AC or not?

Tony Dismukes

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I was just wondering what percentage of practitioners here have air conditioning in their training hall.

My gym is a re-purposed warehouse. Very large, high ceilings, lots of room for multiple mats, rings, and cages, but that makes it pretty much impossible to keep cool. In the summer it generally feels at least 10 degrees hotter and significantly more humid than outdoors. That makes it real fun on weeks like this last one when temperatures have been in the mid-90s and humidity has been around 70-80%. Wearing a heavy gi in those temperatures feels really stupid, but it least it absorbs most of the sweat. I did a capoeira class on Saturday and was worried I was going to slip and drown in the lake of sweat that formed on the mat around me within the first 15 minutes.

My advice for anyone else training under these conditions - pre-hydrate as much as possible. If you wait until you're already working out to start guzzling the fluids it's really difficult to catch up. I start loading my system with water and Gatorade at least a couple of hours before my workout and then just keep sucking down as much liquid as I can as I go along.
 

Charlemagne

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Both of the places I train use AC, though in one where I train BJJ, the instructor still leaves the door open often (no idea why), and in the other where I train PTK, it is an old office with crap insulation and nothing to block the sun, so the AC can't remotely keep up, even though we have installed window units to help the central HVAC. It's South Texas, so AC is a must for training this time of the year. Despite that, I am basically drowning in sweat before too long in either class. Definitely need to drink plenty of fluids before and after, and to be honest, I wish they were a bit cooler. There are some who try to correlate the amount of sweating with whether or not they got a good workout, but that is not really true.
 

Tez3

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Never a problem in North Yorkshire lol, we need heating most of the year round.
 

Xue Sheng

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My youngest's Aikido dojo had moved around a bit form AC to AC to No AC to AC and I have to tell you, in her case, AC is much better,

As for me I have trained in both and in my youth I preferred AC, but still trained outside in the summer to also know how to deal with the heat. But I did not like it. My taiji sifu always had AC, but rarely used it, which is even more annoying.

Now, in my old decrepit state I still train in my house with AC, but of late I have had the urge to train outside in very high heat and enjoyed it....I think this means I'm old :D
 

Bill Mattocks

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I was just wondering what percentage of practitioners here have air conditioning in their training hall.

My gym is a re-purposed warehouse. Very large, high ceilings, lots of room for multiple mats, rings, and cages, but that makes it pretty much impossible to keep cool. In the summer it generally feels at least 10 degrees hotter and significantly more humid than outdoors. That makes it real fun on weeks like this last one when temperatures have been in the mid-90s and humidity has been around 70-80%. Wearing a heavy gi in those temperatures feels really stupid, but it least it absorbs most of the sweat. I did a capoeira class on Saturday and was worried I was going to slip and drown in the lake of sweat that formed on the mat around me within the first 15 minutes.

My advice for anyone else training under these conditions - pre-hydrate as much as possible. If you wait until you're already working out to start guzzling the fluids it's really difficult to catch up. I start loading my system with water and Gatorade at least a couple of hours before my workout and then just keep sucking down as much liquid as I can as I go along.

Our dojo is small and the AC is working but not very well. In the extreme heat, we turn it on and keep the lights off as long as possible and just deal with it. It's not too horrible. Yes, we keep hydrated and take breaks as we need to. We also keep an eye on each other to make sure no one is getting heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

As a diabetic, I have learned to monitor myself much more than I did when I was younger. I try to assess my physical state and if I need a break, I take a break. If I need to sit down, I sit down. It's all good.

I can take the heat, I can ignore it. But that doesn't mean that I like it or that it's very good for people like me.
 

WaterGal

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We have AC, but the HVAC is old and if you crank the AC up high it rattles like crazy. But at least we can keep the school under 80 or so and have the air moving around, which is a lot better than being outside right now in the muggy 90+ heat. :dead:
 

JowGaWolf

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My school practices in an room that has AC you can only feel if you aren't exercising. Once we start practice we have to utilize a fan along with the AC to keep the air flowing and to prevent the room from turning into a sauna.

Students are allowed to drink water during class as needed because we lose quite a bit of water.

