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When I train in the garage, I find it's well worth it to rest longer between worksets so i can duck back inside and the central a/c can help cool me off. I also drink water and Gatorade, but too much of the latter seems to bother my stomach bending over in the starting position of deadlift (belted).
Not sure if it helps with the heat, but I also eat a roll of Smarties before top worksets, because they are pure dextrose, a simple carb source I have heard Robert Santana recommend here for intraworkout.
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Yeah! Sometimes I just go back into the house between sets too. Especially if I don't get to train until the afternoon. The problem is I go back to work (office work) between sets, loose focus and the next thing I know I've been training/working for 3 hours. I suppose that in and of itself isn't a bad thing. Always feel a little weird about it. Like it shouldn't take me so long to finish my session.Originally Posted by Charlocity2
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A good fan and extra shirts are a must, as are cool drinks. A towel is also very helpful to stop you running through chalk too fast. I've looked at walling off a section of my garage to insulate to just be my gym, but I can never justify the cost. As others have said, you'll never cool down the entire garage, especially if the door is not insulated.
Training in the evening is good. I used to train early in the morning but found my sleep was terrible - I would dread waking up early and that would keep me awake.
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Thank you for the recommendation. Just bought the fan last week. It is a game changer.I'm down in Austin and started training in my garage just a few weeks ago when my gym closed down permanently. Starting this in July instead of March has been a trial by fire, almost literally.
That said, I recently got a high powered fan (this one), and even when it's been 95-100 out, it actually blows fairly cool air. The workouts are still rough, especially once I get past the 90 min mark, but the fan has helped a lot.
I also switched from water to a gatorade mix to sip on during the workout. I use about 40-50g of gatorade powder in about 40oz of water with a few ice cubes, in an insulated water bottle that keeps it cold, and that works well for my ~1:45-2:15 long workouts. When I get into competitive training, some of my workouts will be longer and I may up the bottle size and grams of gatorade if it's still hot out, but the fan + gatorade combo has helped.
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I have a portable AC unit that is useless in my two-car garage. But it might not be the best quality. Windows units are better than portable units. You won't succeed in cooling the garage. But if the unit points at you, it will cool you. And the more you sweat, the better that will work. If the garage is well insulated, consider a dehumidifier. I'm in Florida (not quite as hot as Texas) and don't know where you are, but if I get the humidity under 50% I can tolerate temperatures as high as 90F in the garage. Is the garage attached to the house?
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Ed, I am in Tampa and my garage is not insulated and gets too hot. I need to buy a fan. Curious what you use to control the humidity in your garage?
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I use this dehumidifier ($135) from Costco and am very happy with it. Access Denied Claim is that it's good for 3k square feet. My garage is only about 600sq ft.
How easy or hard it is to climate control a garage depends on how tightly the air is sealed.
My garage is not insulated but it's built out of cinder block. I have living space over top of the garage and it's attached to the house. Although cinder blocks are not insulation per se, they have an insulating effect. If your garage is detached or there is no living space above it, your construction could be a block foundation and wood which would conduct more heat.
For a garage, insulation is less important than being air-tight. I'm in new construction and there aren't any air leaks. I have to be careful closing the man-door to the house because the garage is so air-tight that things inside the house will rattle from air movement if I close the door too quickly.
Insulation (or lack thereof) affects temperature but air leaks are the biggest factor in humidity.
Also it depends on what time of day (if at all) the sun hits your garage door. Garage doors in Florida are almost always metal (unless the house is very old) and reinforced for hurricanes. They aren't insulated per se but if well sealed have an insulating effect. However, if the sun shines directly on the garage door, an insane amount of heat is conducted into the garage.
I run the dehumidifier for one hour at night before bed and that's enough to keep the humidity at around 50% or lower. Humidity doesn't rise at all on days that I don't train. On days that I do train, I run the dehumidifier for two hours when I'm done to get the moisture back out of the air.
