Exercise in the Heat: How Athletes and Workers Can Prevent Heat Stress Ep 106

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Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah. So she is from Ergodyne. I would love to just dive right in, get into it. What— and, and we were just talking before we started the crossover between your industry and our target market, which is a lot of endurance athletes or people who are out in the heat getting outside and doing all these amazing things. But oh my gosh, now they're getting hot. So tell us a little bit about Ergodyne as well as this project HEAT that you've got going.

Absolutely. So Ergodyne, it's been around for over 40 years, founded in 1983. So we primarily serve an industrial market. So we cover about 15 categories of PPE, personal protective equipment. So that can range from hard hats, head protection, eye protection, gloves, knee pads. I focus specifically on heat stress. So basically every category that we have here, we're working to try to mitigate a risk. So in my case, I'm trying to mitigate heat stress. Primarily I'm looking at construction workers, people in manufacturing, civil engineers, but there's so much crossover between industrial markets and then these endurance athletes. Both parties are working in extreme conditions. They are putting out mass amounts of metabolic load on their body. They're working hard. There's a lot of output. So there's so much crossover between these two markets. I'm really, really excited to kind of get everybody trained up a little bit today, hopefully, on what heat stress is, what it looks like. And really the Project Heat that we're doing this summer is really for that purpose, is about education and awareness. Obviously, I make people PPE. I design PPE, but ultimately it's not about just PPE, right? It's about the crossover between, you know, it might be a construction worker dealing with heat stress on the job, but then they go to their kids' soccer game. Their kids may be dealing with heat stress on the field, or, you know, they have a neighbor that's mowing the lawn and then they get overheated. So, you know, as much as we serve an industrial market, this topic and this risk specifically Hits a mass audience and is a worldwide audience for people at risk.

Totally. And I'm, I'm glad that you mentioned like, you know, going out and mowing your lawn because it doesn't matter whether you are an endurance athlete or not. You are probably going to your kid's soccer game. You're probably mowing your lawn. You're probably going to a concert.

Exactly.

And you know, outside. So this is really relevant. For anyone, not just endurance athletes.

Exactly.

So yeah, dig into this Project Heat and the educational piece and what we should start to be aware of when it comes to heat stress.

Definitely. So we did some surveying. We found that 4 out of 5 Americans have experienced some form of heat stress, and a lot of times they don't even know that they're experiencing it. And over a quarter of them don't know how to react in an emergency situation. So that's really what our goal is. Is to just work to get out, you know, what is heat stress? What does that look like in me? What does that look like in my coworker, in my child, in my neighbor? It's really a personal issue. It's not the same type of risk as wearing a helmet. If an object falls on my head, it's probably gonna bounce the same off my head as your head. But if we're both in 95-degree weather, you're in North Carolina, I'm in Minnesota, your body's used to that, my body is not. So that's what we're really aiming to do is understand There's so many different factors that are super personal about heat stress. So there's different medications that you can take that can actually make heat stress worse. It's a really a big lifestyle thing too. Are you properly hydrated? Did you drink last night? Do you exercise regularly? Clearly your audience does that. So that's a great, that's a great foundation to build. But there's so many different personal things that wrap into heat stress. That's why it is kind of a complicated topic and there hasn't been, you know, overarching regulation, at least in in the safety world for heat stress because it is so personal. But there is a lot of momentum going towards that, which is really, really exciting. So it feels like, you know, the culmination of all of these people talking about this super important topic. 2024 was named the world's warmest year on record. Before that, 2023 was. This year is tracking to be in the top 5, ranking like number 3 right now. The point being, this risk is not going anywhere, and we have a lot of people that you know, don't get the option to hop into an air-conditioned room or, you know, take off all of their PPE whenever they feel hot. And endurance, you know, athletes, they don't wanna stop, they wanna finish, they wanna set a PR. So there's a lot of similarities with people pushing their bodies to an extreme and pushing them too far in some cases.

Interesting that you talked about how, yeah, we're all a little bit different. And we see that quite a bit here. We also see people like, you know, they're in Minnesota and they're like, okay, I'm gonna go do a race in Florida, or I'm gonna go do a race in Texas. And how do I not melt? I mean, certainly there are some methods that we can do to increase our, um, or acclimate a little bit better. But y'all folks don't necessarily have that option. It's like, go to work, get a paycheck like this. You've, you've gotta do these things. So what are some of the things that that you guys are looking at that we can also embrace to help us get to that?

