Hello guys.

Just thought I would throw out a topic about climate. I believe climate can give you a lot of advantages and disadvantages (which in the end turn out to be advantages) when you are training.

Living in Japan, there are a lot of really harsh seasonal changes I have to deal with, especially because the dojo is generally the same temperature/condition that it is outside.

Let me give some examples. Its the rainy season at the moment so it is raining almost all the time, humidity is stupidly high and its about 28-30 degrees at the moment. Sweating does nothing to cool you down and everything is really draining. I believe this is good for your endurance.

In Summer, it can get up to (as it did last year) 38 degrees with relatively high humidity. You sweat a lot and it does cool you down but it is pretty extreme to train in such an environment. I believe this training causes your body to be able to adapt and keep pace no matter what is thrown at you (also all the sweating is good for your skin).

In winter it is cold. Its not England cold but at least we have central heating in England. The dojo room temperature is only about 5 degrees. Your tendons feel like they are seizing up and it takes a lot more warming up before you can start moving correctly. People say that it improves your spirit to train in such cold conditions and I think the same. Extreme cold weather training is called "kangeiko" in Japanese and many people may have seen/done training where people do pressups in the sea in winter or run barefoot in the snow. I think it is just generally excellent training in this condition because your body has to step up the pace to keep functioning properly.

Does anyone have any opinions/experiences they would like to share?

Interesting post Tony.

Where we train at my instructors place its a converted floor in a mill. In winter its freezing and we need heating on, in summer its boiling and we have all the windows open.

I love it in summer - I feel like I get the most out of my training.

I have had both extremes in various venues. In one place it was a church hall, heating was on ALL year, at the height of summer. Our teacher wouldn't let us open windows, said it was better training Another place, a Polish centre, the heating was always bust to it was bloomin freezing and I used to get cramp in my toes the floor was so cold!

I like training in the heat, you warm up faster and I always feel more flexible. However, there's nothing quite like getting out on a freezing cold clear day and doing some training in the park.

I think feeling the elements is wonderful. To be honest I wish I did more training outside in all conditions because not only does it give you experiance performing in the different weathers but you get to feel things quite extreme like cold breeze's, icy winds, rain, intense heat.... all these things of nature which can make you feel so connected and in my experiance allow yourself to be embraced by the weather so it doesn't seem to effect you much.

In the cold people stand shivering, I embrace the cold feel it around my body and ackowledge its presense then accept it. I don't shiver much at all I just feel....

Weird I know...

Where we train, the heating is on all the time, except for when turn it off when we get in.

I'm not sure about being cold as I'm a Geordie and we don't feel the cold.