I know many of you folks have it much worse than we do in the summer, but it is pushing 100 at home today and my chiro (who is a tri coach) indicated that several of her athletes do specific training to reduce the amount they sweat. I normally sweat a ton, so this does intrigue me.
Any experience/thoughts?
KillJoyFuckStick
Reducing sweat?
Lol
You people have issues
Faster Than Your Couch!
If you run more in the heat, your body adjusts somewhat, so you'll sweat less and also lose less salt through sweating. This has been proven in studies. That said, sweat rate is also highly individual, and the same holds for the salt content. So even if you are well adjusted to the heat, you might still sweat more than someone who just lucked out with his genes. (Although the question remains if that's so lucky after all)
I adjust to heat quickly, it takes maybe 3-4 runs to feel comfortable running in heat again. To see an effect on sweating, it might take longer, but I am not sure. This adjustment happens gradually, so I don't really particularly notice it as much as I'd notice the effect on just running in heat and feeling ok. Mid-summer I usually realize that I do need much less water than at the start of the summer season.
But in hot and humid conditions, the sweat does not evaporate, so it seems that you sweat much more, even though it might be less than in dry conditions. On longer runs in summer, I may be totally drenched, with my clothes dripping from sweat, as if I had just come out of a swimming pool, even though I am well adjusted to the heat.
It's all relative, you know...
Run for fun.
I remember reading something about this once. In that case I think they were advocating an extremely low salt diet with limited salt intake during exercise. The "theory" was that if you had a higher plasma sodium you would sweat more and somehow that was bad. At the time I couldn't follow the thought process and felt that it was junk science. Still, I'd like to hear more about it.
In a study performed during a 100-mile race in hot weather (they did not say which one) it was found that plasma electrolyte levels did NOT correlate with salt/electrolyte intake.
Seems that if the body gets the amount it needs, it does not absorb more than what it needs, as long as you drink enough water to avoid dehydration.
At least that's what the study concluded.
And I do not know how this would affect sweating.
Extremely low sodium sounds a bit fishy to me?
In my case if I reduce the S-Caps eventually I do sweat less.... that is because I cramp up so much I'm reduced to walking or limping along at a snail's pace. Having said that I do try to take as few S-caps as possible by spacing them out as much as I can.
tbd.
Well, no heat training today. Went from 98.8 to about 75 with some light rain. Not enough to to help with the drought, but enough to get the oil on the roads up without washing it away, making cycling fairly tricky on the mountain roads. I do think training in the heat helps but just training as you normally would.
From my limited understanding of heat training(aka heat acclimatization), the goal is to train your body to adapt to the heat and endure hotter conditions for longer or at higher intensity. The main physiological change is increased blood flow to the skin surface and sweating actually cools your body so reduction in sweat as a goal would be seem counter productive.
Since heat acclimatization requires either exercising in hot conditions (or wear a lot of clothing) for 45+ minutes at a time or sauna time 45+ minutes for around 2 weeks to gain maximal benefit, it seems like doing this just to make your easy runs easier may not be worth it. Just my two cents.
I always thought sweating was a good thing and is the body's natural cooling mechanism. So not sure why you would want to reduce sweat rate? It seems the only benefit would be less hydration required. Heat acclimation is another thing and from my understanding training in heat allows you to perform better in the heat in terms of pace and effort. It's not an issue around here to get heat training in the summer. While we don't reach 100 degrees upper 80's/low 90's with high humidity is pretty normal stuff. I just go out and run in that weather and don't do anything specific. I seem to adjust fairly quickly though to the heat and while I've done races in the conditions I described I've never done BadWater or any xtremely hot desert races.
In dog beers, I've only had one.
Tim
This article is a bit dated, but it's reviewed and has some accurate information.
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!
Thank you!
Guess I will continue to need lots of fluids
On a number of long rides/runs in the mountains I have come very close to running out of water, and consume more water than others it seems. I have a ride late September that is often done in triple digit heat so I will try some heat training. Could also be useful if I ever get into certain ultras ....