Holy Heat Wave!

It is HOT this week! Given the high temperatures, along with the incredibly high humidity, exercising outdoors can become risky. When we exercise, our body temperatures increase. With our high body temperatures and the high outdoor temperatures our body needs to get rid of a lot of heat. The body’s natural method of reducing body heat is sweating. Sweating is a method of cooling called evaporative heat loss. As the sweat on your skin evaporates, it also reduces heat and cools you off. In high heat, your body can still do this fairly easily, but when it is humid, the body struggles to release its heat. If the humidity is too high the sweat on your skin will not evaporate as easily and your body will not be able to maintain its temperature. The danger with this is that it could lead to your body overheating. If your body over heats, you could be at risk of heat exhaustion. If heat exhaustion goes on too long, your body could even have a heat stroke.

As you can probably guess, heat exhaustion is very dangerous to your health. The best way to avoid damage to your body is to recognize the signs of heat exhaustion. A lot of the symptoms of heat exhaustion are: confusion, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, headaches, muscle cramps, and fainting. If you experience these symptoms, it is important to stop what you’re doing (running, biking, etc.), rehydrate, and/or remove any extra, unnecessary clothing. If the body continues to overheat taking a cold shower or sitting by a fan might also help.

Treating heat exhaustion is extremely important to keep in mind, but knowing how to prevent heat exhaustion could prove to be just as important. The easiest, and possibly the best, way of preventing heat exhaustion is to hydrate. It is vitally important to drink water both before and after working out. This will keep the body from dehydrating, which causes the body’s chances of experiencing heat exhaustion to increase. Another way to prevent heat exhaustion is avoiding the heat. While exercising outdoors is preferred, exercising indoors during high heat and humidity could help keep the body cooled down and dry. It is best to check the humidity and temperature online in order to make a better, more educated decision as to whether or not you should exercise outdoors. If you insist on exercising outdoors, it is helpful to exercise early (seeing as it gets hotter as the day goes on), wear light, loose-fitting clothing, exercise in the shade and avoid direct sun, tell others where you will be exercising, and exercise with a partner. In case you do pass out or get sick, letting others know where you are could make sure you get the medical attention you need if necessary.

Stay Safe!

Danielle Renee

Other information:

WebMD

10 Tips for Hot Summer Runs

Breathing is Key

Recently, studies have shown that the way you breathe when you run could cause you to have more injuries. These studies, done at the University of Utah, show that exhalation causes great stress on the body as your foot hits the ground.  It was observed that runners who consistently exhaled as their right foot hit the ground had more injuries on the right side of their bodies. Some runners then played around with their breathing patterns in order to alternate exhalations between their two feet. Runners who alternated their exhales eventually found themselves with fewer injuries and shorter race times.

I personally attempted this the other day while running intervals. I began my run as usual, not thinking about breathing at all. About 20 minutes into my run I started to get a cramp on my right side. I then paid closer attention to my breathing and it turns out I exhale as my right foot hits the ground. So I tried to alternate between my two feet. At first, it was difficult to rearrange my breathing, but after another 10 minutes, the cramp was completely gone. I cannot say with complete certainty that my breathing was why the cramp was gone, but it was certainly interesting. I plan on focusing on my breathing patterns during my next few runs to see if I notice any change. I encourage all of you to try this as well. Not only is it possible that it can prevent injury, but thinking about your breathing also distracts you from thinking about your time or how much farther you need to run.

Don’t forget to breathe!

Danielle Renee ♥