Training in the heat - acclimatization

With every year being, unfortunately, a new recorder-breaking year when it comes to average temperatures, it’s important to design your training sessions around those constraints.

You want to get the most out of your athletes but at the same time you have to balance a lot of other factors that have an influence on their performance.

Today we will discuss the benefits of acclimatization.

Acclimatization

Acclimatization is defined as:

“The process or result of becoming accustomed to a new climate or to new conditions.”

Acclimatization is often overlooked when it comes to preparing for different environmental conditions or an event because it is usually something that isn’t really tangible but it can make a huge difference when training or participating in any event held outside.

Runner, cyclists, triathletes, or any other athlete in the endurance segment is familiar with preparing for the actual course by checking out the elevation profile, road characteristics, or anything else that is particular to the course.

You have to make sure your athletes have the same approach when it comes to the outside conditions. If the weather is going to be hot, you have to make sure their bodies are ready to take on the challenge.

Gradual exposure

The key to any acclimatization process is to start slowly. Training sessions should be kept short short and sweet. Don’t put too much too early. Have some less intense workouts in the heat and gradually increase the duration and intensity over the next 1 to 2 weeks.

Saunas

Going into saunas right after a training session for 2 to 3 weeks before competition can help increase blood plasma volume by up to 18% and prolong time to exhaustion by up to 32%!

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that only passive sauna bathing without prior exercise seems to have minimal thermoregulatory adaptation.

Recreate event conditions

Train how you race is something that should always be kept front and center in every coaches' playbook. If you want your athletes to have a good competition, recreate the demands of competition as much as you can.

Having parts of your training in closed gymnasiums with the air-conditioning turned off, introducing humidifiers into those closed spaces, or have your athletes wearing an extra layer of clothes can all help raise their temperature and build the physical and mental resilience to heat.

Re-acclimatization

Within a month most of the acclimatization will be lost. Even within two weeks after the end of the heat acclimatization process there are significant drops in physiological parameters like end exercise heart rate and core temperature (adaptation falls by around 2.5% per day).

However, by having shorter refresh block these process can be reversed and the decay of adaptation can be prolonged by a considerable margin.

The reason for this is unclear but the results all indicate that our bodies can tolerate heat for a lot longer if we expose it multiple times in short timeframes.

Just like your athletes fitness, adaptation to heat is something you have to work on constantly in order to always get the benefits from it.

Talk to your athletes and let them know when you are planning to have the heat acclimatization protocol so they can prepare for it correctly.