Conditioning your body for heat

Now that summer is here a lot of us will have to deal with training or performing in the heat. Heat should be treated just like any other training goal and dealt with by specifically targeting it in your training.

Areas you need to train to deal with heat:

• Sweat Production

• Heart Rate

• Mental and Physical Comfort

How to train for heat

Perform 2 to 3 workouts per week in the heat, for 2 weeks.

• Hydrate

  Keeping properly hydrated in the heat is crucial for performance. This means keeping hydrated all day and not only when you workout. Before summer hits it is a good idea to keep a water journal of just how much you are drinking. Quantifying exactly how much water you need to drink in a day is difficult, but if you find in your water journal you are only drinking 4-12 ounce glasses of water per day you can be pretty sure that your intake is too low.

  Drink more water when the temperature starts to rise, even if you don’t feel thirsty. Chances are you need it.

• Dress Warm

  Wear your spring workout clothes when transitioning in to the summer. Add in summer UV sleeves, a Buff, or headware (hats or aero-style cycling helmets). The added insulation will get you ready for higher temperatures later in the summer.

• Slow Down

  Heat training IS the goal of the workout. You need to do a workout hard enough to make you sweat and breathe deep, but nothing of a high intensity. Allow your body to deal with the stresses of cooling and adapt separate from muscular or cardiovascular improvements.

• Sunscreen

  Am I the only one that feels warmer with sunscreen on? I’m not sure if this is because it clogs your pours or because it puts an extra layer over your skin. Whatever the reason, I make a point of using it to train for heat.

• Limit AC Exposure

  When you’re at home try to keep the AC at a modest level. The idea is to keep your body close to the temperature outdoors. If you are at work and don’t have control over the thermostat bring extra layers so you can stay warm in the AC.

Our bodies take about 2 weeks to adapt to heat. After that try to do at least 1 workout in the heat per week so you don’t lose your tolerance but more like 3 workouts in heat per week is ideal.

Sauna for heat conditioning

Sauna is a great tool to help get your body adjusted to the heat, but it’s not a replacement to being outside. Being outside stressing your body with hot wind blowing over your skin is a unique experience and if your goal is performing outdoors, that’s where you should do a majority of your training.

What do you think? Do you have any hacks for getting used to the heat?