With the arrival of summer the days are longer and sunnier. It’s a few months to get rid of our winter clothes and go for a run, ride a bike or play sports. In fact, summer is the time of year when we move the most.
Although not everything is good in the summer season, since the heat and humidity can play very bad tricks, especially when we are very active. Next, we give you some tips to do sports in summer without being in danger and your health is not harmed.
Sweat and blood
When we exercise, our body’s core temperature rises. To combat this, the body starts a series of cooling mechanisms:
- The main way our body cools itself is through the evaporation of sweat on our skin. For sweat to evaporate you need to absorb heat. That heat absorption cools us down.
- In addition to sweat, blood is diverted to the surface of our skin to cool it and recirculate it throughout the body. It is the reason many of us turn red when we are active.
How each of these two methods contributes to cooling can vary from person to person. Some people end up drenched in sweat, while others turn red and hardly sweat at all.
The effectiveness of cooling our body also depends on the environmental conditions. The drier the conditions, the more effective sweat is in cooling us down. But in very humid conditions, the air is so saturated with water vapor that it causes our sweat to drip ineffectively into our bodies. In these situations, our body continues to produce more sweat in the hope of cooling off.
Playing sports in summer adds stress to our body. Diverting blood to our skin to cool us down means that less blood, and therefore oxygen, reaches the muscles.
Sweating also reduces the amount of water in our body and, if this lost fluid is not replaced, the volume of blood decreases. This can lower blood pressure and increase heart rate, resulting in reduced performance. This situation, taken to the extreme, can cause heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Symptoms include exhaustion, fatigue, poor brain function (dizziness, confusion, irritability, etc.), nausea, vomiting, and fainting. If severe heat exhaustion is not treated, it can lead to long-term disability and even death.
Tips for doing sports in summer and not getting dehydrated
Intense exercise in hot and humid climates can be very dangerous, although you can exercise safely in the summer if you take the proper precautions. One of the most important things to do is stay hydrated and decrease the intensity of exercise on very hot days. Keeping your body hydrated during exercise helps replace water lost through sweating, prevents fatigue and poor physical performance.
Feeling very thirsty is not the best indicator of your body’s fluid needs, because thirst appears when your body is already dehydrated. In addition, thirst is satisfied even before the body’s water supply is completely replaced , which means that during workouts you should drink water even if you do not feel thirsty.
Amount of water your body needs to stay hydrated
The amount of water your body needs to hydrate depends on your body weight, temperature, and the type of exercise you are doing. If you become dehydrated after a training session, it will take time for your body to replenish water and you will have to drink several glasses of water spaced throughout the day. The recommended amount of water for each type of training is:
- For workouts of less than 1-1 / 2 hours, you should drink 500 ml of cold water 1 to 2 hours before exercising.
- Drink approximately 500 ml of cold water or a sports drink 15 minutes before exercising.
- Drink 150 ml of cold water every 10 minutes during exercise.
- Drink at least 1 liter of cold water every hour.
- Drink 500 ml of cold water or a sports drink right after exercise.
Tips to avoid heat exhaustion
When temperatures rise, a few simple precautions can help reduce your risk when playing sports in the summer:
- Find out about the weather conditions beforehand.
- Wear sunscreen and light clothing.
- Drink fluids regularly.
- Avoid exercising during the hottest hours, or work out in an air-conditioned gym.
- If you’re traveling to a warmer weather destination, whether it’s summer or winter, give your body a break to acclimatize and slowly increase your activity.
- If you are going to participate in a marathon or any sporting event during the day and, normally, you train in the early morning or at night, you should also acclimatize your body to the midday heat.