I don't have enough room at home to train so I have to put up with the heat outside. Either early in the morning in the evening when it's significantly cooler.
 

oftheherd1

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When I studied TKD in Washington, DC, our air conditioning was open windows. But it didn't bother most of us, including me. About 16 years ago, I underwent two rounds of radiation treatment. It left me in a condition where heat sapped a lot of strength from me. Recently, my wife found a Koean vitamin+ concoction that seems to be helping me withstand heat better, as well as sleep better at night. Probably cures many if not all other ills as well. :) (Common claim for many Korean alternative medicines such as Gin Seng or In Sam as they call it. ;))

But it really does help with heat and sleep.
 
D

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We are in an old building with zero A.C. We do have big windiws and luckily, where we are located, the wind blows often. But, come winter, the wind blows often.

I did train with a guy by the name of John Kurtz who held class in his front yard, during the 2 years I trained with him. Rain, snow or sunshine it didnt matter to him.

Also, if you did not practice on your own time at home, he could tell and it was an hour long barrel stance class, for being lazy.

Good times, good times.
 
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D

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:confused:
I'm better adapted for heat than for cold. During winter I can train hard enough to work up a good sweat and still have my toes going numb from the cold mats.
I can handle the cold pretty good, but cold feet, yes that is misery.
 

pgsmith

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I live in north Texas. AC is mandatory! It doesn't function really well, but it will get the temperature down to about 90 by the end of a three hour class. No heat in the winter though, so the feet get pretty cold. Luckily, winter doesn't last very long here. :)
 

geezer

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We have AC set to 80 and some big fans. It's not bad. On the other hand, I have a friend who had to close down his studio for the summer because he didn't have AC. He's a big guy and really feels the heat whenever it gets over 90 inside. A cheaper alternative is evaporative cooling, but that doesn't work once the monsoon hits in July and the humidity goes up. Really, you have to have AC in Phoenix. In my years, I've seen it get up to 122 degrees (50C) here!

Years back, I went to a July seminar in Vegas (which is almost as hot as Phoenix) and the AC went out. It was about 102 that day, and on my suggestion we all left the studio and completed the seminar outside under some big shade trees at a nearby park. There was a light breeze and it was far more pleasant than the suffocating heat inside. :)
 

Danny T

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We have AC...
South Louisiana today isn't so bad with the temp only at 92 and the humidity is only at 86% it's great. Yesterday it was 96 and the humidity was 96%, you sweat standing in the shade. We do have an outside work out area with heavy bags, tires, and a weighted sled but few are willing to utilize it during the summer months.
 

geezer

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We have AC...
South Louisiana today isn't so bad with the temp only at 92 and the humidity is only at 86% it's great. Yesterday it was 96 and the humidity was 96%, you sweat standing in the shade...

My lord, 96 degrees and 96% humidity! How do you survive? You must have gills just to breathe. I can't imagine doing chi-sau under those conditions. It must be more like slime-sau. And BJJ turns into slime grappling? ...ewww! :eek:

Really Danny, come to Arizona and see how relatively comfortable 110 can be when the humidity is low. :)
 

Xue Sheng

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My lord, 96 degrees and 96% humidity! How do you survive? You must have gills just to breathe. I can't imagine doing chi-sau under those conditions. It must be more like slime-sau. And BJJ turns into slime grappling? ...ewww! :eek:

Really Danny, come to Arizona and see how relatively comfortable 110 can be when the humidity is low. :)

I was in Las Vegas.... at 116 and San Diego.... at 110...both with low humidity..... and let me tell you....I was not comfortable :D
 
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Tony Dismukes

Tony Dismukes

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I can't imagine doing chi-sau under those conditions. It must be more like slime-sau. And BJJ turns into slime grappling? ...ewww! :eek:
Pretty much. Wearing the gi in BJJ mitigates the slime factor but adds extra weight and heat. No gi grappling starts to resemble Turkish oil wrestling.
 

Blindside

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It is high 90s low 100s this week. The warehouse space that we are in has no AC and starts to do its best imitation of a toaster oven at these temps so we are going to go to the park for training. Good for environmental considerations as well.
 

Danny T

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My lord, 96 degrees and 96% humidity! How do you survive? You must have gills just to breathe. I can't imagine doing chi-sau under those conditions. It must be more like slime-sau. And BJJ turns into slime grappling? ...ewww! :eek:

Really Danny, come to Arizona and see how relatively comfortable 110 can be when the humidity is low. :)
You get used to it... Ha!
 

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