Heat Training and the Benefits
2024 has come and gone so quickly. I guess that can happen when you’re so focused on goals that you lose track of time. When training to qualify for an event like the Paralympic Games, everything just seem to mesh together into one big repetitive day. After having such a big goal for 2024 it’s nice to just go into 2025 just wanting to train, race, and have fun. To get ready for 2025 I’ve been doing alot more strength training while also trying to implement a few new aspects into my training. With so much research and development behind cycling I try to stay in touch with any new developments in performance or equipment gains that have been revealed to the public. One thing I’m currently trying that is a fairly new way to train is heat acclimating training. While acclimating to heat has been a long time training technique, now certain case studies show that after extensive heat training the performance gains you can get mimick that of elevation training. Meaning that if you do it correctly you can increase your hemoglobin levels by training in hot conditions. Increased hemoglobin levels make you a better athlete by improving your body’s ability to transport oxygen to your muscles, which is crucial for endurance activities, as hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, allowing for better oxygen delivery to working muscles during exercise. In order to increase the hemoglobin one must first reach an internal temperature of 38.5 degrees Celsius or 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit. After this ideal temperature is reached you must ride for 45 minutes to 1 hour at this temperature. Doing this 5 times a week for 5-6 weeks is said to give an athlete the increased levels that he or she would see from 6 weeks of elevation training. Considering I’m a busy man and can’t take off 6 weeks to go live and train at elevation this sort of training could be much more reasonable for me to achieve. When all said and done I’m hoping this experimental method of training can help me obtain even better fitness than ever before.
