Forget wild swimming - we're bareskin running now

When David Pattenden heard that police had been making inquiries about a semi-naked man strolling through his village near Beverly, East Yorks, in the plummeting temperatures, the 72 year-old realised that his unusual hobby had raised a few eyebrows.

The retired police diver often walks topless at dawn – sub-zero temperatures be damned. “When I see someone, I start a conversation and say: ‘It’s not as strange as it looks’,” Pattenden explains. “It is good for mental wellbeing... the mental and physical effects last for several hours.”

Pattenden is one of a growing number of bareskin runners and walkers, many of whom have sought to embrace the chill in lockdown. Many are already  wild swimmers – the Outdoor Swimming Society has seen membership increase by a third since national restrictions first set in, while a Swim England study suggests that 7.5 million people in the UK now swim outdoors. But now, it has become a workout of its own, too.

At the beginning of the third lockdown Debbie Bent, 54, began walking her dog wearing just a vest top and thin trousers. Having taken up wild swimming when the first lockdown started, she has found that her newest frigid pursuit gives her “the same feeling as cold water on my skin. It lessens anxiety and makes me feel more resilient. Lockdown makes me feel numb, but this makes me happy.”

She is in hardy company: two weekends ago TV presenter Ben Fogle posted a picture of himself running in the snow – wearing only shorts – on his Instagram page with the caption: ‘Cold is all in the mind’. “I expose my skin to the cold air while running and exercising as I find it helps my immune system and keeps me alert and happy,” he explains. Fogle believes that “clothes, central heating and inactivity have reduced the efficacy of our bodies” – a mantra that comes from the ‘Iceman’ himself, Wim Hof. The 61 year-old Dutch adventurer, whose freezing feats – including retaining the record for a barefoot half marathon on ice and snow – have earned him a cult following; there are now 500 Wim Hof Method instructors worldwide, as well as book deals and a segment on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix show The Goop Lab.

Hof hinges his advocacy of cold living on a 2011 study from Radboud University, which found that the sympathetic nervous and immune systems can be influenced by short-term training programmes, such as ditching your kit for a cold walk. Plus, “in colder temperatures your heart doesn’t have to work as hard, you sweat less, and expend less energy, all of which means you can exercise more efficiently,” according to Dr Adam Tenforde, an assistant professor of sports medicine at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.

Bareskin exercisers need to build up their resistance to the cold in the same way that outdoor swimmers would, gradually increasing their exposure and always remaining aware of the sensations they are experiencing – there is a risk of hypothermia and frostbite if too much is done too soon.

Dr Paul Banwell, founder of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Unit in East Grinstead, says: “Exposure to fresh air outside is good for us because it can help provide non-recycled air to the lungs, which improves the blood’s oxygen levels and circulation. Moreover moderately cold temperatures are good for skin health because it constrains the blood vessels in the skin [allowing the body temperature to regulate].”

But “you really have to be calm, focused and very mindful and aware of your physiology. It’s potentially life-threatening if you stay out too long,” warns Wim Hof instructor Will van Zyl, 47. He recently put his training to the test during a snowball fight with his children when rural Berkshire hit -3C – followed by a bareskin walk in the evening.

“Your body is buzzing, your head is clear, you’re warm and you experience all the benefits of being immersed in your environment in these low temperatures,” he enthuses. A cold spike and the release of adrenaline also “has a significant impact on inflammation reduction and circulation.”

Van Zyl, who makes a living teaching Wim Hof Method workshops and retreats, takes an ice shower every morning to keep his body used to frigid temperatures: he notes that “ice baths are an integral part of professional sports recovery,” though novices getting in on the act is a far more recent trend. “We’ve got used to living in the warm so what may not be that extreme seems so much more uncomfortable,” van Zyl says. “Our body never learns how to thermoregulate itself.” Now, popularity for pushing one’s body to the limit is rising at such a pace that people are “waiting for the snowfall or extreme weather to expose their skin because of the benefits of mindful walking in the cold.”

Aiden Lunnon, 24, took up bareskin hiking in October “as an experiment to evolve my Wim Hof practice. I feel we are too disconnected from nature and, for me, cold immersion therapy in the form of spending a long period trekking while physically exposed to the cold air or a short period submerged in cold water, such as a lake or a river, are fantastic ways of rekindling the sacred connection with nature that we have always had.”

His friends and family, meanwhile, “think it’s crazy.”  But no matter: being able to appreciate the natural world while working out separates bareskin feats from the vast majority of other forms of exercise, he says. And on top of this, running or walking in the cold “is about letting go of our preferences for comfort... I have become phenomenally strong in terms of my emotional, physical and spiritual resilience to life’s trials, in all settings and contexts, through the medium of natural cold exposure.”

Bareskin walkers and runners experience – after they’ve overcome the initial shock factor – a huge lift, he adds. “When you’re in that moment of feeling a huge gust of ice-cold wind hitting your body with snow or rain bombarding you, a sense of formidable empowerment overcomes you and all of a sudden, you’re warm and you’re buzzing with endorphins.” He likens the feeling to a post-gym boost, or the high one feels after a run: “these endorphins are our body’s natural feelgood hormones and they boast tremendous anti-depressant effects.”

Whether the take-up will match that of wild swimming remains to be seen. But for those looking for new means of whiling away long lockdown weekends, daring to bare – in the name of exercise, of course – may well be an option.

Read more on cold exercise and its benefits:

• The brrr-illiant health benefits of cold exposure
• The Wim Hof Method: how to reawaken your long lost power... by getting really cold
• Wild swimming makes me feel like I've had 10 espressos – no wonder scientists say it prevents dementia

Are you an advocate of exercising in cold weather? Tell us in the comments section below