Category: temperature and exercise

Rings of fire against a dark background. The Paris Olympics: a hot and inequitable playing field
athletes · competition · fitness · Olympics · temperature and exercise

The Paris Olympics: a hot and inequitable playing field

catherine w

The summer solstice has come and (just) gone; it’s full summer by anyone’s measure. And with its arrival in 2024 have come heat waves across the Northern Hemisphere. Temps in Boston this week were 95-97F (35-36C) with heat indices much higher. In Quebec and Ontario, the heat indices were expected to reach up to 45C (113F). According to the news agency Reuters, more than 100 million Americans were under heat advisories, watches and warnings last Thursday.

It’s cooler this weekend where I live, but other parts of the globe are continuing to suffer from extreme heat. Hundreds of pilgrims traveling to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the hajj have died from heat-related causes in temperatures reaching 50C (122F). You can read more about this month’s heat trends in Central America here and Europe here— two of many examples of what is happening as the summer progresses.

Amidst all of this thermal stress, preparation for the 2024 Paris XXXIII Olympic Games continues. The Olympic Games run from 26 June to 11 August. But the organizers aren’t providing air conditioning for the Olympic Village quarters where the athletes reside during the competition. Instead they designed an environmentally sustainable multi-part system with insulation, shutters, cross-ventilation, and a geothermal system pumping cool water through pipes in concrete floors. They promised rooms with maximum evening temperature of 79F (26C).

There are just two problems with this plan.

Problem one: According to lots of research on athletic and general performance (and sleep) in heat, overnight temps of 79F significantly reduce quality of sleep and subsequent performance of all sorts of activities.

The New York Times reported in this article how some enterprising Boston researchers used the natural experiment of a 2016 heat wave to do a study that showed dramatically decreased performance for students in 79F rooms vs. 70F rooms overnight.

“During the hottest days, the students in the un-air-conditioned dorms, where nighttime temperatures averaged 79 degrees, performed significantly worse on the tests they took every morning than the students with A.C., whose rooms stayed a pleasant 71 degrees.

As for athletic performance, this area has been well-studied and the results are clear: increased heat both reduces physical performance levels and endangers athletes who are pushing themselves to peak effort during international competition.

Last Tuesday, a group of athletes, climate scientists and exercise physiologists released a report called “Rings of Fire: Heat Risks at the 2024 Paris Olympics”. In it they explain the serious heat conditions and the threats they impose on athletics competing in this summer’s Olympic Games. They include expert analyses of heat effects on the body along with first-person accounts from international competitors across sports, describing their experiences and the challenges they and their sports face. Here are some of the athletes’ own words:

Jenny Casson – ROWER, CANADA

“I have had to change my training in Canada and train in a “heat chamber” (a vehicle designed to recreate a humidity and heat as desired by the user) to prepare myself for the 40°C heat of summertime racing. On numerous occasions I have been unable to complete sessions and have broken down mentally because physically my body cannot respond any more to the demands a workout is asking of it. I get scared because when my internal body temperature rises too much, I feel as though I cannot breathe and that is a very worrisome state to be in. I’ve felt suffocated because often the air is so heavy it is a challenge to get it in. I am still worried for what those experiences did to my body and the long term effects. Looking back on it now, I think it was dangerous and my body was responding to a very real fear of overheating.”

Eliza McCartney – POLE VAULT, NEW ZEALAND

“I was told once I had experienced heat illness, it was likely to come on more readily next time, and that was a problem for not only my training camp in Cyprus, but the thought of how I would handle the upcoming major competitions that were in hot places (Doha and Tokyo). It was both a physical and psychological concern. Another consideration is safety – I use a black sticky grip that loses its adhesion with sweat. I’ve had issues (as well as other vaulters) with slipping on the pole in high humidity and heat.”

Pragnya Mohan– TRIATHLON, INDIA

“Triathlon is a very intensive sport and heat enhances the amount of energy required. This leads to severe dehydration resulting in cramps, and in some cases can also be fatal. For this reason, athletes need to train in such conditions because it can lead to adverse effects if your body is not used to it. From April to October the temperature in India is very hot so all outdoor training must finish by 8am. The rest of the training is indoors. It is very difficult to train in a country like India where we have tropical weather. I have to stick to Europe for training.


When you are dehydrated, the brain stops functioning at its normal speed. This affects the time required to make decisions impacting reflexes. For example, during cycling you have a few milliseconds to decide to either draft or break away or apply any other race strategy. Hence performance suffers.

