New scientific evidence on what really works, and how you can put these new findings to best use in your daily training and sports conditioning

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Serious athletes sometimes have to train or compete in less-than-ideal conditions. After all, who wants to let the heat or cold weather derail their performance goals?

But we shouldn't forget that some environmental conditions can impair your sporting performance - and, in certain circumstances, actually endanger the athlete.

So what's the best way to cope with very hot (or very cold) weather, high pollution levels, long-distance travel, or training and competition at high-altitude, so you can maintain your training schedule or competition calendar? And what are the practical steps you can take to acclimatise to your external environment?

Click here to save 33% off All Weather Training - Beating the Elements

All Weather Training - Beating the Elements- tackles this important topic head-on. It's written for you by Peak Performance's expert team of writers, led by our Editor, Isabel Walker. The recommended retail price of this training manual is $59.99, but through our online offer, you can save 33%. You pay only $39.99!

Isabel and her colleagues deal with the most demanding environmental conditions athletes face - excessive heat, intense cold, atmospheric pollution, high altitude - analyses the very latest scientific findings, and spells out in plain English their significance for the serious athlete. Every page of this brand new 82-page report draws on the latest evidence-based thinking in sports science research - new findings that won't percolate through to the general sporting press for many, many months, if they make it at all…

So now you can assess the latest sports training and conditioning thinking for yourself, and decide how to integrate it into your personal routines.

Read our brand new report today and here's a quick sample of what you'll learn:

• How do you work out what's the optimal hydration level for you?
• Which sports drinks work best - and which ones can actually impair fluid absorption?
• Why is it as important to monitor fluid levels in cold level as it is in hot weather?
• What's the best way to quickly acclimatise to very hot weather?
• Does expensive 'technical clothing' really help boost performance in demanding climatic conditions?
• What practical steps can you take to avoid heat cramps?
• How well does altitude training really work - and can you simulate its effects without having to purchase expensive equipment - or moving to Denver, Colorado?

You qualify to receive this workbook at a greatly reduced price when you order your copy today.

What's more, postage & packing is free. And you've got 30 days to decide whether or not you want to keep the book or return it for a full refund.

Don't let the elements get in the way of your training!

Hot Weather Exercise - how do you keep your cool when the thermometer goes sky-high?

Sustained hard exercise in a hot environment presents a greater challenge to the body's homoeostatic mechanisms than any other situation. The combination of a high rate of metabolic heat production and a restricted capacity for heat dissipation leads to hyperthermia (high body temperature), which may progress to heat illness, inevitably impairing exercise performance.

For example, it has been demonstrated in sports science labs that prolonged cycling capacity is lower at 21°C than at 11°C, and is even further reduced at 31°C, when VO2max is reduced, heart rate increased and skin and rectal temperature elevated. Heart rate rises in an attempt to meet increasing pressures on the blood supply, to increase skin blood flow for cooling purposes and to maintain oxygen supply to the working muscles.

Heat exposure combined with exercise results not just in hyperthermia but also in hypohydration (low fluid levels) if fluid losses are not replaced, and this combination will dramatically reduce exercise capacity.

Happily, athletes can learn to compete more efficiently in hotter climes if they choose the right acclimatisation regime. Even athletes more used to training in a cold climate can make the necessary adjustments, using the 10-day programme outlined in All Weather Training. Our new special report takes you through the programme, step by step.

We also discuss the pros and cons of pre-cooling as a strategy for beating the heat, and set out the various methods you can use to achieve this objective - without having to invest in expensive sports equipment.

Maintaining Fluid Balance - how do you achieve optimal hydration in all weathers?

Because even small losses of water can cause a drop in performance, optimal hydration is extremely important to athletes.

However, replacing fluid lost in sweat and urine is not the only justification for boosting fluid intake. Glycogen (stored muscle carbohydrate) is the body's principal fuel for high intensity activities, and replenishing glycogen stores with dietary carbohydrate is vital to continuing high performance.

But the process of 'fixing' carbohydrate into muscles in the form of glycogen also requires water; each gram of glycogen fixed into muscle fibres requires around 3g of water, which is why you often feel thirsty after a high-carbohydrate post-training meal.

If you don't drink to aid this process, water is simply drawn out of the bloodstream, leading to dehydration.

Fluid, then, is vital for adequate recovery - not just to replace water lost through sweating, but also to help replenish lost glycogen. A comprehensive hydration strategy involves ensuring good hydration before training/competition, maintaining it during exercise and then replacing any shortfall as soon as possible afterwards.

However, hydration isn't just about water: fluid loss via urine and perspiration involves the loss of electrolyte minerals - calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride. So to maintain the appropriate fluid balance, you'll need to do more than simply swallow a few litres of water!