Definitely. So the number one thing I will always recommend is staying hydrated, water and electrolytes. So people ask me sometimes, are electrolytes necessary? I will say I'm not an electrolyte expert, but if you are getting the nutrition from your regular diet, your food and vegetables and that sort of thing, you don't always need electrolyte replenishment. However, keeping an eye on your body, how much you're sweating, how much you're replenishing, it's always a good idea just to kind of have that stocked. And you mentioned the word acclimatization. We talk about that a lot actually. So typically what we see when we see incidents and fatalities happening from heat stress, that is within the first 1 to 2 weeks on the job. So these are new people, maybe they're returning workers, migrant workers, their bodies are not used to these conditions. So we actually do have a way of slowly introducing their bodies to get used to that environment. Typically, you'll start on day 1, 20% of a workday. Maybe you'll work a couple different stations that aren't as putting out as much hard manual labor. Then day 2 or day 3, you're going up to 40%, up to 60%, up to 80%. Those are just arbitrary numbers I'm throwing out, but that's kind of how we get a worker used to the environment because again, I'm from Minnesota. If I were to go down to Florida next week, I would not make it through a shift. And we don't want anybody to be doing that. So acclimatization and hydration, I would say, are super, super critical. You know, what we kind of prescribe to workers is water, rest, and shade. You know, endurance athletes maybe don't have all of those options given to them when they're running in these remote settings, biking in these remote settings, swimming, doing all of these things that, you know, you don't have the opportunity to just go hop in an air-conditioned car spot. So really prepping your body ahead of time is gonna set you up for the best success. And I'd love to talk through maybe some, some of the HRIs, heat-related illnesses, the most common ones to look for. So signs and symptoms. Are you cool with me going into that?

Yes. And I, I love that you noted about like the taking workers and slowly integrating them into the job so that acclimatization, because So many of our athletes are like, oh, it's now hot and I will be doing a half Ironman running at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in the heat. Therefore, I'm just gonna go out for a run at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the first day that it's super hot. Mm-hmm. And then they're shocked with like, I had a heat stress incident. Right? So not a good idea. We gotta bring yourself up gently, acclimatize as best as you can. And I love that you're gonna start talking about like, what are those heat-related illnesses? And then hopefully getting into like, how can we mitigate some of that? Definitely. So, yeah, so go for it.

Okay. Yeah, so from least severe to most severe, and these are good things to look out for, again, before we get to like the final stage of heat stroke, which is a medical emergency. So heat rash, that's a really obvious one to be able to see the signs of. So kind of how it sounds, your skin will start to get blisters. It might look like they burn, like it's burnt almost. So that happens because our sweat ducts can get clogged and then when we stop sweating, there's a ton of moisture sitting on our skin, it's not evaporating. So a lot of times we maybe don't have the benefit of airflow, or maybe we're in a super hot, humid condition. Now it's harder for evaporative cooling, basically our body sweating and that sweat evaporating off our body, it's harder for that to happen when there's a ton of moisture in the air. So that's a really, really good one to look out for. So again, some of that itchy skin, red blisters, that sort of thing. Next would be heat cramps. So typically what I hear from people is, you know, they maybe don't experience heat cramps during their workday or when they're doing the bulk of their movement, but they'll actually feel them at night. So our body's in a deficit probably from dehydration. You know, we're lacking those salt and moisture levels. We've sweat a ton over the day. So we would always say, you know, get to a cooler area, try to just replenish those fluids. Again, cramps, you'll kind of feel those. Those are pretty understandable to feel. The next one would be heat exhaustion. So that's where we start getting into some cognitive decline. So when heat stress starts affecting our body, our brain function actually starts to go too. So we might start feeling a little sick, a little nauseous, might have a headache. Our mood might start changing, start feeling weak, maybe start feeling dizzy, but there oftentimes is a sentiment of like, just push through it. You know, we have to be productive, we have to get to the end of the race, XYZ. And there's a lot of factors that cause people to push through those feelings. However, pushing through those, you can run the risk of then experiencing heat stroke. So that is typically your body cannot regulate its temperature anymore. There may be, you know, passing out, fainting, again, dizziness, confusion. So the example I like to use is, I don't have my water bottle in here, But when people start using things the wrong way, so, you know, you drink from a water bottle from the top, you have to maybe flip the cap off. So if people are, you know, not taking the cap off and trying to drink their water, or they're holding it upside down, confusion is a real, real part of this. And sometimes, you know, a bystander is just like, okay, this person's having a day or something along those lines. But truly, the cognitive decline is one of the final stages of heat stroke. And we like to say react within 30 minutes of somebody going down with heat stroke. So when you're in these super remote environments or maybe doing one of these races or working on an industrial site where there is not an air-conditioned trailer, my car is 3 miles away, I can't go sit in there to recover, what do we do? There's a couple really good hacks, I would say. So anywhere that you would take a pulse on your body, is going to be a really good point to apply cooling PPE, ice packs, a cooling towel, anything along those lines. So that's where our blood vessels are towards the top of the skin. So it's going to be faster to cool that blood down and recirculate it through our body. So the one kind of catchy thing that we've been doing this summer is we've gone to a couple job sites and we've presented the taco method. So we'll bring taco lunch and then we'll kind of do this demonstration. For tarp-assisted cooling oscillation. So essentially, we're making someone into a taco. So if somebody goes down from heat stroke, basically, what do we do in the super remote environment? How do we act quickly? A lot of people will have their lunchbox cooler, some ice, some water, something along those lines. So what we say is lay a tarp down, get that person into the tarp. It's really kind of simulating an ice bath or a cold plunge. So then we'll— put that water, that ice on them, oscillate them in that tarp. We're trying to get that core of the body cool as quickly as possible. So where those vital organs are, that's what we want to cool down as quickly as possible. So we've had some fun with the education portion of this too. Get a taco, make a taco of your coworker. I think just sometimes safety training can be a little boring. So what we try to do is make it as engaging as possible. And really kind of have these things that, you know, cross over into your life that you can remember a little bit more. So everybody eats tacos, or a lot of people eat tacos probably. So trying to, trying to just, you know, pinpoint these things that can cross over outside of just the work site and into life in general.

