Doctors urge people to be strategic with exercise in winter inversion
Jan 30, 2025, 6:20 PM | Updated: 7:31 pm
SALT LAKE COUNTY — When it’s sunny and mild, it’s tempting to get out for a challenging run or a bike ride across the valley.
However, as thick haze sat over Salt Lake Thursday, doctors urged people to be strategic when exercising outdoors in winter inversion conditions.
Dr. Denitza Blagev, pulmonologist and critical care physician at Intermountain Health, said even people who are considered healthy should pick their times and places while avoiding the worst air days entirely.
“If I’m going to exercise during a winter inversion, I’m going to try to go up in altitude, and I’m going to try not to do it early in the morning,” Blagev said. “I’m going to try to do it when it’s warmer.”
Blagev noted the advice is different than during periods of summer pollution, where particles are present even at higher elevations and when ozone reaches peak concentrations in the afternoon.
The doctor said there can be health consequences to exerting in the outdoors when the exposure to pollution particles happens consistently over an extended period.
“We do know bad air pollution has, certainly, an impact on the lungs,” Blagev said.
“The thing that’s less obvious is it has an impact on your whole body. When it’s super visible, often it can be those larger particulates, and those are the ones that will kind of irritate your eyes or your mucus membranes, but those larger particles get trapped. The most dangerous ones are the really tiny particles—so that’s kind of that PM2.5. What that means is the tiniest particles—those are the ones that are not just getting deposited in the back of my throat or into my lungs, but they’re getting deep into the lungs and they cross from the lungs into the bloodstream and then they circulate through the entire body.”
Blagev said that can lead to blood-clotting and “off-target effects.”
“You think about the increased risk of heart attacks or heart failure or strokes during air pollution days, and that’s because of that bloodstream distribution to those organs,” Blagev said.
The doctor didn’t entirely discourage winter exercise, noting there were several benefits including improved mental outlook.
“I think one thing the pandemic really taught us is, like, you really have to balance the risks and benefits for the individual,” Blagev said.
“If it’s someone who is like, ‘I need to jog every day, that’s what keeps me sane, that’s what keeps my stress and anxiety under control, that’s what manages my life,’ and this small increase on this one day, or these several days, in these other health outcomes is okay relative to the benefits of centering in my life that I get from my mental health with exercise—go for it.”
Runners and hikers flocked to places like Sugar House Park and the Mount Olympus trail Thursday as mild conditions prevailed.
Alan Bergstrom said he preferred hiking on days like Thursday.
“In the valley, you get a lot of the winter ‘scud’ so it’s not as good on my lungs,” he said. “I’d rather get here in the foothills and get some elevation.”
Connor Burkesmith from Jackson, Wyoming, also appreciated the trail running above the haze.
“Up high it’s actually quite good, the air quality is fine,” Burkesmith said. “It feels nice, it feels fun, quick, weightless.”