The last few weeks have been just a few degrees short of a flaming inferno. It seems like by the end of every workout I leave a mini pond of sweat on the floor and I’m pealing my clothes away from my drenched body. It’s hot, but life goes on, and we keep training. However, we can prepare ourselves to better manage the high temps, and still get the best out of our workouts.
Let’s start with the obvious: hydration. There’s no way around it, you have to drink water, lots and lots of water. You may have gotten away with slacking on your pre-wod hydration, but if you are doing that now, your level of suck is probably even more noticeable that it was during the winter months. Drink water all day, because you’ll start to lose most of it the second you walk in the gym. Forget asking Joe to turn on the AC, he won’t. You will also need to drink water while you’re working out, during the warm-up, and when you are done. There is a great read in Starting Strength that breaks down your output and intake needs. Essentially we need 6 ounces of water for every 20 minutes of work. Here is a link http://startingstrength.com/articles/training_heat_starr.pdf. Bill Starr also mentions that water alone will not cut it. We need to replenish electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients that are being lost by the minute. I have been throwing an Emergen-C packet in my water bottle and sipping on that throughout my workouts and it works pretty well for me.
In the end, there is no reason that the heat should keep us from getting in the gym and making progress. Take care of yourself, and we can get through this blistering summer and be even better than we were coming in.