So cool. I love those tips. And similarly, as you, as you may know, ice baths are very popular in the athletic community, whether you're an endurance athlete or CrossFit or whatever. And I'm thinking, as you're telling me this taco method, anybody can have a tarp in their car and pour some ice and water and then have some fun with it. Literally, it's like, it's almost like a slip and slide, but like you wrap people up. And that is a— that seems to me to be a much more cost-effective and easy-to-carry method than like, I bought this ice bath that now I have to figure out where I'm going to fill it up and where I'm going to get the ice. It's like, you know, I'm out in, you know, we've got races all over the place that are on all kinds of random places. And yeah, you're probably not carrying all this information, but anybody can have a tarp. Exactly. You know, and then you've got a little cooler of stuff and then yeah, you can cool down. So, okay. The taco method.

Yeah.

So cool.

So that's that, um, You know, that can be sometimes a barrier for some people to be using some of this, like cooling PPE is like, well, it's too expensive, or I can't carry everything with me, or I don't have fridge, freezer, AC, you know, whatever the facilities may be. So that's really what we aim to do is kind of have, you know, range of options from super down and dirty, like a low price point, something you can wear for one race, two races, and then throw it away. And then we have stuff that can be worn during a rest break so you can actually cool your body down. We really try to serve as many markets as possible. And there is so much crossover between athletic wear and then some of the stuff that we're doing. And then we range to some crazier technologies like phase change cooling that maybe isn't used as much in industrial, or excuse me, in endurance sports. But again, these same principles and practices crossover very easily. So you can take a proactive approach, which is what I would always recommend versus a reactive approach. But we have a ton of options within our Ergon line that would actually help and I think be really suitable for athletes as well.

So cool. So I would love to hear about some of the proactive approaches and then talk a little bit about what types of, like you said, differences in price ranges. My guess is that they're probably all not that bad from a price range perspective. And I think that that should not be a barrier. I'm hoping it's not a barrier for a lot of folks. Maybe it's a comfort issue, like, but I'm, I'm sure that y'all are also considering how things are sitting on the body. Like you guys are moving a lot.