This gets us to Problem two, which Pragyna Mohan’s story highlights. She said that she has to train in Europe during the hottest parts of the Indian calendar year; she can’t safely train there past 8am. Thousands of athletes who live in countries where temperatures rise past safe limits for sleeping, ordinary activity and athletic training face a terrible dilemma: either get funding for training in cooler climes, or try to develop in their sport under conditions at best suboptimal for performance and at worst life-threatening. Inequity in access to safe training conditions creates large disparities in individual performances and development of sports in less well-resourced countries experiencing the effects of climate change.

Which gets us back to Paris and the non-air-conditioned lodgings in the Olympic Village. In response to the sustainable athlete dormitory plan, a number of wealthy countries, including the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, and Denmark (so far), are BYOAC-ing– bringing their own air conditioners. The Washington Post in this story added that many other countries plan to buy AC units in France for their athletes.

But not all the athletes will be able to rest, eat and sleep in artificially cool comfort. This from the Post:

“We don’t have deep pockets,” said Donald Rukare, a lawyer who is president of the Uganda Olympic Committee. Rukare mentioned a sweltering international sports competition in Turkey a few years ago, where athletes stayed in rooms without air-conditioning. Some federations shipped in portable units; Uganda did not. “Because we didn’t have the money,” he said.

It makes sense that the Paris design committee wanted to showcase sustainable design and engineering for the Olympic Village. And if summer temperatures don’t rise beyond what is normally predicted– about 79F (26C), there isn’t much to worry about. But, Paris has experienced numerous extreme heat waves in recent years, including four in 2023 that left more than 5000 people dead. 2024 is looking to be as hot or hotter. So you do the thermal math.

What I hope is that the International Olympic Committee will work with wealthier nations and organizations to make sure that all the Olympic athletes get equal access to a good night’s sleep and a cool place to rest and prepare for the the culmination of their life’s work. Otherwise, it’s just another hot and inequitable playing field.

Condensation on a window at night, by Artem Bryzgalov for Unsplash. Late-summer sweating update
fitness · temperature and exercise

Late-summer sweating update

catherine w2 Comments

We at Fit is a Feminist Issue work hard to cover all aspects of physical activity experience as we change sports, increase or decrease exertion, as the seasons change, and as we all move through the life trajectory. Fads and fashions have come and gone over the last almost-eleven years, but one topic, at least, has remained: sweat.

No, I didn't mean that kind of sweat. I meant the human kind. But thanks, Greg Rosenke on Unsplash for the picture. It's two clear glass bottles of cold water, with conde
I didn’t mean that kind of sweat; rather, the human kind. But thanks, Greg Rosenke (Unsplash) for the cool (and cooling) picture.

We’ve written a fair amount about sweating– the process, the results, the downsides, the advantages. etc. Here are a few posts you might check out when you get a good spot next to the air conditioner:

However much we at the blog (well, me, mainly) complain about how unkempt sweating feels, it’s a necessary human function. According to this scholarly article from the Journal of Thermal Biology:

The human eccrine sweat gland is central to the evolution of the human genus, permitting an enormous thermoregulatory sweating capacity that was essential to the human niche of high physical activity in open, hot, semi-arid environments.

The article adds, though, that we don’t know much about how we– the humans– differ across groups with respect to sweating. This issue will, or rather has become more important as we continue to experience record hot temperatures all over the globe. Human capacity to sweat is crucial for cooling. But for sweating to cool effectively, the sweating must be following by evaporation, which brings about cooling.

One thing we do know: life is likely to get sweatier.  “I suspect everyone is going to be quite drippy,” says University of Pennsylvania sweat researcher Yana Kamberov, in this Atlantic article on the future of sweating.

I think she’s right. Sweating is something I’ve complained about and taken for granted, but it serves us fur-less mammals very well. Maybe it’s even something to be proud of, the Atlantic article suggests:

Sweat is one of the “key milestones” in human evolution, argues Andrew Best, a biological anthropologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts—on par with big brains, walking upright, and the expression of culture through language and art.

Well, alright then. If sweating is right up there with the ability to compose symphonies, then I can take pride in my virtuosic sogginess-production. Followed up by a shower, of course. Nonetheless, I hereby promise not to write any more complainy, whinge-y posts about how much I don’t like sweating. I’ll just mop my brow (and the rest of me) and be grateful… 🙂

Readers, how to do feel about sweat? Does it bother you? Do you love the feeling? Lemme know.

Christine Pretends It’s Summer
fitness · nature · season transitions · temperature and exercise · yoga

Christine Pretends It’s Summer

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

I’m a creative and imaginative person and I enjoy using those skills in all kinds of different contexts.

I do not, however, enjoy having to use my creativity and imagination to pretend that it is summer.

