My brother called me the other day. He said, ?Hey I have question for you, after you run, does your stomach??.. your core get cold? I just finished biking, and I have noticed lately it feels like my stomach or my core seems to get cold after exercising?

My younger brother lives in San Diego. He is five years younger than me so he is 52 but he looks like he is 32. Got the whole flat stomach, long hair, skate boarding, biking, Southern California thing going. My older brother (60) and I don?t even like to talk to him anymore but he keeps calling me. He?s younger, I guess he still needs good advice. I?m kind of glad his stomach gets cold though, serves him right, his stomach should be cold and also be as big as mine.

?No,? I replied ?I don?t recall necessarily feeling that in my stomach???but my stomach is big so maybe that extra fat is keeping it warm.? ?But now that you mention it, I do sometimes notice feeling generally cold after running so maybe there is something to your stomach question.?

So I asked chiropractor, Dr. Shoshana Sevel, MS, DC, CCSP, CCEP, CSTP, who has a Masters in Sport Health Science and is a Certified Chiropractic Sports Practitioner and is one of our doctors at Sport and Spine Rehab of Fairfax, the cold stomach question.

?There could be potential for dehydration. Having less than adequate amounts of water can leave someone feeling cold and clammy. Also, an intense workout sends blood to the distal extremities such as legs when running and the skin to dissipate heat.?

And further supporting that comment Dr. Ollie Jay, founder of the Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory at the University of Ottawa explains when you finish exercising, your metabolic heat production immediately drops. But you keep sweating for a while and continue to lose heat to the environment through the evaporation of that sweat.

And guess what else he says?.taller, thinner men tend to experience the post-workout freezes more often than bigger guys. Huh! I guess that supports my theory on why my stomach doesn?t get cold.

So keep well hydrated to avoid dehydration and if your core or your stomach feels cold, it?s okay, it?s normal.

Due to some traveling and some weather challenges I managed only to run a total of nine and a half miles this week. I will try harder next week.

One other thing I did this week was visit with Brian Wright, our Director of Fitness for Sport and Spine Athletics and he performed a body fat test on me using skin fold calipers. More on that later.

Oh, and hey, I was just kidding about not liking my younger brother, he?s great. I can?t speak for my older brother though, I still don?t think he likes him.

And by the way, if my San Diego younger brother thinks he gets cold when he works out, check out my video:

Thanks again, that?s my testimony for this week, and thanks for the support!

Curt Christiansen
Chief Operating Officer
Sport and Spine Rehab
[email protected]