So I feel like there is plenty of evidence that heat exposure is beneficial. It seems to increase mitochondrial density, and improves performance in hot weather.
What if I don’t have access to a sauna? Should I just leave my AC off all summer? I’m sure I’d get used to it fairly quickly. Should I take longer showers? Should I wear warmer clothing than I would usually wear?
And at what point is the line crossed? I’m assuming anything that interferes with training is a no no.
Prep for the Tokyo 2020/21 Olympics. Three different methods discussed:
I recommend HWI which I did last year with success.
Train in the heat? It’s simple, works for me, and was recommended by a local Kona age grouper thats been to Kona many times since 1999.
One thing which I’ve never seen mentioned is heat-induced hives.
Normal indoor training usually comes with a lot of cooling strategies and thus most people won’t come close to reaching the “boiling point”, as it were. The thing with hives is that there is no way to tell if you are prone to developing them (due to excessive heat) until you actually do.
They can be debilitating, chronic, and require some serious medication to treat.
Just something to think about before you start chasing marginal gains.
No science to back this up but I’ve been tacking on between 20 and 30 minutes of endurance work to my workouts lately and turn off my fan once I start with the endurance work. After 2 hours of sweetspot (something like galena +3) it gets pretty hot.
