Similar to all fitness training, heat training creates stress on the body, and adequate recovery is needed after each heat session. Thus, the fatigue caused by heat stress must be accounted for in the total stress caused by an athlete’s total training load.
While there is no commonly agreed-upon protocol for measuring heat stress in relation to general training stress, there are some typical practices amongst top coaches and athletes. The idea is to gain heat adaptations with minimal interference with the rest of a training plan.
Long-Term Planning
- For those doing season-long heat training, it is common in winter to do a 2-week heat block (12 heat sessions). This allows for total focus on heat and recovery while training intensities are low. Then, heat adaptations can be maintained with only 2–3 sessions/week throughout the season.
- For those adapting for a hot race: remember that training loads are often the highest in the 2–8 weeks before the race. Consider if you’re able to withstand the additional stress of adding heat sessions in that period. Some choose to complete their heat adaptions before that final build, and simply do maintenance heat sessions during the last 8 weeks.
- For those inexperienced with heat training, it is a risky strategy to wait until the final 2 weeks before a race to do heat training. The heat stress involved may be too much to be adequately recovered before race day.
- For those with heat training experience and higher training volumes, adapting for a hot race within the last 2 weeks is feasible. But it may take some trial and error to perfect the protocol for each individual.
Tapering before a Race
- Heat training may interfere with tapering plans in the two weeks before the race. To avoid this interference, athletes can choose to do a 2-week heat training block before the taper starts. Then, heat adaptations can be maintained with approximately 1-2 sessions/week. Most coaches recommend 1–2 heat sessions in the week before a key race, with the last heat session 3–5 days before the race. Heat adaptations are lost at the rate of approximately 2.5% for each day without heat training.
Weekly Best Practices
- Heat sessions are often combined with workouts having low power/pace targets. This means that not much muscular stress is added to the heat stress.
- Athletes doing two workouts per day may choose the second one as a heat session. For example, a runner doing intense intervals in the morning may do an afternoon low-intensity run as a heat session.
- At the end of a high-intensity session, some athletes will overdress, turn off fans, and reduce intensity to extend the training with a heat session. This can be efficient, as heat strain is already elevated. Beaware that this can cause high cumulative fatigue for the workout as a whole.
- The end of a long ride or long run can be turned into a heat session by adding clothes for the last hour of the workout.
- A heat session can be started on the trainer or treadmill, and then extended by immediately entering the sauna, hot bath, or steam room. This limits muscular fatigue. Please see the article How to do a Heat Session for more information on passive heat training.
Daily Best Practices
Please see the article How to do a Heat Session for more information
References
CORE Coaches. A global directory of coaches who use CORE sensors in training their athletes.
Daanen HAM, Racinais S, Périard JD. Heat acclimation decay and re-induction: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2018;48(2):409-430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0808-x.
Esh, CJ, Carter, S, Galan-Lopez, N. et al. A Review of Elite Athlete Evidence-Based Knowledge and Preparation for Competing in the Heat. J Sci Sport Exerc. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42978-024-00283-y
Pryor JL, Johnson EC, Roberts WO, Pryor RR. Application of evidence-based recommendations for heat acclimation: Individual and team sport perspectives. Temperature. 2018;6(1):37-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/23328940.2018.1516537.
Racinais S, Hosokawa Y, Akama T, et al. IOC consensus statement on recommendations and regulations for sport events in the heat. Br J Sports Med. 2023;57(1):8–25. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-105942.