4 Tips For Keeping Your Cool During Summer Workouts

Welcome to July, the land of heat and humidity. Where exercising can become downright uncomfortable. Because it’s important to keep up a regular exercise routine year round, I thought today I would share four of my favourite tips for keeping your cool during summer workouts.

1. Take It Inside (where it’s air-conditioned)

There comes a point when exercising outside simply isn’t safe when the heat and/or humidity get too high. In those cases it’s time to dust off the weights in your basement, dig out that gym membership, or hit up a local fitness class where the atmosphere is more agreeable. That doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t get hot while working out, it just means that you will be staying in a much safer temperature range compared to what it would be if you were outside. Just the other day I had someone in an air-conditioned class complain that they were too hot, but it wasn’t because the room was too warm – they were just hot from exercise. That’s sort of the nature of the beast when you are doing cardio 😉 so expect to still get hot and sweaty, but hopefully to a safer degree than out in the heat/humidity.

2. If You Do Exercise Outside Opt For Mornings or Evenings

If outside is your only option in the summer, make sure you get your workout in during the morning or evening when the sun isn’t at its highest. Exercising in the mid-day sun is a recipe for dehydration and heat exhaustion. No bueno.

3. Drink Up!

Regardless of where you are exercising, make sure you hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. If you’ve had an especially sweaty workout drinking plain water won’t be enough, you’ll also need to replenish your electrolytes. My favourite electrolyte replacement is Vega Sport Electrolyte Hydrator but there are lots of great options out there. It’s so much easier to get dehydrated in the summer, so please if you only do one thing on this list, make it hydration!!

4. Cool Off!

Literally! Regardless of what you do to try to keep your cool, in the summer (and year round) we can still easily overheat if we work too hard or exercise in the wrong environment. When that happens you need to cool down quickly. In the past I’ve always taken a wet face cloth with me to events when I knew there was a good chance I would overheat. It’s amazing what a cold towel on the neck can do to cool you down. But now I’ve got an even better solution, the EnduraCool® Instant Cooling Towel!

This lightweight towel contains proprietary technology that cools to 17C below average body temperature when wet to help cool you down, and stays cool for hours. It’s reusable, machine washable and chemical-free. I was fortunate enough to have one of the EnduraCool® Instant Cooling Towels sent to me by MISSION and in the short time I’ve had it, it has quickly become one of my summer must haves! Not only does it cool you down like it claims, it also looks a whole lot cooler than wearing a wet face cloth or hand towel around your shoulders!

EnduraCool® products are sold exclusively in Canada at your local Canadian Tire or Sport Chek store. The EnduraCool® Towel retails for $19.99 CAD and the EnduraCool® Multi-Cool™ sells for $29.99 CAD. The XL EnduraCool® Tech Knit Towel is exclusive to Sport Chek in Canada and retails for $29.99 CAD.

Disclosure: MISSION sent me one of their EnduraCool® Instant Cooling Towels free of charge. I was not required to write this or any post talking about the product, but I liked it so much I wanted to tell you all about it. As always all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.