Fitness

Working out in the heat can help you get fitter

Published

1 year ago

August 11, 2024

Working out in the heat can help you get fitter

Hot, humid days are already uncomfortable—now imagine that discomfort multiplied as you go all-out during an evening pickleball game or lunchtime run. For some, that heat can be enough to make you not want to exercise outside at all.

But, now is the time to use that workout inspiration we’re all getting from the summer Olympics—because, according to experts, working out in the heat can help us get fitter, if we do it correctly.

Why is exercising in the heat so hard?

Higher temperatures and stifling humidity make the body work harder.

“I always think that exercise and heat is a big cardiovascular challenge,” says Chris Byrne, registered physiotherapist and senior lecturer at the University of Exeter.

That’s because our cardiovascular system has to juggle two substantial jobs: circulating blood, oxygen, and metabolic fuel to our muscles, and cooling our bodies down.

“There’s competing demands. Some of…the cardiac output from the heart needs to be channeled into losing heat,” Byrne says. “That can start causing problems.”

That’s when what Byrne calls “heart rate drift” can happen. In cooler conditions, your heart rate will remain steady while maintaining the same effort during exercise. In the heat, despite running at the same speed, for example, heart rate starts to drift up. “And that is a sign of the cardiovascular system putting more focus on heat loss,” Byrne says.

What is heat adaptation?

“Our physical fitness in the hot environment can certainly be improved through things like heat training,” says Chris J. Tyler, who researches the impact of environmental extremes on the human body at the University of Roehampton in Britain.

With properly paced and progressive training, our bodies can not only adjust to heat, but we’ll also be able to work out harder at hotter temperatures, Tyler says.

That’s where three vital physical adaptations come in:

lower core body temperature
higher blood volume, which leads to higher stroke volume—the amount of blood ejected by heart beats
lower resting heart rate.

Those adaptations interact to make your cardiovascular system function more efficiently, with a higher volume of blood leaving the heart per minute, Byrne explains.

Heat adaptation leads to a lower resting core body temperature in order to improve our ability to lose heat, Byrne says. Our body temperature can lower from the standard 98.6 F to as low as 97.7 F—giving us a lower starting temperature as we begin exercising, meaning we’ll start sweating earlier, cooling down earlier, and we won’t get as hot as quickly.

Byrne says we also start to sweat earlier at our newly lowered body temperature. That means our bodies have adapted to trigger heat loss mechanisms more quickly, which helps us cool down.

With these adaptations, you can reach much higher cardiac outputs—or much harder efforts—during exercise, Byrne says.

“These adaptations allow the heart to function more efficiently to meet those dual tasks of supplying fuel to working muscles and losing heat from working muscles,” Byrne says.

Here’s how safely heat train

Heat adaptations can occur quite quickly, says Tyler, if you do it right.

“The adaptation isn’t getting hot—it’s getting hot and staying hot,” Tyler says. “It’s not how long you exercise for, it’s how long you’re hot.”

Byrne advises to work out for at least 30 minutes every day, or 60 minutes every other day, if you’re running or cycling—at whatexperts would call “submaximal effort.”

Even if your heart is pounding in the heat, your core temperature may not be high enough to reap heat adaptation benefits. It’s most ideal to get that core temperature high and keep it high for at least 30 minutes, Byrne says, since it takes a longer time for body temperature to rise and fall than it does heart rate.

You can start to see those benefits as soon as five to seven days into daily training, Tyler says. If you’re exercising more like every other day, then he says you can expect to see those adaptations in about two weeks, maybe sooner.

When it comes to other types of exercise—like pickleball, tennis, or football—which include high intensity intervals, Byrne says heat adaptation is possible, even with brief rest periods between sets or games, since body temperature takes a while to fall.

“With something like tennis, you’ll probably see a rise in body temp, and if there’s a break in between sets you’ll probably see a subtle fall, but quickly it’ll be back up again,” Byrne says.

Even with adaptations, training in hot conditions is hard, especially when you first start out. Tyler says the key is to start slow, gradually increasing the difficulty.

“Just like you wouldn’t go to the gym and instantly try and lift 400 pounds, you might start light and get heavier as you progress,” Tyler says. If you go too quickly, he warns, you could get injured or suffer from heat-related illnesses. On the other hand, if you don’t increase the difficulty at all, you likely won’t see your fitness progress much.

