It’s been a sweltering summer so far, and the heat isn’t going away any time soon. Maintaining a solid — and responsible — training routine in this kind of weather can be a real challenge.
We’ve talked a lot about warm and hot weather martial arts training in this blog over the years. We’ve shared tips for working out in the summer heat and tips for staying as cool as possible during that training. We’ve also looked at what kind of exercise and training gear can help you beat the heat.
But no matter how smartly you train and how well you prepare, there are going to be days where you can’t train exactly the way you want to. Sometimes it’s just too hot to participate in any higher intensity workouts, drills, or sparring. And sometimes it’s so hot — or the air quality is so bad — that even modified versions of your usual training become a little too risky. Even if you’re hydrating properly, monitoring for signs of heat stroke, and wearing the best possible hot weather ProForce training gear.
So what can you do instead? Well, you can take a bonus rest day. Rest is a vital component of any type of martial arts or fitness training, after all! Or you can look into some low intensity and low impact drills and cross-training opportunities that are more appropriate for the dog days of summer.
Here are five activities that can keep you moving when the air is more heated than any rivalry.
Core Training
A blistering hot day with an air quality warning isn’t the time to break out your favourite high intensity ab routine. But you can put together a series of lower intensity exercises that can maintain — or even improve — your core strength, core stability, and overall balance. That includes planks, Russian twists, slow inchworms, bicycle crunches, dead bugs, and even standing on one leg. You can also add some Pilates moves to this mix, but we recommend sticking to more basic moves like the roll up and single leg stretch. If the heat tends to make you feel sluggish or confused, save the more complicated moves for a cooler day.
Core work is an extremely important part of any cross-training program for any martial art. Power, strength, and stability are all generated from that part of that body. Any work you do on your core during your light training days will pay off when you can get back to the tougher stuff. All you’ll need is a mat and some light and airy clothing like a ProForce Sport® Logo T-Shirt and ProForce® 5 Oz. Karate Shorts.
Flexibility and Mobility Training
You’ve heard of hot yoga, but what about heat wave yoga?
Seriously, though, a gentle and methodical stretching/mobility routine is a great way to add some responsible movement to a day that’s too hot for anything else. And just like core work, even the lightest intensity flexibility and mobility training can help make you a better martial artist in the long run. A solid range of motion through your joints can make everything from your strikes to your throws to your submissions moves more technical, powerful, and overall effective.
All you’ll need is a mat, some light and loose ProForce clothing, and a few slow and gentle moves from classic stretching, yoga, animal flow, or Pilates.
Light Shadowboxing
Shadowboxing is a great form of exercise for strikers and anyone else who loves a fun and effective workout. Even a few minutes of shadowboxing at a time can improve your cardio, muscular endurance, techniques, focus, and overall body awareness.
We don’t recommend doing the kind of shadowboxing that works on the first two in extremely hot weather. But you can do really slow and precise shadowboxing that really helps you narrow in on the fine details of your striking techniques. Going slow can also help to develop your patience and mental focus.
All you really need for this one is any shirt and shorts that will keep you cool in this weather. If you’re training in bare feet, a mat or a pair of Hy-Gens will help keep your the soles of your feet and the surface of your floors in a better state. If you’re not, a pair of ProForce® Velocity Shoes can help your feet feel more comfortable supported.
Light Solo Grappling Drills
If you’re a grappler, we have similar suggestions and warnings for you. Solo drills, including sit outs, triangle choke set ups, and hip escapes, are also great for developing the cardio, muscular strength, endurance, balance, agility, and body awareness you need for takedowns, submission attempts, sweeps, and defences. But you probably don’t want to go too hard or too fast when it’s hot. Heat warning days aren’t the best time to work on your sprawls, for example.
What you can do, though, is slow things right down and really fine-tune your movements. Performing a series of classic solo drills as gently and methodically as you can will help to make you a more technical, precise, and focussed martial artist.
And all you need for this one are some jigsaw mats, a light weight uniform or other light clothing that will keep you cool and cut down on how much you stick to those mats.
Watching and Visualizing
Of course, there are some types of weather and some circumstances that aren’t ideal for any type of training no matter how careful you are. Sometimes the weather is just too hot or the air quality is just too close to the danger zone. In those cases, you can take a day off. Again, rest is a key component of any good training routine. But if you really want to do something, you can do what martial artists do when they’re sidelined with an injury: watch.
Off days are a great opportunity to work on your mental game. That can include watching videos of your own performance, watching an instructional video, reviewing stretching techniques or striking points, watching or reading interviews with other martial artists you admire, or even closing your eyes and visualizing what you want to do when it’s cool and clear enough to train again. Learning from doing isn’t the only way to become a better martial artist. You can also learn from observation.
