Experts say that taking a hot shower is a simple way for people to adapt to the summer heat, replacing exercise on days when outdoor temperatures are high.
Summer temperatures spike, making cycling, running, and outdoor activities difficult. This impacts many people's training schedules. Taking hot baths for several consecutive days or using a sauna for at least half an hour each day is beneficial for health, especially for athletes.
Adapt to the weather
When moving in hot weather, the body generates internal heat. If not enough heat is dissipated, people risk heat exhaustion or even heatstroke. To dissipate this heat, the heart pumps warm blood out of the muscles and to the skin. The body also sweats to release more heat. However, in hot and humid weather, this process seems unable to keep up with the increase in internal body temperature. The heart beats faster, pumping more blood, and sweat accumulates on the skin, making each step difficult and the body increasingly hot.
Adapting to the temperature helps the body gradually get used to exercising in hot weather. Blood volume increases, reducing stress on the heart. Sweating also starts earlier and in greater quantities, reducing the feeling of tension when temperatures rise.
This adaptation process is not easy. Athletes typically need about 10 strenuous workouts with gradually increasing intensity during the hottest time of day. This is a difficult training regimen, unsuitable for the average person. A simpler approach is to take a hot shower.
The woman is soaking in a bathtub. Photo: Freepik
Taking a hot bath is like exercising.
Andrew Greenfield, an expert at Baptist California, says that soaking in hot water is a passive method of temperature acclimatization. Normally, the body doesn't distinguish between warming up from exercise and exposure to warm water or steam. Muscles unconsciously increase in temperature, heart rate rises, and sweating increases. Therefore, this method can help acclimatize to the heat.
In a 2015 study, scientists had 17 healthy men run on a treadmill at a moderate speed in a normal-temperature gym for 40 minutes. Afterward, they had the volunteers immerse themselves in water up to their necks, at a temperature of 33°C for the first 40 minutes and 40°C for the following 40 minutes.
The results showed that immersion in hot water helped the volunteers adapt better. When exercising in the high-temperature laboratory, they sweated sooner and felt less hot than the control group. They also ran a longer distance, as calculated by the treadmill.
Since then, scientists have tested the method on numerous volunteers of varying ages. A 2021 study indicated that soaking in cool water for 30 minutes after exercise, followed by 30 minutes in hot water, helped people adapt to temperature changes better.
Michael Zurawlew, a research fellow at Liverpool John Moores, recommends a water temperature of 40°C for those wishing to take a hot bath. The ideal duration for the first time is 20 minutes, which can then be gradually increased.
"If you start feeling dizzy, lightheaded, or nauseous, stop and carefully get out of the bathtub," he said.
According to Zurawlew, you should exercise and let the sweat dry before showering, filling the tub to neck level and relaxing.
Thuc Linh (According to Washington Post )
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