Don't let the heat slow you down!

Many of us enjoy exercising outside on warm and sunny days, but it's important to remember that extreme heat (or overexerting yourself during hot days) can pose serious health risks. It is important to listen to your body during the heat! Heat exhaustion is a common reaction when the temperature goes up. It can cause dizziness, headaches, body stresses, fainting and cardiac problems.

The following are tips to heed to when preparing for an outdoor workout:

1) First (and most important!), don't forget to drink plenty of fluids well before your workout. Your body is about 60% water so plan accordingly. Drink before, during and after exercise.

Cool Comfort® Performance Half Vest

2) Dressing appropriately is also an important factor, so be sure to wear lightweight clothing so your body can release sweat. If you are exercising for more than an hour, be sure to change wet clothes to allow your body to continue to sweat naturally.

3) Avoid working out directly in the sun.

Take a hike in the woods,
and wear a cooling hat!

4) It's a good idea to take a 10 minute break for each 30 minutes of working out.  If you start to feel dizzy, have a headache, or experience muscle cramps, you should stop, rest, rehydrate and cool down.

Cool Comfort® Performance Vest

5) Cooling the body before, during and after exercise can help mitigate the dangers of overheating. Check out Polar's full line of Cool Comfort® cooling apparel for athletes, and learn more about pre-cooling, post-cooling and cooling after activity.

Improved performance can be an added benefit of pre-cooling!  Check out this article: "Exercising in the heat? Cool down for better performance"

Stay safe and be cool as you workout in the heat!

Polar Life Pod®

Did you know? Ice water immersion is the most effective way to quickly cool an overheated athlete. The Polar Life Pod® is a patent pending, portable, collapsible immersion system to facilitate the rapid cooling of athletes experiencing heat related illness, heat exhaustion, heat stress and heat stroke. Visit www.polarlifepod.com to see a graph showing the effectiveness of various cooling techniques.

Our Local Cool Kids™ Family

This summer we have had the pleasure of working with an incredible local family in Stow, Ohio. Three of the children have varying levels of heat-sensitivity as a result of medical conditions. These active kids can't just stay in the AC and miss out on the fun of the summertime, so we were happy to help them stay cool! 

The youngest, B. is just three years old. This sweet little boy was the inspiration for our newest cooling product, the Cool Kids Toddler Stroller Seat. He has IV line access in his chest and a feeding tube in his tummy, so at first we were concerned about the fit of our toddler cooling vest. It turned out to not be an issue at all and he loves his vest!

B. trying on his toddler cooling vest and playing with a truck in Polar's
conference room during a design meeting for the stroller cooling seat. 

We just received an e-mail from their mom, Amy, giving us an update on their summer:

"Here is a picture of all of the kids wearing their Polar Products!!! My girls have used the neck wraps like crazy." 

"B. has been doing so well. He is probably the best he has been his entire life here on this earth.  We have been using his cooling vest like crazy. I really think it has made a huge difference in him. It does not seem to bother his tubes. And it keeps him from sweating which has really helped keep the dressing to his IV line intact." 

12-year-old C. says, "I know this will make me
feel better during band camp!" 

"C. also continues to use his vest like crazy.  It is so easy for me to manage as well as him. We just fill up the cooler (which by the way is totally awesome and leak proof) from you with ice water (especially when we are at the lake) and we just recharge them in the cooler. My husband and I were talking about getting a timer to help us remember when to recharge the packs. Especially for B. because the packs are so little. But they are so lightweight and it doesn't seem to affect him or his balance at all."

"Here is a picture of C. letting his big fish go."

"I am very happy with the stroller seat pad. I can imagine that a younger or more immobile child would really like it. It is totally what I have been searching for. We found that if we kept a blanket or a jacket over it when he was out of the stroller it stayed colder for much longer. He was very comfortable in his stroller with the pad in. He wasn't sweaty when we picked him up out of the stroller like he normally would have been."

NEW! Cool Kids Toddler Stroller Seat

"Here is a picture of B. loading up his water gun to go after the ducks. He is wearing his vest. But he also has his tube feed pump on over the vest. (That is the clown fish on his back.) I think it's awesome he can wear his tube feed pump and life vest with his cooling vest on. That just makes it so functional for him." 

"And here is a picture of him sitting in the highchair in the water. B. is not allowed to swim at all. Lake water is loaded with bacteria that can make him really sick because of his tubes. However, he is a kid and he wants to do what everyone else does. So we put on his cooling vest and put him in the highchair by the dock. He can get his feet wet and be part of the crowd with his siblings in the water and yet we can keep his tubes dry. 

"We are so grateful for the gift you guys have given our family. It has truly been a blessing. I have so many wonderful memories we have built this summer because my kids are more comfortable and I feel like I don't have to worry about them and how the heat is affecting them as much." 

Amy, it has been a joy to work with you and your family. We are so happy to hear that your family is having a wonderful summer! 

Our customers are fantastic and it's our pleasure to work with individuals to expand on our product line and customize our products to meet their unique needs. We welcome your feedback as we learn and innovate. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know how we can help! You can reach us at 1.800.763.8423 or by e-mail at polar@polarproducts.com. We look forward to hearing from you!