Heat Adaptation Hacks for Cyclists: How the Pros Master Sauna Protocols, Active Heat Training & Performance Gains. Discover the power of heat acclimatization to boost resilience, race readiness, and recovery in any climate.
Pro coach Ben Day unleashes the secrets of modern endurance training through practical protocols and behind-the-scenes stories from Girona, Boulder, and the pro peloton. This episode peels back the science of heat training—from sauna and hot tub sessions to sweat-inducing paint suits and indoor trainer hacks—and reveals how every athlete, from ambitious amateurs to WorldTour contenders, can unlock cardiovascular and performance gains with just 7-14 days of heat exposure.
Learn how to:
- Integrate heat training into your annual plan for serious marginal gains without burning out
- Dial in the balance between active (trainer, paint suit) and passive (sauna, hot tubs) protocols to match your schedule
- Track adaptation using heart rate, power, core temperature, and good old-fashioned athlete feedback for a complete picture
- Avoid common mistakes—why “more is not better” and the art of nailing your heat adaptation window for race day
Whether you’re prepping for a midsummer gran fondo, an early Tour Down Under, or just want a physiological edge, you’ll hear exactly how the world’s best apply cutting-edge research and TrainingPeaks tools to bring it all together. Consistency, structured feedback, and smart scheduling are the name of the game—get the pro tips to adapt faster, recover better, and take your performance into the red-hot zone.
Explore how to get started with indoor heat training, heat training plans for runners, cyclists, and triathletes, and how to do it all safely in this breakdown from CORE.
- 0:00 – Modern Adventure Pro Cycling: Team Growth & Girona’s Cycling Evolution
- 1:14 – Ben’s Career: Pro Cycling, Coaching, and Heat Training Origins
- 3:13 – Heat Training: Early Experiences, Research, and Methods
- 5:30 – Heat Training in Pro Cycling Today: Marginal Gains and Planning
- 7:16 – Seasonal Approach: Timing, Periodization & Race Preparation
- 9:01 – Physiological Benefits: Blood Plasma, Hemoglobin Mass & Altitude Integration
- 12:31 – Protocols: Passive vs. Active, Practical Tools, and Risks
- 16:00 – Athlete Suitability: Who Benefits & Safety Considerations
- 18:07 – Annual Planning: Building Effective Heat Training Blocks
- 20:01 – Modalities: Sauna, Hot Tub, Paint Suit, and Indoor Trainer Setups
- 25:21 – Session Structure: Sauna Protocol, Timing, and Monitoring Adaptation
- 32:27 – Tracking Progress: Subjective Feedback, Core Temp & Data Tools
- 41:41 – Athlete Response: Mindset, Motivation, and Practical Takeaways
- 43:32 – Final Recommendations: Best Practices, Gender Differences & Resources
Standout Quotes
Ben on How Heat Training Prepares You for High Altitude: “So that the first few days of acclimation at high altitude, your blood plasma will drop, so that that volume will drop. And so if you can counteract that a little bit by doing some heat training beforehand, you have some more blood plasma volume to take into that environment. And you know, you might increase your, your rate of adaptation or that those first few days that you have at altitude, you’ll adapt quicker and be ready to start to push the training a lot faster.”
“If you just do three or four days in a row at that point, you’ll find that you regain all the heat adaptation that you do that you gained from that early exposure and you can take it into your A races.”
Optimizing Heat Adaption for Race Day
Ben on Heat Training Protocols: “Let heart rate really be your guide here and you want to look to maintain that heart rate throughout that session and let the power drop down. So you’ll find that your power get down to like 50% of what you might normally achieve at that zone 2 range and let it happen because this is a sign that your body is undergoing, you know, similar physiological stress than what you normally have when you’re doing that Zone 2 effort. But it’s mostly coming from that heat exposure at that stage.”
“But I think the most practical thing with what we do with our athletes is just to check in, be mindful of what they’re experiencing in training in terms of what was the temperature today?…How did it feel to attain the numbers that you attained today?…We so often get lost in the numbers without checking in with the athlete and making sure that we’re getting that feedback from them.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF ATHLETE FEEDBACK
