TT025: Heat Acclimation

“When you think about this concept of heat acclimatization, it’s mostly about your body holding on to more water, which is mostly about sweating. Probably 90% of that is done by simply sweating a lot when you train, and what we are talking about is what can you do to get that up even a little bit higher but we are probably talking like 10 or 15% improved acclimatization.” George Dallam Episode 25 George Dallam returns to the show to talk heat acclimation, which is a means of adapting to heat in an artificial manner. If you live in a cool climate and you are preparing for a warm race methods for adapting include: 1. Wear additional clothes to induce sweating 2. Turn up the heat and use a humidifier while training indoors 3. Soaking in a hot tub at 100-105 degrees. George's protocol for hot tub use involves daily hot tub sessions in the two weeks prior to your goal race.  Start out at 15 minutes per day and gradually work up to as much as 60 minutes in the tub.  Your training volume should be dropping at the same time. The sweat lost during the hot tub session should be replaced gradually over a few hours.  Half-strength Gatorade is a good replacement drink, as is water if consumed gradually.  Drink 2 cups of fluid for every one pound lost.  Drinking too much too quickly will cause water to be eliminated from the body. George includes some bonus information at the end of the interview.  In episode 4 we discussed nasal breathing, and he is finishing up a study that indicates nasal breathing might eliminate EIB (exercise induced asthma).

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