This heat is crazy

I can’t tolerate extreme heat either. My [wood hoarding] tap out number typically is 85, depending on humidity. Any hotter and I work in shifts or wait for cooler times. If there’s a job that demands constant attention, so be it but most times I regulate. For house/yard work, coming inside to cool off in the A/C is my go to. I also feel it’s healthy to sweat, my dad used to have a little sweat lodge. He’d take hot rocks inside and splash water on them. That’s been a looong time ago. Now you can just sit outside some days and get similar results.

 

Back to the muggy 90's this afternoon.

Just finished mowing the lawn and still need to peel clothes off. 1st mowing in about 3 weeks. With the drought, at least the weeds are again the same height.

We got 3inches of rain earlier this week. Hoping there'll be a growth spurt of the lawn. If not, I'll even out the weeds again in August.

 

A buddy of mine spent a couple months working what I would consider one of the hottest worst environments possible. Welding replacement steam lines in an underground tunnel 110-120 degrees with 90% humidity!

Gatorade was not enough! Most of the crew ate a kosher dill pickle and drank a cup of the brine at every break. He has kept it up for better than 20 years and hasn’t had any more issues as long as at the first hint of a head ache he starts with the pickles and pickle juice!

 

I agree that it sure doesn't get easier, and adding in health issues just makes it worse. It's hard for me to believe I was the same person who 21 years ago was wearing a 90-pound bomb suit and operating in 120-degree weather in combat with no ill effects (although I did drop over 50 pounds on my first tour). Spent so much time in the middle and far east, as well as being stationed in southern states in the US, so I acclimated when I was younger. Those days are long gone.

 

Yes, I can certainly relate to the “heat stroke” warnings and ageing Here in upstate SC we are accustomed to heat and humidity but for some reason this year has beat me down much more than previous years. I think it’s an accumulation of the years of working outside getting things done without regards to the discomfort, but most likely the “accumulated years”. I now use the early evening hours to get outdoors work accomplished even though I don’t get as much done in a day.

 

I don’t drink nearly enough water and sometimes I’ll get some pretty good cramps in the evening or night. A big swig of pickle juice provides nearly instant relief. The wife brings home a big glass of pickle juice from the deli at work on a regular basis

 

It's counterintuitive but it's the lack of salt that causes cramping when you've sweated out all the water from your body. Rehydrating with straight water followed by frequent urinating can also make you lose your electrolytes (salt) and make you cramp up. Pickle juice sure does have all the salt you need.
My coworker is a hiking enthusiast and he carries salt packets with him on the mountains for emergency cramping situations.

 

I drink lots of water on a regular basis. When I have blood work done, it always comes back low sodium.

 

I believe it. I only learned about the sodium this year, when I started fasting. I started drinking a lot more water while fasting, which made me lose sodium, then I'd cramp up. Now I make sure to not be stingy salting my food or have a little electrolyte powdered drink in my routine every single day.

 

I don't cramp, but I salt my food to my taste and don't worry about it.

 

I used to get leg cramps at night.
I bought one of those one or two pound containers of iodized salt and started putting a little salt in my cooking instead of avoiding it and the cramps have gone away.
Taking salt out of your diet might be good advice but apparently it's possible to overdo it.

When I tore off my roof a few years back and replaced it during a "heat dome" I found constantly testing if I could read was a good test whether I should stop for the day or not. There was actually one afternoon I couldn't make sense of what I was reading so I quit for the day. I also ate a LOT of popsicles.

 

Don’t remember where I got this information but it works! I sometimes wake up at night with cramps in feet or legs and taking two of the large sized Tums (or generic) gets them gone within a few minutes. Also works for my wife.