Yes. So, so I would say. Um, you know, the principle of evaporation, evaporative cooling. So that's our body's built-in way of cooling itself down is sweating. So anytime we can be choosing fabrics that are lightweight, moisture-wicking, hopefully UPF-rated, ultraviolet protective factor. So we talk about SPF, which is sunscreen, UPF, which is typically in textiles and clothing. Anytime we can protect our body from those rays of the sun, that's really important. And I will just plug, we also do sunscreen as So SPF 50, it's really, really great. Would highly recommend it. But not everybody likes to wear sunscreen. I know that's a very preference, preference-based thing. So yeah, if we can be choosing these textiles that are working for us already, we don't have to apply sunscreen. So one that's really popular is our cooling sleeve. So it's basically from bicep to the wrist. It's just giving more surface area with that fabric to contact with the skin, grab that moisture, repel it away. It's going to basically enhance our body's natural way of cooling itself down. So those are really, really easy opening price point option. Again, those can be worn multiple times. Nothing washes out. The cooling effect doesn't wash out. You can wear them wet or dry. We use that fabric all across my line. So I've got t-shirts, I've got long sleeve. You know, we have people who wear hard hats. A lot of those people have tend to have shaved heads, bald heads, a small amount of hair. So, there's a lot of sweat rolling down underneath that hard hat. We have cyclists wearing helmets, that sort of thing. We do skull caps that are kind of as they're named, a small cap that just sits on the base of your head. Again, getting that sweat, getting that moisture off of our skin. And we really do design with workers in mind. So, like you had kind of mentioned, comfortability, durability, and lasting a full shift is really important to these workers. So we range from things that, you know, you can swap out every hour, every couple hours, to things that'll last a little bit longer, more like your whole workday. So it kind of just depends on, you know, what are the activities that you're doing? Do you have the ability to be swapping things out? Maybe put something back in the fridge to recharge it, reactivate it, get it cold again, basically. So there's so many options. And to your point, we actually specifically like to bring in workers to our office. Hey, try this on. Can you move in this? What are the pain points? What do you feel like would be better about this? And we really open it up to the worker. So we call it voice of the customer. I am not a frontline worker. I am also not an endurance athlete. But these are the people that are out there every day experiencing the real environment. So who would know better about what their needs are than them? So we love bringing people in to talk specifically about fit, performance, comfort. Because if you feel like a dork and it's not comfortable to wear your PPE, people aren't gonna wear their PPE. And that is a fact of the matter, which is, you know, I'm the dork of the neighborhood. I will wear my vest while I'm out lawn— doing the lawn or gardening and stuff. But, you know, all jokes aside, making stuff that people actually want to wear and feel cool wearing is really, really an important part of it because it is so preference-based too, actually.

Yeah, totally. And I love that you mentioned vests because this is definitely making its way into the endurance world. So tell us a little bit more about cooling vests.

Yeah, so there are a ton of different options. I will say there are different technologies that are suited for certain environments. So depending on where you are, so like let's take Let's take Phoenix for an example, super dry, not a ton of humidity. We have some dry evaporative vests that perform really, really well there. So it's basically a vest, you fill it with cold water. There's a few holes all over the vest. It's again, that principle of evaporation. As water evaporates off the body, it takes some of the heat from the surrounding air and that cools the body down. Then we have people who are maybe suited up in a tight attic. They have to wear coveralls, they have to wear all this protective stuff. Stuff, they do not have the benefit of airflow. So the vest I just talked about for Phoenix, we need airflow, we need low humidity levels. So what do we do with somebody who's stuck in this tight confined space, has no benefit of all these other things? Then we look to other technologies like phase change. So that one is formulated in our line at 64 degrees, about 30 degrees below our body temperature. So you can just throw it in the fridge, freezer, or the fastest way is just in a cooler of ice water actually. And it's just going to slowly pull the radiant heat from our body and provide a prolonged cooling period. So those are a couple of our probably best-selling vests. Another one that people really, really love, and we do it in a few different formats, people love a cooling towel. So you maybe have seen like a chamois before. They start out kind of dry and crunchy. Once you get them wet, they soften up and it's basically like a giant sponge. So it's holding onto water for a long amount of time. And again, gonna slowly take that warm air from around us as it's evaporating and remove it from our body. So that one, people love the PVA vest. Polyvinyl alcohol is the name of that chemical structure. So that's a really, really popular, super lightweight. I think that one would be great for endurance athletes too. It doesn't require a ton of facilities. What we see typically is people just dumping a bottle of water all over their body and that activates it.

It. Oh, so cool. Um, as you're saying all these things, I'm thinking of all the different opportunities for where these can be inserted, right? Like you mentioned the dry heat in Phoenix versus, you know, more of a confined space, which I feel like I'm in a confined space anytime I walk outside in the humidity here.

Yes, seriously.

And then like the sleeves and the skull cap, I mean, And then you also mentioned sunscreen. So just, you know, quick reminder for people that if you get burned, you cannot effectively release heat. You can't effectively sweat. So it's really important if you're not wearing sunscreen, then having some type of, you know, sleeve or that, that type of thing. And then also, as you're mentioning some of these cooling vests and cooling opportunities, there's not just things that you can be doing during exercise, but also in between you know, say you are a soccer player and you're in between games. I get that question a lot, especially for youth athletes. Yeah. How do I cool my kid in between? There's a perfect opportunity.

Yeah, absolutely.

And what are, what are like price points that, you know, or like something close? Like, are we talking several hundred dollars? Are we talking like under $100? Like where, where are we at in, in the, in the range? And I know I'm putting you on the spot here, so like, oh, it's okay.

