Should You Heat up Your Workout – Literally?

By: Melinda Burris Willms

      As part of the ongoing quest to perfect training and thus, execute the ultimate athletic performance in competition, heat acclimation training has been gaining in popularity since the 1970s. This article will explore the pros and cons of this training method.

What Exactly is Heat Acclimation Training?

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One of the key tenets of this training technique maintains that by slowly exposing an athlete to an increased amount of heat, the body gets accustomed to perspiring at an increased rate. This teaches the body to cope with amplified demands on its natural cooling system. In fact, heat acclimation is often employed by coaches as an effective preparation strategy for athletes who are planning to compete in geographical locations that have warmer and/or more humid temperatures than the athlete’s normal environment. By slowly conditioning the body to build tolerance to higher external temperatures, the athlete faces less physical and psychological stress when competition day arrives.

Case studies have been done on heat acclimation training and experts have found consistently positive results: the body not only learns to sweat more and thus, becomes more efficient at adjusting to increased temperatures, the increase in sweat production has been observed to cause numerous other benefits, including: a rise in blood plasma volume, a factor that improves cardiovascular fitness; a reduction in core body temperature, a reduction in blood lactate (which decreases the likelihood of exhaustion); and an increase in skeletal muscle force generation. Interestingly, studies have shown that body conditioning achieved through heat acclimation training actually improves athletic performance in colder conditions as well. Professor Chris Minson, a specialist in human physiology, has done studies on athletes and heat acclimation training. His investigative work has observed alterations to the left ventricle of the heart during heat training, resulting in the delivery of elevated levels of oxygen to the muscles.

How to Slowly Acclimate Your Body to Heat

Because this type of training asks your body to adapt in so many ways, it is best to approach it a slow, incremental rate, allowing your body to gradually buildup a tolerance to the elevation in body temperature and learn to adapt to natural biological responses, such as increased perspiration output. The success of this strategy lies in proper monitoring of how the body is reacting to this new stressor. This is of paramount importance because elevating core body temperature too high or too quickly can have serious health repercussions, even causing death if extreme.

Therefore, you should only attempt heat training with the advice and monitoring of a professional, such as your coach or trainer, to avoid serious side effects such as dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and other dangers to your health. You should also consult your physician before beginning any new form of training or exercise.

How It’s Done

1. Heat acclimation training should be approached as an integrated process that takes into account and monitors several biological factors, including: thermoregulation (maintenance of a stable core body temperature, despite environmental changes); cardiovascular fluctuations, fluid and electrolyte balance, and changes on the metabolic or molecular level.
2. The athlete is exposed to slowly increasing temperatures and more rigorous exercise demands until the body’s natural sweat response is activated. These sessions of heat and exercise endurance are usually done once or twice a week, for 90 minutes at a time. Athletes that are already well conditioned will be able to accelerate this pace; but again, this technique should be used under the guidance of a trainer or coach.
3. Heat acclimation training generally takes 1-2 weeks depending on the physical fitness of the person when the regimen begins.
4. It is important to note that heat acclimation training can and should be customized for the environment you are preparing to compete in. For instance, if you are planning to train for an event in humid Florida, you need to acclimate your body to moist heat; whereas, if you are going to the western United States, your training should be customized to condition your body to withstand a dry heat.

Use Among Olympic Athletes

Heat acclimation has escalated in popularity among premier athletes since 2008. There are numerous success stories among a wide range of aerobic athletes: the experience of the 2014 Canadian women’s soccer team offers one such example. César Meylan, head sports scientist for the team, felt that their workouts were lackluster, and they needed more of competitive edge; so, Meylan decided to initiate heated circuit training.

First, each player swallowed an internal sensor that gave Meylan the ability to observe their core body temperatures and to give brief breaks or encouragement as needed when any player’s body temperature went too far below or above the target of 101.3. The team did vigorous circuit training for 90 minutes a day, in a room with a controlled temperature of 95 degrees, for five days in a row. Meylan notes players responded with sharpened psychological fortitude and argues that mental toughness is a key benefit of heat acclimation training.

Conclusion

Based on the research available, heat acclimation training has proven to be an effective method for preparing the body for diverse atmospheric conditions and has demonstrated other positive physical and psychological benefits for professional athletes. Remember, monitoring and paying close attention to the body’s response to new stressors are key to the successful implementation of any exercise regimen.

References

Brown, M. (21 July, 2016). The Surprising Benefits of Training in the Heat.

Hutchinson, A. (25 August, 2018). How Heat Therapy Could Boost Your Performance.

Sawka, M.N., Périard, J.D. & Racinais, S. (January, 2016). Heat Acclimatization to Improve Athletic Performance in Warm-Hot Environments.

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