AC or not?

[drop bear]

I'm better adapted for heat than for cold. During winter I can train hard enough to work up a good sweat and still have my toes going numb from the cold mats.

Grappling socks.

 

[Ironbear24]

Its usually like 100 degrees here and in the dojo it gets much worse. It's a repurposed garage or something to work on cars. It's a pretty big space but insulation isn't all that good.

We have two massive fans and that helps out but there is no AC at all. We also have lots of water and everyone is required to bring their own water. If not they literally get punished with 50 push ups and we given a bottled a water.

 

[JR 137]

We have a small window unit AC that rarely gets turned on. And when it does get turned on, it's usually about 15 minutes before class starts. By the end of class (1 hour), the humidity gets cut down a little, and the temp goes down about 5 degrees at most. It motivated me to finally break down and buy the Shureido middleweight gi I've been wanting for a while now. Just got it, so I have to shrink it and get it tailored. By the time it actually fits right, I'm sure this heat and humidity wave we've been having will be over.

I'm usually a sweaty mess in February. I've taken it to a new level the past week or three.

 

[drop bear]

Your body has to burn calories to cool you.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I was just wondering what percentage of practitioners here have air conditioning in their training hall.

My gym is a re-purposed warehouse. Very large, high ceilings, lots of room for multiple mats, rings, and cages, but that makes it pretty much impossible to keep cool. In the summer it generally feels at least 10 degrees hotter and significantly more humid than outdoors. That makes it real fun on weeks like this last one when temperatures have been in the mid-90s and humidity has been around 70-80%. Wearing a heavy gi in those temperatures feels really stupid, but it least it absorbs most of the sweat. I did a capoeira class on Saturday and was worried I was going to slip and drown in the lake of sweat that formed on the mat around me within the first 15 minutes.

My advice for anyone else training under these conditions - pre-hydrate as much as possible. If you wait until you're already working out to start guzzling the fluids it's really difficult to catch up. I start loading my system with water and Gatorade at least a couple of hours before my workout and then just keep sucking down as much liquid as I can as I go along.

Every place I've ever trained (since 1982) has been air-conditioned. I'm not sure it would be safe around here to not have AC in a building if training indoors year-round, since some days are over 100 and buildings without AC can get well above that (with 90%+ humidity).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Your body has to burn calories to cool you.

This doesn't sound right. Can you point me to a source to read about it?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

My lord, 96 degrees and 96% humidity! How do you survive? You must have gills just to breathe. I can't imagine doing chi-sau under those conditions. It must be more like slime-sau. And BJJ turns into slime grappling? ...ewww!

Really Danny, come to Arizona and see how relatively comfortable 110 can be when the humidity is low.

I remember running in Phoenix at 4:30 AM one Summer. It was already around 90. It was better than 90 is here, but it was still HOT.

 

[drop bear]

This doesn't sound right. Can you point me to a source to read about it?

How Does Heat Affect Fat Burning?

 

[tubby]

we train in a school hall, so no AC. There are ceiling fans, but they only really have an effect if you are right below one. Being a polished wood floor, and me being a heavy sweater, balance can be a real issue in summer. Could be worse though, our central dojang is besser blocks and a tin roof (a scout hall). I've been there 3 times for gradings and got lucky that it was 2 winter visits and probably the coolest summer day that year.

 

[kuniggety]

This has got me thinking. I don't remember ever training anywhere with sufficient cooling. I honestly don't remember from my Kung fu days or karate from way before then. These last few years I've trained in Tokyo, Bangkok, and Hawaii. In Tokyo, in the winter, we could just open the windows and it would keep it cool for BJJ practice. In summer it was terrible. In Bangkok, I would be sweating buckets just heading to class. I love Thailand but it is miserably hot and humid in the summer. I took Chen family Taiji too while I was living Bangkok and we practiced in a parking garage so, yeah, no AC. In Hawaii, the first time around it was in a place with no AC. Where I practice now has AC but it doesn't keep up well with a room full of people working out.

 

[Tez3]

Here we have fans which can be used a couple of days a year, if we are lucky.
My daughter spent some time in Thailand, she said the same as kuniggety about the humidity, she has long hair which she'd have to tie up in a scarf or it would become horrendous (her words), she went up north though where she said it was much better.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Here we have fans which can be used a couple of days a year, if we are lucky.

Well, yeah.... but you live in England, where the answer to "When is summer?" is "Last year, it was on a Tuesday."

 

[Tez3]

Well, yeah.... but you live in England, where the answer to "When is summer?" is "Last year, it was on a Tuesday."

Oh it's not living in England, it's living in North Yorkshire. My daughter lives in Newmarket Suffolk and they have gloriously hot summers as does most of the south of England. As they say 'it's grim oop North'.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Oh it's not living in England, it's living in North Yorkshire. My daughter lives in Newmarket Suffolk and they have gloriously hot summers as does most of the south of England. As they say 'it's grim oop North'.

How are you defining "hot?" I ask, because we're at about 35C every day, here...

 

[Tez3]

How are you defining "hot?" I ask, because we're at about 35C every day, here...

Hot up here would be not having to have the heating on lol. 20/21C in August would be a good day. Our weather forecast for this week. Weather in yorkshire dales - 16 day weather forecast

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Hot up here would be not having to have the heating on lol. 20/21C in August would be a good day. Our weather forecast for this week. Weather in yorkshire dales - 16 day weather forecast

Wow, that's what counts as "hot" there? That's possible in any month except January and February here - rare in December/March, but not unheard of. Our summers get into the high-30's (to stay with C) and can get up to around 40C - with very high humidity (in the 90%+ range frequently).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Your body has to burn calories to cool you.

I reviewed the article you referred me to. Nothing in it suggests the body burns more calories to cool you. It burns more calories because the same level of motion is more intense (requires more effort) when the temperature is hotter. Burning fuel (calories) produces heat (basic thermodynamics), which can never cool you.

 

[Tez3]

Wow, that's what counts as "hot" there? That's possible in any month except January and February here - rare in December/March, but not unheard of. Our summers get into the high-30's (to stay with C) and can get up to around 40C - with very high humidity (in the 90%+ range frequently).

We are quite high above sea level here and on the same latitude as North Denmark, down south especially in the West country they have the benefit of the Gulf Stream which keeps the place warmer.

 

[kuniggety]

My daughter spent some time in Thailand, she said the same as kuniggety about the humidity, she has long hair which she'd have to tie up in a scarf or it would become horrendous (her words), she went up north though where she said it was much better.

It's both a few deg cooler in Chiang Mai (NW) and is slightly lower in humidity compared to BKK. It does feel much better up there. I haven't been to Isaan (NE) so I can't compare there.

 

[KenpoMaster805]

we have AC and Fan