Sure, technically, that’s the season we’re in but in my part of NL we have been having a very unsummery June.

We’ve had lots of rain, drizzle, and fog (a.k.a. RDF) and, as of last week, we hadn’t reached 20 degrees Celsius yet. I’m not sure if that one sunny day we had recently broke that unfortunate streak of chilly temperatures but even if it did, one warm day can’t really shake off the gloom of so many dreary ones.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to be safe from drought and fires and smoke. I recognize that there are far greater troubles in the world than a month of disheartening weather.

But disheartening weather is still disheartening.

And I could really use some heartening during this emotionally difficult time in my life.

It’s much easier to feel hopeful, try new things, and get yourself moving when you have some sunshine and when you can wear bright colours.

(Yes, yes, I can wear bright-coloured clothing at any time but my summer clothes have a different feel to them – you know what I mean!)

Anyway, despite the disappointing weather, I have still been doing some summery things – a little gardening, tidying the yard, taking longer walks, using my swing, and sitting outside to read (bundled in a blanket, but still!)

Yesterday morning (Monday), though, I took it a step further and really pretended that the weather was warm.

A photo of a yoga mat on a deck on a dull day, deck chairs, railings, trees, a lawn and a swing are in the background.
Image description: a close-to-the-ground cloudy day photo of my patio with my yoga mat stretching out length-wise between the camera and the space where my patio steps are. At the far end of the mat, on either side of the opening for the steps are patio railings (wooden tops with black uprights), a patio chair with a red cushion, and a white table hanging off the railing. Beyond the deck is a green lawn and on the far side of the lawn there are trees and a fence and an orange patio chair. My green disk swing is hanging from one of the trees.

Yep, I dragged my mat outside and practiced out there.

It was only about 6 degrees Celsius, it was threatening to rain, and the sky was dull, but I did my yoga outside because that’s the kind of thing I like doing this time of year.

The weather is making it hard to feel summery but I am determined to have a summer fun all the same.

Even if it starts to rain immediately after I take photo evidence.

a photo of Khalee - my light-haired, medium-sized dog standing on my deck looking back over her shoulder towards me. Most of the ​deck boards are wet with rain but the ones closest to me are sheltered by the roof overhang so they aren’t wet yet.
Image description: a photo of Khalee – my light-haired, medium-sized dog standing on my deck looking back over her shoulder towards me. Most of the deck boards are wet with rain but the ones closest to me are sheltered by the roof overhang so they aren’t wet yet.
Guest Post · snow · swimming · temperature and exercise · winter

Cold water swimming (Guest post)

Lynette2 Comments

Sam is contemplating cold water swimming. I’m one of the people whose facebook posts have her intrigued!

I started this spring. Swimming last year was so much fun I couldn’t wait to start this year (I live in a coastal village). I read a bit; I listened to some podcasts. I found one of my climbing friends is an experienced freshwater swimmer; I asked her lots of questions. COVID-19 was on so I was looking for excitement close to home this spring.

In late April, I started getting in and out of the water. I had a good few months of swimming through the summer and as late as October (the ocean stays warm longer than lakes do). I went back to dipping in and out of the water in November, and now (mid-December) I’ve even resorted to a wetsuit.

I remember swimming in lakes in Saskatchewan as a kid–the water was cold enough to produce blue lips in August. But here, in the North Atlantic ocean, I’ve been learning about whole new levels of cold. There’s ankle-aching cold (coldest); there’s shooting-nerve-pains-in-the-hands cold (a little less cold—that’s an existing vulnerability); and there’s a neck-cramp cold (almost swimmable). Above the neck cramp temperature, I can stay in the water and swim.

These are all November – December photos. Mind you, it’s Nova Scotia (not Saskatchewan), so November – December can still mean +9C.

That doesn’t sound like much of an advertisement, does it? The thing is, it’s a very satisfying experience. Hugely refreshing. A mood lifter. It makes an enormous difference if you tell yourself on the way to the water: ‘I’m really looking forward to an ice bath.’ (You don’t have to believe it when you say it.) It also helps to refer to swimming in lakes and the ocean the way the British do–as “wild swimming.” (Doesn’t that sound wonderful?)

There are safety concerns. I understand it’s best to walk in instead of dive or jump. Monitor your breathing. When your body wants to gasp and you halt your breath, that’s an involuntary response to the cold. If you’re going slowly, you can re-establish your breathing before you continue. If you’ve jumped in over your head and you do this, you could drown when you gasp and take in water. Make it your initial goal just to get in and out. Only gradually start to extend the amount of time you spend in the water. When you start to do that, you should do some of your own research to learn about what’s safe and what to pay attention to in your body. Your body temperature will continue to drop for some time after you get out of the water (20 minutes, I believe)–you have to plan to get somewhere warm, get the wet clothes off, maybe even take a hot shower.

