What sets them apart is innovation. While others pump out the same old designs, reaps pushing boundaries. They're not following trends, they're setting trends. Think precision and performance like an F1 car for the road. Absolutely no compromises. And it shows and you can feel it when you ride the bikes. These bikes are built for riders who demand the best. Whether they're chasing podiums or just want a machine that feels like an extension of your body, a piece of art, it's not hype, it's substance. Ride a Reap for yourself and you're riding something crafted with intent. So, if you're serious about cycling, check them out. It's reapikes.com. I absolutely love my one and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Back to the show. So after dominating the 2024 season, I don't even know how many races he won, a lot, but he wanted to keep improving. His new coach, Zavier Zola, prioritized heat adaptation going into 2025. Rather than just preparing for hot days in France, they used heat training to boost hemoglobin. Pogata became a regular user of the core temperature sensor, monitoring his core temperature during sessions to ensure he hit that target zone. and core temperature. They break it down into zone one and zone two where you want to keep your core temperature if you're racing for optimal performance and zone three that's in that 38.5 degree in and around there where all the adaptations seem to happen. That's where you want to be sitting during training sessions. In an interview with Cycling Weekly earlier in the year, Pagatcha admitted that he always struggled in extreme heat, but he said that heat training had now become a big thing in cycling. UAE Emirates head physiologist Joran Swart noted three heat sessions per week over six weeks increases hemoglobin mass by about 4%. That's the same gain you'd expect from about 3 weeks on Mount Tid at around 2100 m of altitude. Squirts protocol involves riding indoors on a trainer in a small room without a fan, wearing winter clothing, and holding your core temperature at around where I said 38.5° for 30 to 40 minutes using a core device. Yonas Vindergard also seemed to turn to heat training in the run-up to this year's Tour to France as he tried to dethrone Pagatcha. Yonas was seen training in 30° heat, fully overdressed, long sleeves, tights, scarf, everything. similar reasons for this. Overdressing forces the body to respond to that thermal stress leading to the plasma expansion and improved sweat response and reduced heart rate at a given power. I just want to be really clear what we're talking about here. Heat adaptation isn't just about surviving hot stages. It improves aerobic efficiency even in cool weather. In other words, you get fitter in all terrain, in all weather by training in heat. Now, as an Irish person, I couldn't summarize what the pros are doing in the 2025 Tour to France without talking about Ben Healey. It was our first yellow jersey since Steven Roach in 1987. Ben Healey just allround legend had an unbelievable tour to France. But EF Education Easy Post, they have one of the most comprehensive heat training protocols out there. In an interview preour, Dr. John Greenwell explained that they test riders in heat chambers to measure sweat rate, sodium loss, and core temperature. They then prescribe two approaches. Active heat training, riding indoors, like we talked about, and I'll break down in a second, without a fan, wearing extra uh layers, and raising that core temperature to 38.5°. They were doing it for 45 to 75 minutes. But they have a second type of heat training called passive heat training with hot baths at 40° C. We're going to put a pin in that one and we're going to come back to it before the end because this one is interesting mainly because I've tried the active one and it really sucks and it's hard to do. So, this sounds a lot less painful. So, let's come back to it. Now, we've seen how the pros are using heat training. Let's walk through a practical plan like something you can copy and paste the template. Now, before we dive into this, it must be said that heat training does carry quite a few risks. Dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, heat illness. So, do proceed caut cautiously with this. You're going to need an indoor trainer or stationary bike. Small rooms are better. Increase the room temperature to 25 to 30° C. Use a space heater if you need to. Alternatively, you can heat train outdoors on a hot day, but ensure you do have shade afterwards and cold fluids because cooling down when you try this outdoors is super hard. Step two is overdressing. winter kit, long sleeve, tights, hats, or a boiler suit to trap that heat. Don't use a fan. The goal is to raise your core temperature quickly. Here, we're going to monitor the temperature. We want to know how high the core temperature is going up. A core temperature sensor like core device clips onto your heart rate strap and it transmits real-time data to your bike computer.
