Nobody likes to feel sluggish and sweaty, so when the sun is set to “broil,” a lot of us would rather take our workout to an air-conditioned gym. But the human body can acclimate to exercising in the heat, so it may be worth heading outdoors anyway. After a few weeks, these temperatures will be your new normal—and research suggests you may enjoy a small performance boost when the weather cools down again.
Hot workouts can be dangerous, so I trust that you know common-sense advice about running in the heat. Among the most important: Drink to thirst (or a little bit more), and stop and get help if you start feeling symptoms of heat illness like nausea, dizziness, or weakness. And while it’s great to work on your ability to run in the heat, don’t be stupid about it—stay inside if the temperature is hotter than you can handle, and stay aware of air quality levels (which get worse on hot days).
O2COOL ArcticSqueeze Insulated Mist 'N Sip Squeeze Bottle 20 oz., Blue/Blue Splash $13.99 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $13.99 at AmazonExercise raises your body temperature, and when you stack that rise in temperature on top of the heat from the weather, it's very possible to reach dangerous levels of body heat. That means your body has to work harder than usual to cool itself down. The ways we cool ourselves also interfere with exercise performance. For example, your heart is working to supply blood and oxygen to your muscles, and to pump blood to the surface of our skin for cooling. Those tasks are a lot of work—no wonder we feel exhausted in the heat.
As a workout continues, our bodies heat up. In another study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, when asked to cycle to exhaustion, participants pooped out when their core temperatures reached 104 degrees, no matter what temperature they started at. That's the temperature where serious heat illness can set in, so it makes sense that our bodies will put on the brakes at that point. In that study, athletes who kept cool with a fancy water-cooling jacket lasted the longest. (You can mimic this effect in your own workouts by drinking ice-cold beverages and pouring water over your head.) The longer you can keep your body cool, the longer you can keep up a hard effort.
It's the heat and the humidity
Our most efficient way of cooling off is sweating. When moisture evaporates from your skin, it takes some body heat with it. In humid weather, though, sweat doesn’t evaporate as easily because the air is already full of water vapor. So when we’re talking about “heat,” we really mean something more like “perceived heat,” which is a combination of heat and humidity. This heat index chart shows the relationship:
Credit: NOAAThat’s right—not your fitness level, but your actual physical size. People who are larger have more muscle, fat, or both. Muscle generates heat, and fat acts as an insulator. On the other hand, smaller folks generate less heat, but have more skin through which to dissipate that heat—the ol’ surface area to volume ratio. This is why petite runners place better in races on hot days.
Some people think being more fit makes you better at dealing with heat, but that's only partially true: The fitter you are, the more body heat you produce, just because you’re so good at working hard. Short of changing your body shape (which is possible, but hardly a short-term fix), what can you do to tolerate exercising in the heat better? The answer is simple: Spend more time exercising in the heat.
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But even if the weather is unseasonably cool on that August day, your heat training will still help you beat your twin. Part of the magic of heat training is that it increases the amount of blood in your veins (the better to put it towards your skin for cooling, while still having enough to fuel your muscles). The effect has been compared to a mild, totally legal version of blood doping. Scientists are still debating exactly how this effect works and whether it always happens when people attempt to adapt to heat, but overall, the evidence is strong enough that I believe we should all try to get some of those adaptations if we can do so safely.
I'll go over some heat adaptation strategies below, but the general idea is that you spend at least two weeks making sure to get plenty of time in the heat. Your body will get better at cooling itself, and those hot-weather runs will feel a little less awful. Heat adaptation isn't magic, though. You'll still feel hot, and you may still run slower than in cool temperatures. You'll just be able to get more of a workout in before your body temperature rises to dangerous levels. If you want to know more about heat training, I wrote about my experience last year with a heat-training sensor, which allowed me to get detailed feedback about how my heat training was going.
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Option 2: Spend two hours in the heat every day, whether you're exercising or not
You can expect to be better adapted to the heat after about two weeks of spending two hours per day in the heat, although you may be able to start seeing results in just a few days.
Option 3: Visit the sauna after each workout
The time spent in the sauna can be 15 to 30 minutes, starting with a shorter time and working up to longer. Note that these targets only apply if you're using the sauna after a workout when your body temperature is already elevated from exercise. If you skip the workout, you'll need to add 20 minutes or so to your sauna time to get the same effect.
How to keep your heat adaptations even when the weather cools off
To keep up your heat training in cool weather, you can try wearing long sleeves and tights, like elite runner Kara Goucher did when training for a world championship race in muggy Osaka. (She won a bronze medal, the first American ever to do so). She also spent a few weeks in Osaka before the race began; traveling to experience the heat might be an option worth considering if you’re a dedicated athlete with vacation time to burn.
You can also try the opposite of all the standard keep-cool advice, and choose to run at the hottest time of day on asphalt roads with no shade. Or return to the sauna protocol after your cooler-weather workouts. Whatever you do, stay safe, and enjoy your new superpowers.
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