Do you know what athletes who prepare for competitions in particularly extreme conditions do? They get used to these conditions gradually and well in advance. Indeed, a great advantage of the human body is that it can adapt to changes in environmental conditions, at least within certain limits.
It happens, for example, that those who prepare expeditions to particularly hot places begin months earlier to subject their bodies to what is known as acclimatization, that is, literally, a modification of certain perceptions of the outside world and its manifestations, such as heat, cold or humidity. If, for example, one has to be in very hot environments for a long time, very hot baths or spending time in a sauna or steam room could help him.
Knowing that summers are getting hotter but that we don’t want to stop working out, an experiment a few years ago showed that to take very hot water baths to adapt to higher temperatures is an effective remedy, extending the time spent in the tub up to 30-40 minutes a day.
Two studies have come to these conclusions. The first considered both 68-year-old and younger men during their warm water workouts, monitoring them for a period of 30 to 40 minutes. After five days and gradually increasing the workload, the perception of heat had decreased and consiguously the ability to endure the workouts, even with heavier workloads, had increased.
The second study, from 2015, focused instead on hot baths (with temperatures of 35°C or higher) post-workout. The 17 candidates who participated practiced the procedure for 7 days but only a few were able to stay submerged up to their necks for the full 30 to 40 minutes provided and only succeeded the last few days. Again, the benefits were undeniable and resulted mainly in less stress on the heart, and thus less fatigue later.
If you want to try it, scientists recommend starting with 20 minutes of total immersion-excluding head-even several times a day but provided the water has a temperature of at least 40°. The more frequently you repeat the procedure, the more accelerated the acclimatization will be. Know that, as mentioned earlier, you are likely to struggle at first to last the allotted 20 minutes but, indeed, it is just a matter of habit.
And who knows, maybe the therapy will enable you to better withstand the heat, to keep exercising and to stop using air conditioning!
(Via Insidehook)