Starting slowly can look like going for a 30-minute jog with walk breaks, Byrne says, and then building up gradually from there.

The average athlete should pay attention to heart rate and rate of perceived effort, or RPE, Tyler says. Once you see your heart rate lower during the same workouts and feel that they become easier than when you first started heat training, that’s when you feel those adaptations happening in real time.

How to stay safe in the heat

Safety should be your number one priority. Heat illnesses are real—and can be deadly in the most extreme cases.

Byrne advises to only exercise in what you can handle—if you feel you’re overheating, slow down or stop immediately and cool down. Humidity can be a dangerous factor as well, he says, as the moisture in the air prevents you from sweating—one of the most vital things our body does to cool down.

Here’s advice from experts and the CDC on how to stay safe while going after summer goals:

Stay hydrated. Byrne advises to keep fluids and electrolytes on hand, especially for if you’re working out longer than 60 minutes.
Don’t over hydrate: drinking too much plain water can be dangerous.
Take it slow. Byrne advises beginners to start with something like a 30-minute jog with one-minute walking intervals dispersed throughout.
Take some time off if you’re sick or have been sick recently.
Slow down or stop if you feel overheated.
Drink more water than usual, and don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink more.
Wear loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing.
Look for signs of heat illnesses. Seek shade and hydrate immediately if you feel symptoms like dizziness, delirium, nauseousness, headaches, or muscle cramps.
People over 65—who aren’t marathon runners or highly trained—and children should avoid strenuous outdoor activity in the summer heat.

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Fitness

Enter 2026 stronger than ever with these expert-approved fitness tips

Published

9 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

Enter 2026 stronger than ever with these expert-approved fitness tips

Whether you’re focused on building muscle, improving your balance or working on your ability to complete longer, sustained workouts, one thing’s for sure: you’ll need to take small, actionable steps to reach your fitness goals.

Remember, you don’t need to drastically overhaul your life on January 1. In fact, before making any major changes to your dietary pattern and exercise routine, it’s best to have a conversation with your doctor first, especially if you live with any chronic conditions. In the long run, you’ll most benefit from taking small, actionable steps to help achieve your fitness and nutrition goals, the experts say.

We asked fitness experts to break down their top tips to help you kick off 2026 stronger than ever.

How to fit exercise into a busy schedule

If you’re hitting the reset button on your fitness routine, start small and choose an exercise you enjoy, says Dr. Kimberly Burbank, a primary care sports medicine fellow and team physician at UCLA Athletics. You don’t necessarily need to do the movements traditionally associated with exercise to get a good workout in, either. “I really encourage people to choose (a movement) they actually enjoy doing, because they will probably stick with it more,” she says.

To help set attainable fitness goals, one route is to use the SMART framework of goal setting, recommends Dr. Brandee L. Waite, a professor and vice chair of Wellness & Community Engagement Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at UC Davis School of Medicine, the medical director of the UC Davis Health Sports Medicine Clinic and the director of Lifestyle & Longevity Medicine Innovation.

The SMART acronym stands for goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound, and what’s great about using this framework in an exercise context is that you’re able to approach fitness as you would any other appointment — if it’s scheduled on your calendar, there’s a greater likelihood you’ll honor it, Waite says.

When it comes to fitting exercise into a busy schedule, “I try to encourage consistency over perfection,” Burbank says. Often, her patients will express frustration that they’ve missed a week of exercise — and therefore their entire workout schedule has been thrown off. While it’s important to “be as consistent as you can, (understand) that you don’t have to be perfect to still make a meaningful difference,” she says.

If you’re someone who prefers to exercise in the morning, try to make it easy for yourself when you wake up. “It’s so easy when that alarm goes off to just ignore it and move on. But if you have laid out your clothes the night before, have your coffee prepped (and) have your bag packed, then there’s so many (fewer) variables and barriers,” Burbank says.

How often should you exercise?

There’s no perfect cadence as to how often you should exercise. “What works really well for one person, will not work at all for another person. So, it does need to be personalized and realistic,” says Waite. However, there is something to be said about shorter, more frequent workouts. There’s a lower risk of injury, and they’re faster to complete and generally easier to stay consistent with, Burbank says.

