We all have been waiting for the summer to get here and now that it is here you may want to dial back your exercising if you're not doing it in a controlled space like a gym or climate controlled training facility. After all, with the summer also comes the humidity and that intense sun that drives up the temperature along with the ambient heat index. Both of which can cause some serious problems if you’re not watching out for them.

Exercising in hot weather puts extra stress on your body. If you don't take care when exercising in the heat, you risk serious illness. Both the exercise itself and the air temperature and humidity can increase your core body temperature. To help cool itself, your body sends more blood to circulate through your skin. This causes the heart to pump faster and for the blood to start rushing through your veins. If you’re not in good physical condition to start with, you need to dial back your exercising a bit in order to reduce that extra stress your heart is going to be facing. This time of year, most ER's see increasing patients brought in to them with heart-related conditions brought on by overexertion in the extreme heat.

And that myth that the more you sweat means your burning more calories is just that, a MYTH! Sweat is not a gauge of how hard you are working," Scott says. (Jenny Scott, MM-HR, NASM-CPT, CES, PES, FNS, Education Advisor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine) "Our bodies produce sweat as a way to cool down, so if anything, it's an indicator of how hot your body is. And hotter core temperatures don't equal more calories burned.

In fact, the fitter you are, the less you probably sweat. "As your body becomes more conditioned, it takes more intense exercise to increase your core body temperature and produce sweat," she says.

Still, if you're a hot, sweaty mess 10 minutes into your workout, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not fit. Different people have different numbers of sweat glands, so even a brisk walk to the mailbox can trigger sweat production in some women. On the flip side, if you're working hard and hardly sweating, you might be super-fit, blessed with minimal sweat glands, or dehydrated. After all, sweating depends on having water to spare.

To keep your tank full, Scott recommends downing about 24 ounces of water (that's about how much most sports bottles fit) before your warm-up and drinking about 8 more every 30 minutes throughout your sweat session. Keep sipping throughout the day, and keep in mind that if you feel thirsty, you're probably already dehydrated.

It’s important to realize that a climbing heat index needs to be taken into consideration when your exercising. Whether you're running, playing a pickup game of basketball or going for a power walk, take care when the temperature rises. If you exercise outdoors in hot weather.

To help cool itself, your body sends more blood to circulate through your skin. This leaves less blood for your muscles, which in turn increases your heart rate. If the humidity also is high, your body faces added stress because sweat doesn't readily evaporate from your skin. That pushes your body temperature even higher.

Heat-related illness
Heat cramps
Heat exhaustion
Heatstroke

Under normal conditions, your skin, blood vessels, and perspiration level adjust to the heat. But these natural cooling systems may fail if you're exposed to high temperatures and humidity for too long, you sweat heavily, and you don't drink enough fluids.

The result may be a heat-related illness. Heat-related illnesses occur along a spectrum, starting out mild but worsening if left untreated. Heat illnesses include:

Heat cramps: Heat cramps, sometimes called exercise-associated muscle cramps, are painful muscle contractions that can occur with exercise. Affected muscles may feel firm to the touch. You may feel muscle pain or spasms. Your body temperature may be normal.

Heat syncope and exercise-associated collapse: Heat syncope is a feeling of lightheadedness or fainting caused by high temperatures, often occurring after standing for a long period of time or standing quickly after sitting for a long period of time. Exercise-associated collapse is feeling lightheaded or fainting immediately after exercising, and it can occur especially if you immediately stop running and stand after a race or a long run.

Heat exhaustion: With heat exhaustion, your body temperature rises as high as 104 F (40 C), and you may experience nausea, vomiting, weakness, headache, fainting, sweating and cold, clammy skin. If left untreated, heat exhaustion can lead to heatstroke.

Heatstroke: Heatstroke is a life-threatening emergency condition that occurs when your body temperature is greater than 104 F (40 C). Your skin may be dry from lack of sweat, or it may be moist.

You may develop confusion, irritability, headache, heart rhythm problems, dizziness, fainting, nausea, vomiting, visual problems, and fatigue. You need immediate medical attention to prevent brain damage, organ failure or even death.

Pay attention to warning signs
During hot-weather exercise, watch for signs and symptoms of heat-related illness. If you ignore these symptoms, your condition can worsen, resulting in a medical emergency. Signs and symptoms may include:

Muscle cramps
Nausea or vomiting
Weakness
Fatigue
A headache
Excessive sweating
Dizziness or lightheadedness
Confusion
Irritability
Low blood pressure
Increased heart rate
Visual problems

If you develop any of these symptoms, you must lower your body temperature and get hydrated right away. Stop exercising immediately and get out of the heat. If possible, have someone stay with you who can help monitor your condition.

Measuring core body temperature with a rectal thermometer is essential to accurately determine the degree of heat injury. An oral, ear or forehead thermometer doesn't provide an accurate temperature reading for this purpose. In cases of heatstroke, due to confusion and mental status changes, you won't be able to treat yourself and you'll require emergency medical care. The most effective way of rapid cooling is the immersion of your body in a cold- or ice-water tub.

In cases of heat exhaustion, remove extra clothing or sports equipment. Make sure you are around people who can help you and assist in your care. If possible, fan your body or wet down your body with cool water.

You may place cool, wet towels or ice packs on your neck, forehead and under your arms, spray yourself with water from a hose or shower, or sit in a tub filled with cold water. Drink fluids such as water or a sports drink. If you don't feel better within about 20 minutes, seek emergency medical care.

