Buy a house with a South facing garden they said, it will be really nice in the summer.
It is, early in the morning and late in the evening. Outside of those times, we have a furnace of a patio and a sweat box bedroom.
We have found a method that works though, open all upstairs windows first thing, close about 10am before the sun comes round and close the blinds. We’re also lucky that somebody donated us a portable air con unit which really takes the edge off in the evening.
That’s not what this email is about though.
Last night, I went to Jiu Jitsu and the air con in the room was broken, on top of that the angle of the sun was straight through the window. The result was it felt like we were training in a volcano.
Everyone was dripping after the warm up, 90 minutes later we were all soaked. When you are sweating that much, it’s difficult to take on enough water during the session to replace what is being lost.
Therefore, if you do exercise while the temperature is soaring you need to make sure you’re already hydrated before you start.
A simple test to see if you are is to pinch the skin on the back of your hand and release, it should pop straight back down without you really seeing it.
If you’re hydration is generally good, then all you need to do is up the amount you have a little during the session and for about an hour after.
If you know you have a high sweat rate, it’s worth adding a little Himalayan crystal salt or good quality sea salt in to your water bottle. It’s a cheap version of an electrolyte supplement.
Exercising early in the morning or later in the day when it’s a bit cooler will also help.
Have you got any tips you do to cope with the heat?
Darren “Icarus” Checkley