Indeed, too much water can lead to hyponatraemia, a disorder in fluid-electrolyte balance that results in an abnormally low plasma sodium concentration and can lead to confusion, seizure, coma - even death.

All Weather Training - Beating the Elements sets out a comprehensive hydration strategy you can follow - in hot and cold weathers alike. (Did you know that cold weather can sometimes be worse for an athlete than hot conditions? This new report tells you why.)

We also tackle the thorny question of sports drinks, presenting the recent findings of sports science research. And we tell you which sports drink solution leads to optimal hydration and the quickest, fullest replenishment of muscle glycogen.

Finally, we set out Best Practice guidelines on fluid balance. While there are certain core principles everyone can follow, it's important that individuals calculate for themselves what their personal fluid needs are. All Weather Training - Beating the Elements sets out a simple, yet effective method for you to use.

Get the secrets of optimum training conditions!

Urban Air Pollution - how can you minimise the effect on your body, and your sports performance?

One of the main preoccupations of national team leaders in the weeks leading up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was the environmental challenges that would confront their competitors. Everyone knew it was going to be hot but, as the Games drew closer, the full implications of holding them in one of Europe's most polluted cities became painfully clear.

For those of who live and exercise in large urban areas, the potential health risks of breathing a cocktail of air pollutants are a very real concern. Links between high levels of air pollution and lung disease, cardiovascular disease and even cancer are being established in the medical literature. For example, elevated levels of air pollution are closely associated with both an increased prevalence of asthma and an increased incidence of acute exacerbation in patients with cardio-respiratory illness.

However, while it is now well established that breathing polluted air has a negative impact upon health, what does this mean for people exercising in a polluted environment? Common sense would suggest that as your lungs are exposed to 10 times the quantity of air during exercise than at rest, this must be equivalent to increasing exposure duration 10-fold; in other words, a one-hour exercise exposure is similar to a 10-hour resting exposure.

To add insult to injury, when you exercise you switch from nasal to oral breathing, which allows air to bypass your body's natural defence against inhaled particles - the elaborate filtering system that lies between your nose and the back of your throat.

To top it all, during exercise we inhale more deeply and rapidly than usual, which means that particles and other pollutants are carried to the deepest reaches of the lungs. Something of particular - though not exclusive - concern to sports competitors with asthma.

In All Weather Training - Beating the Elements we identify the specific air pollutants which athletes who live and train in urban areas should be most aware of. Then we set out the practical measures you can take to minimise your exposure to these health- and performance-threatening substances - without having to curtail your training and competition.

We also discuss the findings of a recent research study that suggests the use of certain supplements to combat the oxidatives stresses some pollutants place on the lungs.

Simulated Altitude Training - reaching new performance heights, or a waste of time and money?

The effects of training and, more recently, sleeping at high altitude on athletic performance have been studied in the West for more than 30 years. During that time, these practices have become an almost essential aspect of the preparation of world-class competitors - and something largely out-of-reach of the rest of the sporting community.

But are such practices really effective? And can they be employed by masters athletes and others without access to the resources of a large sports club, team or commercial sponsor?

In All Weather Training - Beating the Elements we critically examine the literature dealing with both the 'live-high-train-low' (LHTL) and 'live-high-train-high' (LHTH) models. Specifically, we assess what the research tells us about the benefits of altitude training for sea-level performance for athletes whose events are primarily aerobic versus those who remain largely in the anaerobic state.

Finally, we examine the use of hypoxic tents by those seeking altitude simulation. Are these an affordable technology every sports competitor can benefit from, or an expensive and largely ineffective luxury?

Get All Weather Training at 33% off!

Cold Weather Exercise - how not to be defeated by the chill winds of winter

Exercising and competing in cold weather conditions poses fewer risks to health and performance than working in extreme heat. However, there are a number of environmental threats to guard against, and a variety of ways to safeguard your performance as well as your health in the less-than perfect conditions.

All Weather Training - Beating the Elements sets out the high-risk scenarios, as well as the categories of sportspeople most at risk from cold weather training and competition. And, should you be so unfortunate as to suffer either a freezing cold injury (FCI) or non-freezing cold injury (NFCI), you'll find our treatment guides useful.

Finally, we spell out the implications of cold weather training for athletes who suffer from asthma, and suggest practical steps such individuals can take to combat the low temperatures.

Details of your discount offer

Place your order today and you pay just $39.99 instead of the full price of $59.99 You save 33%.

All Weather Training - Beating the Elements is the latest in a series of special reports from Peak Performance, the sports science newsletter. This book is not available elsewhere.

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