Ultimately, what’s most important is to meet a certain number of goal minutes every week, says Dr. Julia L. Iafrate, a sports medicine physician at NYU Langone Health and a team physician for the U.S. Ski Team. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend adults participate in 150-to-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week. While this might sound intimidating, that breaks down to only 30 minutes of exercise a day over the course of five days, and could consist of a mix of pilates, yoga or brisk walking.

If you prefer vigorous-intensity aerobic exercises (like HIIT or running), it’s recommended you complete at least 75 minutes a week, which evens out to a little more than 20 minutes of exercise a day over the course of three days. On top of these exercises, the organizations suggest adults should partake in muscle-strengthening workouts at least two days a week.

What are the most beginner-friendly exercises?

There are a few forms of exercise that should be a central focus of your workouts: cardio, muscle strengthening and balance work. Practicing each type of exercise can help improve your ability to do the others and also reduce your risk of injury, Iafrate says.

Cardio. Incorporating aerobic exercises that get your heart rate up (such as running, swimming or cycling) is key to improving endurance, supports heart and lung health, and lowers your risk for a number of chronic diseases, Iafrate says.
Muscle strengthening. Resistance training with weights stimulates two types of muscle contractions: eccentric loading and concentric loading. When you perform a bicep curl with a dumbbell in hand, that’s considered a concentric motion. As you lower the dumbbell and your arm straightens, that is an eccentric motion, Iafrate says. Both movements are important for strength building, tendon health and bone mineral density, she explains.
Balance work. Functional movement training, including tai chi and yoga, is especially beneficial for maintaining flexibility, stabilizing your body and limiting the likelihood of falls down the line, Iafrate says.
Weight-bearing exercise. “Walking, especially for beginners, is super underrated,” Burbank says. Getting your step count up to 7,000 steps a day offers immense benefits for health, including lowering your risk for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, according to a 2025 study published in Lancet Public Health.

If you’re relatively new to exercise and don’t know what is helpful or harmful, Waite recommends having at least two-to-three sessions with a physical therapist to develop the right type of exercise program. For instance, if someone has a medical condition like hip arthritis, a professional can provide “modifications for a regular fitness training program that won’t further exacerbate the problem that is currently bothering them,” Waite says.

How can nutrition support fitness goals?

“Nutrition and exercise have such a symbiotic relationship,” Burbank says. Throughout your week, prioritize whole, fiber-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Americans aren’t consuming nearly enough protein, which is essential to muscle building, muscle recovery and satiety, Burbank notes. Your minimum daily intake of protein should hover between 0.8 grams to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. To increase your protein intake, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 recommends incorporating more lean meats, poultry, eggs, seafood, legumes, nuts, seeds and soy into your diet.

Hydration is particularly important, especially prior to working out. “When you’re dehydrated, (it will) increase your likelihood for fatigue and poor peak performance,” Iafrate says. Ideally, we should be drinking between 2.5 to 3 liters of water a day, Burbank says.

Fitness

New Year’s Fitness Goals: Avoid These Common Mistakes

Published

6 days ago

December 29, 2025

Press Room

A new year usually brings new fitness goals, fueling spikes in gym memberships and social media feeds filled with workout selfies. Yet, just as quickly as this wave of motivation appears, it usually recedes.

Why does this cycle repeat itself year after year? Well-meaning individuals often start with intense, all-or-nothing approaches that are difficult to sustain, fitness experts say. Life gets in the way, motivation wanes, and the pressure to see immediate results leads to burnout.

A commitment to fitness is a common challenge, and finding a solution is crucial for long-term success, according to Steven Hale, M.D., a primary care sports medicine physician with Baptist Health Orthopedic Care. To get expert advice on this topic, award-winning journalist Johanna Gomez hosted a new Baptist Healthtalk podcast featuring Dr. Hale.

He emphasizes that the most effective plan is one that fits into one’s life seamlessly.

“If it’s in your schedule every day, then you’re going to have to do something active,” Dr. Hale explains. “Whether that’s mobility, maybe you only have 20 or 15 minutes to stretch. Maybe you have an hour this one day because you got off work early. Now you can do some more strength training and maybe some increased cardio.”

This approach shifts the focus from overwhelming daily workouts to simply incorporating movement into your daily schedule. Building on this foundation of practical advice, Dr. Hale answered some of the most common questions about starting a new fitness routine.

I haven’t worked out in a long time. What’s a good way to start without getting overwhelmed or injured?