(I won’t go into the sauna options, but I have to admit I first got into water this cold in April in Geneva, at the Bains des Pâquis, where there are three kinds of heat–sauna, hammam, and turkish bath–on offer when you get out.)

I have gone in one day when there was snow on the ground, but I’m nowhere near going in when there’s ice on the water, unlike Cath Pendleton.

Here’s more about Cath Pendleton:

Cath Pendleton, from the Outdoor Swimmer website.

https://outdoorswimmer.com/news/to-make-me-happy-just-add-cold-water-q-a-with-record-breaking-ice-swimmer-cath-pendleton

So Many Reasons to Hike with Friends this Winter (Guest Post)
covid19 · fitness · fun · Guest Post · hiking · temperature and exercise · winter

So Many Reasons to Hike with Friends this Winter (Guest Post)

elan.paulson2 Comments

By Elan P

As the days of winter get shorter and colder, we begin shifting our thoughts and habits to account for the winter. Tracy I , Nicole P , and Sam B have all blogged on winter exercise and how they love it, have grown to love it, or have chosen to love it (respectively). 

Of course, there is an added layer of challenge this year, as catherine w describes, when we must exercise during a pandemic. Many bloggers in the FIFI community emphasize how maintaining physical health also supports mental health during COVID-19 isolation.

Over the past few years I’ve posted about group exercise in a summer fun run and winter fun run. In her post, Catherine invited FIFI readers to share our winter pandemic plans: mine will be regular winter hiking with friends.

Just starting out on the Elgin Trail. Photo by Elan Paulson (CC-BY SA ND NC)

Using a social media chat channel, each week those available agree on a 2 to 5 hour hiking route in SW Ontario, of easy to moderate difficulty, then on weekend mornings we just get up and go. If we carpool together, we wear masks. We keep track of our journeys with GPS, pictures, and good memories. Only a few times so far have we canceled due to poor weather conditions.

I asked this group how likely they are to continue hiking outdoors together this winter. Here is what some of them said:

  • I’m very likely to continue group hiking this winter. Why? It’s fresh air. It’s exercise. It’s community with amazing, diverse women who inspire and support one another. It clears my mind, works my body, and fills my heart. (Kimi)
  • As a single person during covid, it’s even more important for me to keep contact with my friends doing what we love, which is being outside being active. It’s all about mental health check-ins. (Sarah)
  • Our small hiking group this summer allowed us a sense of normalcy during a mentally and physically challenging pandemic. Hiking provided the perfect outlet for our need to stay safe and stay connected. I look forward to continuing our hikes this winter as COVID cases continue to rise and our fears and anxieties fester. Fresh air, friends and physical fitness are the remedies that will get us through this darker than usual winter. (Sheila)
  • Hiking has become a regular component of our self-care, especially since Covid. Everyone in our hiking group decided that we need to make time for this self-care ritual. For me, when I immerse myself in nature, combined with the methodical pace of hiking, I am soothed. And as a group, we are sharing this experience. Often we find ways to avoid, replace, or distract us from self-care. The hiking group has kept us all accountable and motivated to keep it a priority. We will continue even in tougher weather as part of our commitment. Self-care is non-negotiable. And snow and cold add a layer of physical challenge. (Marnie)
  • I am likely to continue group hiking over the winter because I’ve found a great group of like minded women who have a desire to challenge themselves to get outdoors, stay in shape and enjoy a beer. (Julie)

Exercise. Support. Clarity. Check-ins. Safety. Normalcy. Accountability. Motivation. Challenge. Sharing experiences. Self-care (which for our group usually includes enjoying a beer during or after the hike). I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Friends hike the Elgin Trail. Photo by Elan Paulson (CC-BY SA ND NC)

One person isn’t joining us for an upcoming hike due to a recent COVID-19 outbreak at her workplace. Here’s what she said:

  • I enjoy doing sports that are social. Hiking in this respect is social, and as Sarah said, for our mental well being this is so important! It might also be the laughing that happens is also food for the soul. Hiking is in the outdoors, and you don’t touch things, so the risk of spread is super low as long as people are hiking a bit apart. I feel our group has been smart and conscientious of our social distancing, while being able to enjoy and look forward to outdoor activities. Still, I will continue group hiking after this gets resolved at work. I don’t want to cause anyone stress.

Even when we hike outdoors together, we can’t forget to be vigilant about staying safe.