I know I don't have them all memorized. But, you know, from a cooling towel, something along those lines, $10 probably, to, you know, the more high-end things that you would be wanting to use like on a recovery break, maybe $200 for that sort of thing. So they're not, you know, super out of whack price-wise. And pretty much all of these are reusable if you're taking care of them, you know, laundering them properly. You know, we work in construction primarily, so we got a lot of people getting these things very, very, very dirty. The conditions that they're working in, definitely not clean, super dusty. So I would say, you know, endurance athletes probably have a step up because you're not working in some of these same conditions. But yeah, if you're taking care of, you know, these pieces, they can last you several years. So it's really worth the investment, especially if you can take the opportunity to cool your child down over, you know, over halftime, or, you know, while you are taking a break to get water and all this stuff, if you can take 5 minutes to cool your body down, that's gonna just set your body up for more success.

And sometimes people don't realize, since, you know, I'm really deep into the fueling and hydration part, if you are cool, you can better digest. Yeah. And assimilate nutrients and get all those electrolytes that you're trying to put in, you know, because one of the side effects if you're too hot, you might be nauseous, you might be vomiting, and then we're in a pickle because then you can't get anything actually down the hatch. So if you can cool yourself physically, that's much easier to be able to take in those fluids, take in those electrolytes. So really crucial things. Love this.

Pickles are a great way to get electrolytes as well.

Well, which, what is pickles? Pickles. Oh my gosh. You're speaking my language now, Lexi. My favorite. Yes. That, that addition of acetic acid, interestingly, which is, which is vinegar. So a lot of people will think of like mustard packets too. So they're, you know, and then a lot of people think they're tasty. So bonus there.

Good little snack too.

Cool. So we talked about acclimatization. We talked about different products. We talked about about the different levels of heat stress, which also got me thinking, if you are someone who's a supporter of an athlete, you know, if you really know your athlete really well, you're gonna know if they're in trouble.

Oh yes.

So, you know, you're not just ringing the cowbell and holding up the sign that says, go daddy, or whatever the sign says. Like you're, you know, you're, you're in it too. Make sure that they're being safe.

Exactly. And that's something we will always say too. You know, a lot of industrial work sites have a buddy system. We have that maybe built in when it's a family member or a friend, but seriously looking out for each other. While heat stress is extremely personal and you might be the only one to feel the nausea or the dizziness, we know our family members and our friends very well that we should be looking out for those signs, especially if you are coming up on a race or one of these events, like adrenaline is pumping, you know, maybe you didn't sleep as well 'cause you were too excited last night. So just really looking out for our people around us is gonna be a huge part of this too. And that's, again, really why we're trying to aim to get all this education out there so you know what it feels like in you, but you can also look for those signs in your friends, families, and coworkers.

So cool. All right, Lexi, did we miss anything that you wanna make sure that we're, getting from an education perspective, from like a where to look or any resources that you have. And I'll, I'll make sure to link everything in the show notes.

Yeah.

So what you got, what you got?

Yeah. So we have an amazing marketing team here and they work to take what's all in my brain and put it into a digestible format for people. Um, so we have a really great website and if you're concerned about any other risks like cold stress or ergonomics or anything else like that, that, we have a ton of understanding the risk, understanding the hazard. We have a lot of resources on our website that would be really great, you know, to read up on if you're interested in that sort of thing. Specifically for heat stress, it's gonna be ergodyne.com/heat-stress. So it'll talk through, you know, the technologies that we use, kind of what I talked about a little bit today. Again, those signs and symptoms, stats, quotes from, you know, people people at OSHA, people at research institutes, data that we are trying to prove and show to people this is a real risk and we can't keep ignoring it and we can't keep pushing through it.

Yeah, that's really great information to have. So, if the listener walks away with maybe 2 or 3 tips that you absolutely want them to absorb and take home, what would those things be?

I would say water, rest, and shade. That's been, you know, the prescriptive method for preventing heat stress for decades at this point. So making sure your body is properly fueled, making sure you are taking a rest break and listening to your body when you start feeling some of these symptoms. And then ideally, if you can get out of the direct sun, if you're outside, or if you can get into a more climate-controlled AC environment, those are gonna be just the best ways to get your body in a better spot. Because, you know, ultimately I, I want people to buy PPE, but first and foremost, the PPE won't work if their bodies aren't, you know, properly set up for their, for their race, for their workday. So I would always say make sure you're taking care of your body first and foremost.

Such great tips. Love it. All right, Lexi Engelbart from Ergodyne, thank you so much for joining us today and for teaching us all about heat stress.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, Be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com and don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.