I would begin with maybe 20 to 25 minutes for the first three days, extending 30 to 35 minutes in days four to seven and then aim for 45 minutes by the end of week two. perform this three to five times a week as a substitute or if you're really feeling daring as a supplement to active heat training. Some teams use heat training to extend the benefits of altitude camps. If you're in that sort of situation where you have the benefit of going to altitude exposure or maybe it's a family holiday and it just happens to be at altitude and you're like how can I extend the benefits of altitude exposure? Well, the little trek coach, Matteas Wreck, he explained they use a hybrid heat altitude strategy. After an altitude camp, riders complete 10 to 14 heat sessions lasting 40 to 50 minutes to maintain that hemoglobin mass. In a 2024 study, athletes who used heat training after an altitude camp, they seem to retain their hemoglobin gains, while those who didn't lost 71% of their improvements. So, it really does it really does extend it, and it really does seem to matter. This all seems so positive so far, but there is a downside to this. Well, one, I've tried and it really does suck. Heat training is not that fun. It's not that glamorous, but heat adaptation can also cause heavy sweating. Now, sweat contains 500 to 1,000 mg of sodium depending on what type of sweater you are. It actually is worth getting a sweat analysis test as a sidebar at some point. I'm planning to get one this winter myself. So, plain water isn't going to cut it because it doesn't replace the sodium. You're going to need to use an electrolyte mix containing sodium, potassium, and magnesium, and maybe some carbohydrates. Drink room temperature fluids during these sessions to maintain hydration without cooling your core and blunting that response. After the session, make sure you've weighed yourself before, weigh yourself after. If you lost more than 2% of your body weight, you risk heat illness. Always replace at least 150% of your weight lost over the next few hours. So that means if you lost 1 kilogram of weight during the session, aim to drink 1.5 L of water. Include salty foods like broth or salted potatoes to replace those electrolytes. Heat training pushes your body close to its limits. So pay attention to these warning signs. Core temperature above 39° C, stop immediately. Dizziness or nausea, that signals overheating and hydration, again stop. If you stopped sweating, this is a real red flag for heat stroke. Excessive weight loss over 2% indicates severe dehydration. Confusion, headache, are also signs of heat exhaustion. If you experience any of those, stop, cool down, rehydrate. If it's super bad, go to the doctor. Heat training, it might sound extreme, and it doesn't feel brilliant, but it is grounded in solid solid science. By deliberately raising your core temperature and forcing your body to adapt to that, you can unlock massive gains in hemoglobin, plasma volume, V2 max, and metabolic efficiency. Paga, Yonas, the entire world tour seem to be incorporating it into their preparation. Often with the help of sensors like that core one we talked about to monitor thermal load. Research shows that just a few weeks of these heat sessions, it can yield improvements which are comparable to and exceed altitude training improvements. If you're ready to experiment, I do urge you to start cautiously with this. Don't do it near your target event and do it in a controlled manner. I I like that expression graded adaptation. Integrate one or two heat sessions per week into your training. Monitor your temperature carefully. Use if if you're using Training Peaks, use the little feedback below to monitor how you're feeling. So you can go back and if you do start going well after, you can say, "Okay, well, here's why I'm going well." Stay on top of your hydration. Over time, you might even find that heat not only makes you tougher in the sun, but it also transforms your fitness all year round. If you decide to try heat training, please do let me know because I'm really curious. I'm experimenting a lot with myself and clients at the moment. So, let me know in the comments below this video when you do experiment with it and let me know how you found it. Thank you so much for tuning into this video and if you found this deep dive valuable, please hit the like button. That helps us get it out to more people. Take the link to this, share it into your club WhatsApp group, encourage your buddies to try it. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss these upcoming experiments. And remember, sometimes the best way to get faster is just to turn the heat on in the house. There's another video up here which I know you're going to love. And I'll chat to you next day.