One of the biggest considerations one has to make when running a winter obstacle course race is how to keep the hands warm. Obviously, we want to keep everything warm when we’re out in the cold, but the hands are a special case.

First of all, hands and fingers are extremities and are prone to becoming cold or numb before most other parts of the body.

Secondly, the hands play a crucial part in most of the obstacles you’ll face, especially the ones that require a lot of grip strength.

So here are a few tips to think about as you prepare for your next winter OCR:

1.) Bundle Up

Wear enough layers so that EVERYTHING is warm. When you have your head, torso, legs, feet, etc. properly covered and insulated, it’s a lot easier for your body to keep blood flowing to the hands and fingers, too. I like to err on the side of being a bit warmer than I’d prefer. Better to feel a little too hot, than to lose some feeling in the fingers when you get to a tough rig.

2.) Extra Warmup

If it’s particularly cold on race day, you may need to spend some extra time warming up. You don’t want to go crazy and wear yourself out, but you’ll probably want to do at least 10-15 minutes of jogging, jumping jacks, or whatever else you like to do to get the heart rate up, the blood flowing, and work up a bit of a sweat before the race starts. Again, if your core temperature is high enough, your body can spare some extra warmth to the hands and fingers.

3.) Choose Gloves Wisely

There are a couple routes to go when it comes to gloves: warmth or grip. Grippy gloves usually aren’t very warm and warm gloves usually don’t have much grip. I find that I get the best grip with my bare hands, as long as they’re kept warm and dry. So, I prefer to wear basic, water-resistant, snow gloves. They keep my hands very warm and protect them from the snow (though I wouldn’t wear them if there were going to be any water obstacles). I can leave them on for most of the race and take them off and tuck them into my waistband when I really need my grip. Once I get past the obstacle, I put them back on right away.

I also know of a company called Bleggmitts that sell special OCR gloves/mittens. They keep your hands insulated while you’re running, but you can peel back the mitten part and they stay strapped to your wrists. Seems a little bit more convenient than taking them all the way off and shoving them into your pants, like I do. ;)

Here’s a link to their Xtreme Bleggmits for the coldest conditions if you want to check them out:

Bleggmit Xtreme 3mm

4.) A Few Bonus Tips

Pro Tip #1: I like to pour some gym chalk into my gloves before the race. It absorbs moisture if my hands get sweaty and helps me to grip the obstacles just a little bit better.

Pro Tip #2: When all else fails, if my fingers ever start to feel numb at all, I ball up my hands in the palms of my gloves. This allows me to dig my cold fingertips into my palms (which are hopefully still warm!) and rub them together until they get warm and the feeling returns.

Pro Tip #3: Another trick to get blood flowing into cold hands is to shake the arms forcefully in a downward motion (kind of like cross-country skiing). After about 3-5 big swings, I can usually feel some improvement.

I hope these tips help you take care of your hands. The most important thing is to train in the cold before race day and practice with your gear. You want to know how your body and your equipment will respond to the conditions. That way, you can come into race day feeling confident that you’re going to crush the course!

Follow Mark HERE for more winter OCR training tips.