Dr. Hale: It really depends on your previous activity level and experience with exercise. Someone who was a college athlete or has a lot of experience can probably go back to the gym, start with lighter weights, and build from there. For someone who is less experienced or doesn’t enjoy the gym environment, I often recommend starting at home. You can look up fun follow-along exercise videos on platforms like YouTube.

Classes can also be a great option for those new to exercise, as they provide guidance from instructors. Personal trainers are another fantastic resource if they fit your budget. The key is to start slow to minimize your risk of injury. Don’t go too hard in the beginning. The first few workouts might not feel great as you get back in shape, so making it fun and enjoyable will help you stick with it longer.

Diet and exercise are both important, but which one should I focus on more if I want to see results?

Dr. Hale: As a doctor, I have to say they go hand-in-hand; I can’t recommend one without the other. Diet is just as important, if not more important, than exercise when it comes to seeing results quickly. In the short term, diet probably has a slight edge. We often talk about creating a calorie deficit for weight loss, which means the calories you consume should be less than the calories you burn.

It’s much easier to consume calories than it is to burn them. A single high-calorie meal can easily undo the effort of an hour-long workout. However, for long-term health, diet and exercise are equally important. What you put into your body for nutrients is just as vital as staying active. Instead of overhauling your entire diet at once, which is hard to stick to, try making one small, manageable change each week. For example, cut out one specific snack food or fast-food meal. This slow progression helps you build sustainable habits.

How do I know the difference between normal muscle soreness and an actual injury?

Dr. Hale: It’s a great question because many people enjoy the feeling of being sore after a good workout — it’s like a victory. Soreness is typically a dull ache that you feel after exercise, and it usually goes away within a few days. Pain that should concern you is more severe. On a pain scale of one to ten, anything greater than a three is something to pay attention to.

Concerning pain might also be sharp, or you might have felt a ‘popping’ sensation during your workout. Other warning signs include mechanical symptoms like a joint feeling unstable or locking up. These are more serious symptoms that indicate you should probably see an orthopedic specialist. It’s important to listen to your body and not push through sharp or worsening pain.

The phrase “no pain, no gain” is very popular. Is it true that I need to push through pain to make progress?

Dr. Hale: That is one of the first myths I address in my practice. The “no pain, no gain” philosophy is not a good approach for orthopedic health. If you feel pain, it’s a sign that there is inflammation in that area. Pushing through that pain will only worsen the inflammation and delay your recovery.

Instead of pushing through it, pain is a signal from your body to rest or modify your activities. Give the affected area time to heal and for the inflammation to calm down before you return to that specific exercise. If you continue to push through pain, you risk causing the issue to last longer or become more severe. You can likely push through discomfort that is less than a three out of ten on the pain scale, but anything more than that requires attention.

I want to stay consistent, but I’ve heard working out every day is bad. How often should I be exercising?

Dr. Hale: This depends on how you define ‘workout.’ If you’re doing intense strength training where you are really stressing your muscles, those muscles need time to recover. Overtraining can lead to inflammation, pain, and a higher risk of injury. In that case, you need to build recovery days into your schedule.

However, you can and should do something active every day. I recommend having something in your schedule daily because it makes it harder to use excuses and push it off. We can think of these as ‘mobility days’ versus ‘strength days.’ A mobility day could be stretching, yoga, or going for a walk. A strength day involves more intense activity like lifting weights or jogging. For example, a good plan could be three or four strength training days per week with active recovery like walking on the other days. This way, you are moving your body every day while still giving your muscles time to recover. Any activity is beneficial.

Fitness

Here’s how strong your grip should be in each decade of your life

Published

7 days ago

December 28, 2025

Press Room

Here’s how strong your grip should be in each decade of your life

I recently took a longevity fitness test, an element of which included a grip strength assessment with a hand dynamometer. Research links grip strength to longevity, as it is considered a good indicator of overall physical strength and risk of frailty, as well as neuromuscular function (or the connection between brain and muscle).

How is grip strength linked to longevity?

“Handgrip strength is measured with a handheld dynamometer as the peak force produced by a maximal isometric contraction of the forearm muscles. From research, it is proven to give a quick, reliable snapshot of global muscle strength and is considered a biomarker for physiological reserve, rather than just hand function,” explains Athanasios Tzoumaris, strength and conditioning coach at London-based gym and health clinic Hooke Fitness, where I took my test.

“Lower grip values are strongly associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality independent of age, existing medical conditions and body size,” he continues.

