my hands, not my head that I got mindnumbingly cold 😉
In the summer i put a blowtorch on my nads for a few seconds, this conditions them for the sweltering heat of the day.
dave surely heating cools you if cold warms you ...what you say is just daft I am not falling for that 🙄
Admit it the blow torch makes them colder and on rides you need to stop and warm them up occasionally
Sort your core temp out then you wont have to pull heat away from your extremities to warm your core...
-1
If your body is already warm then insulating that further will just lead to sweating which you want to avoid. I'm with Onzadog, keep the blood flowing to your extremities warm. I think a lot of cycling clothing is actually poorly designed from that point of view. Extra insulation on the arms and legs is going to help keep your hands and feet warm without making you sweat more.
My solution for cold feet is make sure your feet are warm to start with AND warm your shoes up before putting them on. Your feet tend to lose less heat as they arent trying to warm the shoes up too.
Trouble is, everybody's different.
You need to find what works for you then keep quiet about it because everybody else disagrees.
Lots of interesting stuff here! Thanks everyone.
One thing that I always struggle with is how to get the extra layers on the feet without restricting the blood flow. Might be first thing to try. mostly I just put up with it ... MTFU I guess ... they don't seem to get any worse once cold.
Still not sure about trying the cold water approach yet (I can't MTFU that much!!).
bigyinn - Member
My solution for cold feet is make sure your feet are warm to start with AND warm your shoes up before putting them on...
+1 and make sure your shoes are dry inside.
If your body is already warm then insulating that further will just lead to sweating
Hence two merino ice breakers. I'm talking the thin ones (no idea of the name). IF you are too warm you can always delayer one (OR) keep one as a backup in your camelbak as they really do roll up small dont they.
it doesnt matter what im wearing on my feet there always cold.even when im in my house the rest of me is warm bar my feet,this is due to bad circulation ive been told,if you have bad circulation then its a nightmare to keep your feet warm,i used to wear fur lined rigger boots and thick woolen socks at work and still had baltic tootsies.
I recall a very hot summer night when my feet felt like radiators. So I ran 1" of cold water in the bath and had a paddle for 15 minutes - it was bliss!
I dried them off and returned to bed, and they returned to being radiators, only much worse so that it was almost painful how hot they were.