I keep my cars in the garage so on training days, I need to take them out. On training days, I take the cars out around 10am since that's the lowest humidity time. I don't rush as I don't want to dent up my vehicles but I do move efficiently. Outside of that, I never open the overhead door as it just lets in moist air.
My HOA does not allow window air conditioners or I would probably also have one of those. I have a portable unit that seems to do nothing but I think it might be broken so I'm waiting for LG to come look at it.
When I first started, the heat in the garage wasn't a factor for me. I kept the humidity level low to protect the equipment. But now it matters for me too and by next summer I will have a better solution.
In addition to a portable unit that works, I'm considering replacing my hot water heater (in the garage where I lift) with a heat pump unit which might be enough to control temperature. I'm also going to get an estimate from an HVAC company for extending the AC from the house out to the garage although that might turn out to be a big project. In the alternative, if I put up a fence such that I can hide the outside portion, I could put in a mini-split system.
Here in Florida, if the doors and windows seal tight, you can get tolerable garage climate control pretty easily. If there are air leaks, it might be impossible. Even a 1 ton unit isn't going to keep up in a garage with 95degree/85% humidity air leaking in!
How useful was that answer?
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Ed, somehow I missed this reply. Your post is incredibly helpful. Thank you.
Our garage was an open three-car carport. Two cars got stolen (~1995?) and Mom/Dad decided to close it in. Our handyman at the time built the garage. It is a flat roof (~8ft high), zero insulation. The metal garage doors (a two-car door and a one-car door...the one-car space is where the platform is) face due east. Zero shade throughout the entire day. The roof and any walls that aren't from the house are simply plywood with the hardyboard on the outside. I'm in Tampa. Oh yeah, dryer exhaust is in the garage (no solution to this), and there's a leak somewhere that lets water in right where the patform is when it rains hard. Plan is to make a french drain to solve this issue.
There is no fixing the heat issue, I just have to manage it the best I can. That humidifier is a great start. I've got to get a fan or some cooling unit of some kind. It is almost unbearable if I miss my workout in the morning and I have to train any time after 10am. I have to open the doors (both garage doors and the man-door to the backyard) when I train to get airflow. Getting airflow is MUCH more important to me than temperature, and once I buy a fan, that problem will be greatly alleviated. I may get a portable AC unit, but I don't think that solves the airflow issue like this LASKO fan would.
LINK: Amazon.com
I've thought that putting some type of spray/foam insulation on the door may help, but have not pursued at all. I cannot think of a shade solution for the roof either.
It was built to protect the cars, nothing else. Mom and dad never would have imagined I'd be lifting in there 30 years later.
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Yeah, the garage is attached. Actually I gave up on the fan idea and I just deal with the heat and embrace the suffering. You are right though, low humidity days are way way way better.
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I'm glad you have a place to lift. I am not an HVAC expert and haven't worked with HVAC since a high school job. Although you have a (leaky) roof, the building you are using is going to have so many air leaks that, yeah, in Florida weather, you aren't going to be able to have any meaningful effect on the climate in there unless you buy a 10ton commercial A/C unit and have the air vents directly above the platform. Even then you won't change the garage temperature, just be cooling yourself. I need to find a way to bookmark your post The next time I complain that my garage is too hot, I'm going to remind myself that your level of determination is much higher than mine. Best of luck with your training.
You are tougher than me. I keep looking for better solutions that won't cost a fortune. Unfortunately I've probably put in a lot of time and effort for little return. Like most things, I guess you should either be all-in or go home. Next year I'll probably get real AC installed in the garage. Unfortunately, to do it right, I have to first fence in the yard and then do it surreptitiously because installing a dedicated AC unit would violate HOA rules of converting a garage to living space. Alternatively I can get the AC from the house extended out to the garage. I could also insulate the doors better but I worry about insulating metal doors since that could trap moisture. At some point I might even put curtains on the windows to reduce light (and heat). As a short-term step, the next time I have an electrician here, I may replace the two overhead lights with high-volume ceiling fans. That might be enough that anything else isn't worth the effort. I guess I should go research ceiling fans now. Not that decorative crap but ones that can move some serious air.
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