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...