Keeping an eye out for any of the above signs will give you a heads up to take the necessary steps to get your core body temperature down. But another good way to stay on top of your body’s stress while exercising in warmer temperatures is to keep an eye on your heart rate as well. One good way to do this is with a good Heart Rate Monitor, one like the Garmin Vivosport GPS Sport & Activity Tracker  This Smart Activity Tracker has a wrist-based heart rate monitor that uses Garmin's new "Elevate 24/7" wrist-based heart rate monitoring. With the heart rate data it collects, Vívosport is able to estimate your VO2 max and fitness age, 2 indicators of physical fitness that can improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your HRV (heart rate variability), which is used to calculate and display your stress level. Which is something you want to keep an eye on with the warmer weather. The goal of this continuous monitoring is to make you aware when physical or emotional sources cause your stress level to rise so you can find a way to relieve the pressure.

With the information available from your Garmin Vivosport along with paying attention to your physical condition while exercising you should be able to get the most out of your exercise routines while being safe as you exercise in this summertime heat.

Be smart, pay attention to your body, it will let you know when it needs attention, so DON’T ignore any warning signs it’s giving you!

I’m a big fan of all the new Marvel movies. One of my favorites is the Captain America films and the ones he is in with the Avengers. Watching those movies kind of makes everyone daydreams a little about how they would look if they were in the same shape as these superheroes. But if you look at their physique’s while they are definitely in great shape, none, except maybe the Hulk has an over-abundance of muscles rippling as they toss around those villains. So why are looking to get those large oversized muscles, when in doing so, most people later find that being muscle bound does not provide them with the overall endurance and for the most part strength to go the distance in a long, hard-fought athletic game. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a firm believer in strength training but I’ve also found that you need to find a balance in almost everything and training to be fit, strong and able to keep going, to me is a lot better than having your shirt stretched tight over large pecs and biceps!

After if you think about it, in watching most athletic games, most of these athletes and I mean the most successful ones look like they’ve never set foot in a gym. While large muscles provide the power needed to perform work, even those with bulging biceps find it difficult to perform work over time. Muscular endurance can be a far more valuable fitness trait than pure strength, especially for those who play sports that require sustained effort for the duration of a game. The best way to build muscular endurance is simple: lower the intensity and increase the frequency.

It's a given that one of the reasons that weight training for building muscles for strength appeals to so many people is that it takes less of a time commitment. After all, you do a series of squats, some deadlifting and bench presses three times a week and you call it a good session. But muscular endurance requires more commitment to your workout routines. Like a good cardio workout, there’s no minimum for calling it a day. The more frequently you push your body and the muscles under that skin the more your body will be able to power through whatever you're demanding of it!

Keeping track of how well your performing is also key to being successful at your training. To do this right you need to monitor just how well you're doing at each phase of your workout. A good Activity Monitor can keep your workouts honest when you may be tempted to let a few things slide because you’re a bit tired today. Tracking your workouts via that Activity Monitor, and it's ability to supply you with data every time it syncs with Garmin Connect™, can go a long way to allowing you to view just how well your actually doing. A tracker like the Garmin Vivosport GPS Sport & Activity Tracker can provide automatic uploads to the online Garmin community, where you can see your personalized data on detailed graphs.  It can provide the ability to let you join like-groups so that you can compete in weekly challenges and connect with other fitness enthusiasts. This way you're really not ever alone in your quest for building up your endurance while still creating a toned, muscular body, that will stand the test of time, (sports time that is!). And while the Vivosport monitors key aspects of your fitness, because it also monitors your heart rate, with help from Elevate 24/7, it’s a wrist-based heart rate monitoring feature, specific to Garmin. With the heart rate data it collects, Vívosport is able to estimate your VO2 Max and Fitness Age, 2 indicators of physical fitness that can improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your HRV (heart rate variability), which is used to calculate and display your stress level.


Keep in mind that those who hit the gym two or three days a week might have lukewarm muscular endurance, but those who add just one additional workout day, a week, begin to exact a bigger demand on your body, by pushing it a little farther than it's usual exercise regimen. Especially if you change up your routine with some cardio and maybe a HIIT session where you're pushing your routines faster with less resting time between reps. or sessions.

Now, while we’re not talking about building your body, so it looks like it can take on a tank, we still are a firm believer in using weights to get in shape, just not using hundreds of pounds as a goal in seeing just how much you can lift, One-Time! After all, you can't develop much muscular endurance by squatting 300-400 pounds and walk away thinking you've done your best. But if you lower the weight by say half, your actually putting new stress on the twitch muscle fibers (those that first fire in a workout) rather than on the muscular cell mass. This allows your body to develop these fibers and reduces the stress on any given workout. After all, by using less weight and increasing the number of reps, your muscular mass will stay the same but at the same time it becomes more elastic and can maintain that strength for longer periods of time. This results in your ability to have more endurance during an activity or physical work.

Overall, endurance workouts should aim for 10 to fifteen reps per set, which is twice as much as muscular strength builders do.

You know your body and it’s up to you to keep track of how much weight you need, in order to perform these extra reps. And naturally, as the session becomes easier, increase the number of reps, but gradually so you don't lessen the reps that you've already worked towards. Then after a time, increase the amount of weight with the extra reps. In this way, you are continuously pushing yourself each time your peak, so that your body does not grow used to a stale exercise regimen and will continue to grow muscle mass and in turn become well toned.

Bottom line, this is YOUR call, but again, don't go to extremes with adding more and more weight, add more reps instead!

In about 8 weeks of using this new method, you’re going to be able to see that you have quite a bit more strength that can sustain you through the other aspects of your training workouts. And you may be pleasantly surprised that you're also getting a leaner sculpted look to your overall body mass.

From your gym buddies here at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com