Abstract
Exercising in the heat induces thermoregulatory and other physiological strain that can lead to impairments in endurance exercise capacity. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide up-to-date recommendations to optimize performance during sporting activities undertaken in hot ambient conditions. The most important intervention one can adopt to reduce physiological strain and optimize performance is to heat acclimatize. Heat acclimatization should comprise repeated exercise–heat exposures over 1–2 weeks. In addition, athletes should initiate competition and training in an euhydrated state and minimize dehydration during exercise. Following the development of commercial cooling systems (e.g., cooling vests), athletes can implement cooling strategies to facilitate heat loss or increase heat storage capacity before training or competing in the heat. Moreover, event organizers should plan for large shaded areas, along with cooling and rehydration facilities, and schedule events in accordance with minimizing the health risks of athletes, especially in mass participation events and during the first hot days of the year. Following the recent examples of the 2008 Olympics and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, sport governing bodies should consider allowing additional (or longer) recovery periods between and during events for hydration and body cooling opportunities when competitions are held in the heat.
Highlights
When exercising in the heat, skin blood flow and the sweat rate increase to allow for heat dissipation to the surrounding environment
Whilst acclimation and acclimatization share similar physiological adaptations, training outdoors is more specific to the competition setting as it allows athletes to experience the exact nature of the heat stress [52,53,54]
The role of plasma volume expansion in heat acclimatization remains debated as an artificial increase in plasma volume does not appear to improve thermoregulatory function [66, 67], but the changes in hematocrit during a heat-response test following short-term acclimatization correlate to individual physical performance [45, 46]
Summary
Most of the major international sporting events such as the Summer Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, and the Tour de France—i.e., the three most popular events in terms of television audience worldwide—take place during the summer months of the northern hemisphere, and often in hot ambient conditions. This document is intended to provide up-to-date recommendations regarding the optimization of exercise capacity during sporting activities in hot ambient conditions. Given that the performance of short-duration activities (e.g., jumping and sprinting) is at most marginally influenced, or can even be improved, in hot ambient conditions [1], but that prolonged exercise capacity is significantly impaired [2], the recommendations provided in this consensus statement focus mainly on prolonged sporting events. This document contains recommendations and strategies to adopt in order to sustain/enhance performance during training and competition in the heat, as well as to minimize the risk of exertional heat illness. A number of sporting federations have edited their guidelines to further reduce the risks of exertional heat illness Recommendations are offered to event organizers and sporting bodies on how to best protect the health of the athlete and sustain/enhance performance during events in the heat
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