What do you do to keep your energy up?

Particularly in the summer time when the dojo is sweltering. I know it's mostly the heat sucking all the hydration out, but what is your trick to getting a good session or two in when the heat sets in? Water, gatorade, other?

Phil Johnston wrote: Particularly in the summer time when the dojo is sweltering. I know it's mostly the heat sucking all the hydration out, but what is your trick to getting a good session or two in when the heat sets in? Water, gatorade, other?

Air conditioning.

Greg Maroda wrote: Air conditioning.

Haha, that's not an option right now. I'm just happy this dojo has fans.

helping out a friend who is training for marathon, so using the same approach.

hydrate way before, during and after practice. use Clif Shot Bloks before and during (don't forget to drink plenty of water with it). end of practice drink one of those small Ensure nutritional shake bottle within 30 min after end of practice. take 1-2 hour nap.

convince your dojo to practice in a pool (clothing optional although you need to be careful with irimi)

@Phi Truong
I didn't know about these Clif Shot Bloks before, but I've used their bars. I'll look into that thank you. I also used to know a girl who took the Ensure nutritional shakes. I'll look into those again. Thanks!

coffee/caffine

Ensure....meh.....association of geriatric docs correctly calls them liquid candy. Sugar and chemicals. Better of with chocolate milk, or if lactose intolerant, soy milk or almond milk.

Clif Shot Blocs are good for prolonged exercise. A one-hour class isn't really prolonged. I'd use them after a couple of hours in hot weather, only if I was going right into more activity with no opportunity for replacing electrolytes through a better source. We frequently leave our two-hour Saturday morning class to spend a couple of hours or more working in the dojo garden, so that's where it might make some sense, but only if you couldn't get some oranges and water and chocolate milk.

edit: and oh yeah, sleep. You can't ignore the basics of sleep, hydration in nutrition and then count on some magic pill to fix the problem.

How long are your sessions? Ordinary water and short rest periods should suffice to allow 1-2 hours of exertion for someone with ordinary fitness. A Snickers Bar (or equivalent) should provide plenty of sugar for 2 hours.

My experience doing hard labor in all conditions shows that going hard for more than 2 hours without stopping to rest for several minutes will drain you out and you'll need several hours to recover.

If you want to train your body to burn fat, however, don't eat before or during a session. The downside is less energy and you'll likely suffer a brain fog after 90+ minutes. But it definitely will train your metabolism.

Exercise doesn't really burn that many calories and exercise in the heat replaces the need to burn calories to maintain body temp. But you need a supply of glucose to keep the brain working and maximize strength.

Be really careful not to drink too much water - just enough to replace loss due to sweat and expiration. The kidneys slow down under hard exercise - and you can become waterlogged if you over hydrate and you can get hyponatremia (which can be lethal).

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c...n/con-20031445

I would get electrolytes from the local supplement shop/pharmacy. Mix those with your water, and drink a full bottle of it an hour before your session. This is what we would do when playing football in the heat down south and we never had someone get over-exhausted.

People forget that hydration needs to be a daily thing, not just tanking up the camel before hitting the dojo. Lots of water, daily, whether you are training that day or not is the trick to survival.

My go-to ergogenic aid (and the one I suggest most often to patients) is caffeine. YMMV.

And if I eat anything within an hour before class on a hot day, I will turn into a slug.

I listen to the Clancy Brothers sing Moonshiner, then I do that.

"I'll eat when I'm hungry, and drink when I'm dry. And if moonshine dont kill me, I'll live til I die."

That, and sometimes preload a couple vitamin I (Ibuprofen), also known as aikido candy. Postload the ethanol. I tried preloading the ethanol once.

For mainly during and after training, I make half-strength sports drink from the powder.

About 2 hours before training I drink a couple of glasses of water at least, sometimes a glass or two of the sports drink I'm making up. I found if I just drank water that my sweat would turn to water from lack of electrolytes, and I had bad side effects from that.

Amos Barnett wrote: For mainly during and after training, I make half-strength sports drink from the powder. About 2 hours before training I drink a couple of glasses of water at least, sometimes a glass or two of the sports drink I'm making up. I found if I just drank water that my sweat would turn to water from lack of electrolytes, and I had bad side effects from that.

And if you drink just straight water to pre-load, your kidneys get to work on getting back to normal concentrations.

Gummy bears

Peter Rehse wrote: Gummy bears

not gummy bears, but grizzly bears. nothing like a grizzly bear to give you a quick burst of energy. you don't have to out run the bear, just make sure you run faster than your dojo mates.

Flap-jack.