Experience Winter Swim: A Thrilling Outdoor Exercise Trend

Some may find the idea of swimming outdoors in near freezing temperatures crazy. However, experts say that outdoor winter swimming in a heated pool is not only safe but also good for your health. For those who indulge in these morning swims, there’s simply nothing like it.

“It’s a pleasure to feel so alive,” says Valerie Campbell, a Kensington, Md., massage therapist who swims outside at the Y five mornings a week all year long. “We enjoy the sunlight, the fog over the water, even the brutal wind at times, which can chill the heels of our feet as we kick. Sometimes people from ‘inside’ come out, but they never last long,” referring to indoor swimmers.

An outdoor swim on a cold evening can also be awe-inducing. Robert Judson, a financial consultant from Bethesda, Md., recalls the one time he missed his usual sunrise swim and made it up after work. “It was a pitch-dark cold night with the stars out,” he says. “It began snowing very lightly midway through my usual slow mile. It was perfect. Perhaps too perfect. Maybe it was a dream.”

Non-swimmers and even those who swim inside don’t always understand the passion for winter swimming. But they are okay with it, even grateful. “I am delighted that there are so many nuts who love swimming outdoors,” says Kate Macomber Stern, a teacher who swims 45 minutes daily in one of the B-CC Y’s two indoor pools. “That makes the indoor pools much less crowded.” (Such appreciation works both ways.)