Along with the beautiful summer weather comes the heat, which can be close to unbearable during everyday activities, not to mention during a workout. It is important to remember that physically exerting yourself under extreme heat and humidity for a prolonged period of time can be very hard on your body and can lead to illness. Proper precautions should be taken to prevent heat cramps, heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

When working out on a hot day try to control the following factors:

1)      Time of workout:

Work out in the early morning or in the evening; not at the hottest time of the day, which is between 11am and 3pm.

2)      Location of workout:

If you are running, walking, cycling, rollerblading, etc, choose the shaded trails and wooded areas.  You’ll find these to be at least a few degrees cooler.

If there are smog or humidity warnings, working out indoors in air conditioning might be a good idea, especially if you have respiratory problems.

3)      Type of workout:

If you were planning on doing an intense interval workout and the weather is stinking hot, you might want to postpone it until slightly cooler conditions present themselves. Still do the workout, but just bring down the intensity by a notch.

You could also substitute the mode of exercise with a cooler alternative, such as swimming.

4)      Water intake:

While you should always try to consume 2-3L of water per day, it is especially important to do so in the summer. If you plan on doing over 30 min of exercise, it would be a good idea to carry some water with you.

5)      Clothing:

Wear clothing that is light in colour and in weight that will breathe (ie. Dri-Fit or Coolmax) – this will keep you feeling cool.  Donning a hat is a must and sunglasses helps to protect your eyes from the sun and its glare off of the water.

6)      Sunscreen:

The tendency is to wear as little clothing as possible when working out in hot weather.  For this reason, it is important that you remember the sunscreen!