Last week, I told you how to embrace the cold — how to make the most of uncomfortable ambient temperatures. Today, I’m going to give you some ideas on how to accept another nasty ambient temperature: heat. What can you do to make the most of hot weather? How do you handle the heat? How can you make something objectively unpleasant – and even dangerous – beneficial, pleasant, and enjoyable?
Because you shouldn’t just give in and turn on the AC and forget to do anything. You shouldn’t run away from the heat. You’ll be able to face it head-on and make friends with the heat, not the enemies.
How to embrace the heat
Wake up early.
Get up early, earlier than usual, and get outside and do as much mental work as you can before the heat rises.
Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore, often says that air conditioning is the biggest factor in making his country famous. After AC was installed in the cities, his people were finally relieved from the sweltering tropical heat and able to do real mental work. The same is true for individuals. The heat makes it harder to think, write, and create. The early morning before the sun begins to shine brightly is the best time for creative, intellectual work. Or any job, really — yard work, labor, etc.
Get up before the sun begins to assert itself. Another advantage of doing this is that early morning natural light will tune into your circadian rhythm so you can go to bed earlier and fall asleep faster, sleeping more deeply.
Sit with the heat.
Don’t take the AC right away. Take off some clothes and sit in the heat, sweat and pain. Let it envelop you and know you will be fine. You will survive, it’s not so bad, you simply won’t be comfortable. Accept the fact that you will feel the heat and know that you, as human, have a long history of handling extreme temperatures — both cold and hot. That’s what you were built to do. You get it.
You have to accept the heat. You cannot change it. It’s here, you’re in it, and you’ll deal with it.
Consume electrolytes.
Simply drinking water in hot weather is not enough. Drink water, of course, but doing it without regard to the importance of electrolytes — sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium being the ones to worry about most — will make you pee most of the time. water that you consume without actually absorbing much. So what does this mean?
For most people in most situations, sprinkling all of your water with salt is enough. (A little lemon will make you more appetizing.) Getting enough sodium will help you retain other electrolytes. If you really want to exert yourself in the heat, then stick with a legit electrolyte supplement like LMNT or my tried and true homemade electrolyte drink: coconut water, salt, honey sugar cane and lemon or lime juice.
Read my previous posts on electrolytes — what they are and how to get them — for more information and ideas about electrolyte supplements.
Wear linen.
I wear a lot of linen lately, since moving to Miami. Linen is a legal performance Material things don’t get enough respect. It’s not just lounge materials. It breathes, looks good, feels great, and there’s something special about wearing “natural” fibers that words or science can’t capture. Plus, there are no plastic synthetic fibers in the linen, so when you wash it, you’re not adding to Earth’s microplastic load and its groundwater.
A little-known fact that may or may not be entirely correct: linen is made from the flax plant, so you can munch on your linen shirt to extract enough omega-3s to meet your needs. your daily needs.
Good linen company here.
Your undress out.
Remove all of them. Be nude. Put on your birthday suit. Only do so in a socially acceptable place, like your home or backyard or property, but keep them away. Your home is where “social” ends and your dominance begins. You don’t have to be a character on a TV show that has to be fully dressed at home. You can release and remove the cotton shackles that bind your thermostat. You can take off your clothes — as much as you want to feel comfortable.
Get the sun, but not too much.
Hot weather means strong sunlight, and strong sunlight means vitamin D production. But if you’re not adapted to sunlight, or you have a genetic predisposition to sun damage, sunlight. Strong sunlight can burn your skin and increase your risk of skin cancer.
Of course, staying out of the sun is linked to than cancer and more health problems than sun exposure, but you still need to do it safely.
- Slowly build up sun tolerance. Get ten minutes today, fifteen minutes tomorrow, etc.
- Avoid burning. Get out when you’re ahead.
- Early sunshine. AM sunlight has a higher content of infrared light, which helps protect your skin against further UV damage.
- Don’t rely on sunscreen. Many products on the market do more damage than the sun. Covering hats and clothing or seeking shade are much better options than applying sunscreen that contains questionable compounds. Good sunscreen exists, but it’s still not ideal.
Read this post on safe sun exposure for more details. Or this one.
Eat spicy food.
Spicy foods cool you down by heating you up and speeding up perspiration, thereby cooling you down. I would not recommend using this method to increase heat tolerance during exercise or exposure to intense heat. It’s about the “impression” of the ambient temperature — how hot you “feel”.
A little hack if you want, is to sprinkle some cayenne pepper in a glass of water and drink it. Only add as much as you can bear. Incidentally, this is also a great morning to wake up without coffee.
Avoid stress.
Stress is stress is stress – stress is replaceable. Heat is a major stressor, and if you’re trying to deal with heavy commuting after a night of bad sleep and no exercise for two weeks and late-night snacking, argue with your family. and leave everything unfinished, you should pay attention, the heat will cause a larger amount of money for you. Furthermore, heat is an unavoidable stressor. It’s there, you can’t get rid of it, it in environmentand you better soften its blow by dealing with all the other stressors you maybe control.
This is consistent with the first recommendation: get the hard work done early before the world heats up. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to tackle stressful tasks and situations in 100-degree weather. Get it done early and what’s normal won’t be stressful.
Use the sauna in the car.
On a really hot day, your car can go up to 130 or 140 degrees F. Get in the car, sit there and just warm up. Imagine it’s a sauna. It To be A sauna. Feel that heat. Feel the sweat running from your neck down to your shirt. Feel your heat shock proteins come alive, vibrate, activate.
Don’t leave your dog or toddler in the car on a hot day, but for you – an adult with frontal brain function – it can be very beneficial. Just don’t die or oversleep. Be smart.
Do easy long exercises and short tough exercises.
I wouldn’t recommend hiking tired and tired in the heat. I wouldn’t recommend prolonged CrossFit metabolic conditioning in the heat. I don’t recommend running a marathon in the hot sun. But I would recommend easy long exercises and short hard workouts in hot weather. Think about a shaded walk. Think of a hike through the woods. Think you’ll swim well (see below for more on that). Keeping your heart rate in the aerobic zone (take 180, subtract your age, and keep your heart rate below that number) will keep you from overworking, overheating, and running into problems.
I also recommend short and hard workouts. Increase intensity, decrease duration. 5-minute weight training session in full sun. Push the sled (or car) around outside. Pull the bar to the outside. Run some hill sprints (resting in the shade).
Your body can handle long items easily and short hard items in high heat, no problem. It’s the long hard stuff that causes problems.
Swim.
This is the perfect opportunity to take a dip in the water.
Swimming is a great exercise, yes. You can sprint and get an incredible cardio and muscle workout. You can go long and slow and make it aerobic. You can drop some dumbbells or kettlebells in the water and get a workout in the water (like Laird Hamilton).
But swimming is also relaxing. That’s the game. It’s fun. It is an underutilized mode of transport. Some would say that the human race is an aquatic species, or at least amphibian. We congregate along coastlines whenever possible, and our massive brains are largely the product of our evolutionary approach to long-chain omega-3s found in animals. shellfish and marine animals. We have to spend a lot of time in the water.
The natural bodies of water are optimal — you get natural minerals to soak in, salt water that cleanses and renews you, the fury of the waves lapping at you, silt and sand and rocks beneath your feet, wilderness overall effort — but a nice pool works just as well.
That’s how I beat the heat: not by fighting it, but by engaging with it. Enjoying it. Accept it. Use it to really improve my daily life.
I’d love to hear how you deal with the heat. How do you embrace hot weather?
Let me know below.
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