One topic that has received increasing attention in the scientific and endurance sport community over the last few years is training under environmental heat stress. The benefits of training in the heat in preparation for a competition in a hot environment is well-established (3, 23). That process is called heat acclimatisation (or acclimation when performed in an artificial hot environment like a heat chamber), and is an effective means of improving an athlete’s thermoregulatory capabilities in order to tolerate the stress associated with the dual stresses of competitive work outputs and high environmental stress. That is not what this blog is about. Interested readers are directed to our course dedicated to preparing for long-distance triathlon competitions in hot environments (LDT 103).

In this blog we are instead concerned with whether training under environmental heat stress can be used as an additional stressor in order to promote endurance training adaptations relevant...

As we all know, the heat is a bit of a hot topic in long-distance triathlon. Our World Championships take place in the hot and humid conditions of Kona, Hawaii, and many of us compete in hot conditions in other events around the world. We, therefore, know that we need to acclimate to heat before participating in these hot-weather events (8). A lot of athletes are also starting to use heat as a means of up-regulating regular endurance training adaptations, a bit like how we have used exposure to high altitudes to trigger positive changes (1). In this blog, we are going to discuss whether one quite practical strategy – post-exercise sauna bathing – is appropriate for use in these contexts; that is, inducing heat acclimation adaptations to improve physiological responses to exercise in the heat, and inducing endurance adaptations to improve performance in cooler conditions. Before we start it is worth acknowledging that the potential for sauna bathing to induce benefits...