“Physiologically, weak grip reflects loss of muscle mass and neuromuscular function. It may also indicate chronic inflammation, greater frailty, as well as poor nutrition—factors that accelerate biological ageing.

“Clinically, it is used to case-find probable sarcopenia [age-related muscle loss] and to add prognostic information to routine assessments as it is inexpensive, reproducible and predictive of functional decline.”

As with muscle strength in general, grip strength naturally declines with age, “reflecting changes in muscle mass, neural drive and overall physiological resilience,” says Tzoumaris.

“In general, healthy adults reach peak grip strength in their late 20s to early 40s. From about age 50 onward, strength tends to fall by roughly 10% per decade, but maintaining resistance training and physical activity can significantly slow down this decline, keeping grip strength, and the health and longevity benefits it reflects, well above age-based norms.”

What are the best ways to monitor grip strength?

Experts agree that grip strength can be reliably monitored using handheld dynamometry testing. “For the sake of consistency of assessment, in-depth insights and interpretation of the results, as well as training recommendations, you would ideally refer to exercise specialists using a professional-grade dynamometer,” says Tzoumaris.

He told me that his high-tech contraption measures not only peak force (or maximal strength), “but also how quickly you get to that peak force, in milliseconds. The software then calculates asymmetries between limbs and other quite scientific metrics that involve a fair amount of physics, which you wouldn’t be able to replicate with an at-home device.”

For at-home testing, “there are fairly inexpensive dynamometers you can buy that produce acceptable testing results which may allow you to monitor progress, however they don’t offer the same insights into how an individual has achieved that score,” he explains.

At-home devices are likely not as sensitive, he adds, potentially leading to less accurate and certainly less detailed results. “But if you follow the same process each time you use it, you should be able to spot changes and trends over time in your scores.”

There are ways to track grip strength without a dynamometer, too. This could involve seeing how long you can hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand and timing it.

“Set a target time and see if you can achieve it. If you are not able to, stick to the same weight until you do achieve it. Once you are able to hold that weight for the target time, pick a slightly heavier weight and follow the same process,” he says.

“Testing this way would not give a direct representation of maximal grip strength, as it measures grip strength endurance—still a strength quality but different to maximal strength. However, it can still provide some insight into someone’s grip strength progress.”

Grip Strength Norms

So, roughly how strong should you expect your grip strength to be in each decade of your life? If you want to gauge your own grip strength, to see if you’re on track for your age, here, Tzoumaris has shared some examples of normative value ranges—below average, average and above average, by age and sex, that the gym uses to calculate the results of its handgrip test.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Men’s Grip Strength Norms By Age
Decade	Below average (kg) Advertisement	Average (kg)	Above average (kg)
20s	41.7	48.3 Advertisement	55
30s	38.7	46.8	55 Advertisement
40s	37.1	44.7	52.4
50s Advertisement	35.4	42.3	49.3
60s	30.6 Advertisement	37.6	44.6
70s	27.3	33.7 Advertisement	40.1
80s	21.9	28.1	34.2 Advertisement

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Women’s Grip Strength Norms By Age
Decade	Below average (kg)	Average (kg)	Above average (kg)
20s Advertisement	24.1	28.8	33.6
30s	24.9 Advertisement	29	33.2
40s	24.8	29.3 Advertisement	33.9
50s	22.4	26.6	30.9 Advertisement
60s	18.4	22.8	27.3
70s Advertisement	16.8	20	24.3
80s	17 Advertisement	19.9	22.9

How can you improve your grip strength?

A loaded carry is one way to work on your grip strength

(Image credit: Getty Images / SDI Productions)

Training grip strength can be done in and out of the gym, according to Tzoumaris. “You can improve your grip strength by consistently training the muscles of your hands, forearms, and wrists. The goal is to build both maximal strength (your peak force) and endurance (how long you can sustain it for).”

“In the gym, some simple but effective exercises include dead hangs from a pull-up bar, farmer’s carries with dumbbells or kettlebells, plate pinches for thumb strength (where you hold a weight plate in one hand with your thumb on one side and fingers on the other for as long as possible), and wrist curls to target the forearm flexors,” he explains.

“Outside the gym, even everyday actions like squeezing a hand gripper, tennis ball or carrying heavy shopping bags can help. Over time, this type of training improves your neuromuscular efficiency, enhancing both performance and everyday function.”