So, if you’ve been practicing physical distancing and you’re not showing signs of illness, grab a few friends (well, don’t grab them) and head outside for a winter hike. There are so many good reasons to do it. If you’re looking for a new crew, there are meetup.com hiking groups available. Choose a group with clear safety practices that follow local health guidelines.

A woman walks across a small wooden slat bridge in the forest with leaves on the ground
Marnie M. hikes the Elgin Trail. Photo by Elan Paulson (CC-BY SA ND NC)
two temperature taps, hot and cold Midsummer heat too much? Try cold exercise…
fitness · temperature and exercise

Midsummer heat too much? Try cold exercise…

catherine w3 Comments

Some people are never satisfied with the weather. When it’s cold outside, they yearn for warm summer breezes. When that breeze comes, it’s either too windy, or it’s too darn hot.

Me? I love love love the summer and the heat that comes with it. I do have my limits, though. In Scottsdale, Arizona for a few days before a trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, temps hit 108F/42C. That’s too much for me. But at 7000 feet above sea level, the south rim of the Canyon was great. And Sedona, although hot and dry (upper 90sF/35-36C), provided us with delicious swimming holes with delicious cold water. I love love loved it– the water was cold but refreshing and invigorating (no euphemisms here– it really was great).

  • Me, floating on a log with Leah, aquatic 14-year-old.
    Me, floating by a log with Leah, aquatic 14-year-old.
  • Me treading water– no hands!

But suppose you don’t have the benefit of cold fresh (or salt) water at your disposal? What can a cold-seeking person do in the midst of summer to move around chillily? Of course there’s always Newfoundland and Labrador, which are plenty cool enough– just ask Samantha, Cate, Susan, Sarah, David, and the rest of their recent bike trip crowd. You can read more about their cold cycling adventures here and here.

But suppose you just want to experience the rush of cold during a gym or yoga workout. Is there such a thing? Of course there is. This New York Times article talks about gyms that specialize in colder-temperature workouts. One in particular, a gym called Brrrn, features souped-up gimmicky (IMO) cardio, using ropes and slide boards and weights and such like.

Instructor sliding on board with arms up, near a bunch of coiled ropes all in a row. Photo by Dolly Faibyshev for the NY Times.
Instructor sliding on board with arms up, near a bunch of coiled ropes all in a row. Photo by Dolly Faibyshev for the NY Times.

Brrrn used to offer cold yoga-like classes, but their website no longer shows them. Pity that, because I have often said that I would love a lower-temperature yoga class. In fact, I searched all over the internet for minutes on end, and haven’t found one. Sure, there are lots of links to “cold indoor yoga”, but in the end, all my leads have gone, well, cold.

Obligatory response to cornball attempt at joke (ba dum tsssh...)
Obligatory response to cornball attempt at joke (ba dum tsssh…)

Why would anyone want to do physical activity in cold temperatures? People (including me) cite their hard limits to heat tolerance that curtail or even rule out hot-weather workouts. I don’t do well cycling in hot temperatures, although I do better over time if I keep it up consistently. This strategy, by the way, is endorsed by none other than the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, where I found this rather detailed article (including graphs tracking rectal temperatures– these people are serious) about acclimating to aerobic exercise in heat.

There’s been a lot of press about the idea that cold weather workouts are more fat-burning, and that cold exposure promotes the conversion of white fat (“bad”) to beige fat (“sort of good but not as good as brown fat, which is really good”). There is some preliminary science suggesting that exposure to slightly colder temperatures over time can help convert white fat to brown fat (as usual, this study was done on 21-year-old men). Even so, exposure to warm temperatures reverses the effect. As for cold-weather workouts burning more fat— despite the hype, there’s just not research out there to support the claim. (If you find studies, please put them in the comments! I’d love to see them).

Back to exercise in a chill(y) environment just for purposes of fun and variety: from what I have found (through minutes on end of searching), commercial cold-room indoor gym exercise or yoga hasn’t caught on (yet). If Brrrn is still open the next time I go to NYC, I am definitely trying it (with my friend Martin, who is game for just about anything).

In the meantime, there’s plenty of refreshing cool and cold water around where I live for a chill swim workout.

And it’s good to remember that to every thing there is a season. And a time for every purpose. Including Snow-ga. Which may or may not be a thing. See below and check out this article.

A person doing yoga in backbend with one leg up, on mat on pack ice next to an iceberg. Brrrr...
A person doing a backbend with one leg up, on a yoga mat on pack ice next to an iceberg. Brrrr…

Are you enjoying being active in the heat? Are you avoiding it? How does the heat affect your activity schedules and regimens? I’d love to hear from you.