The outdoor season is just around the corner: races, meetings, high intensity.
And with all of this comes a factor many athletes underestimate—but one that can genuinely change performance: heat.

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Why heat can make you faster

t’s no coincidence that many top performances occur in warm conditions: 20–30°C.

One of the main reasons is simple: performance in the 100m and 200m largely depends on how quickly you can produce force. And this is closely linked to muscle temperature.

Several physiology studies show that increasing muscle temperature by around 1°C can improve power output and contraction speed by 2–5%.

We’re not talking about minor details—in sprinting, those are real hundredths of a second.

A study by Sargeant (1987) demonstrated how increased muscle temperature enhances mechanical power during explosive efforts.
More recently, Faulkner et al. (2013) found that maintaining elevated muscle temperature after the warm-up can improve sprint performance by up to around +9%.

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But there’s a limit

When temperatures rise too much—especially above 30–35°C—issues start to appear:

• cardiovascular strain increases
• the central nervous system begins to “protect” itself
• ine coordination deteriorates

This is where heat-induced central fatigue comes into play.

A study by Nybo et al. (2001) showed that in very hot conditions (≈40°C), core body temperature can approach 39–40°C, reducing the ability to sustain repeated efforts and impairing neuromuscular function.

In simple terms: it’s not that you lack strength—you just can’t fully express it.

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Hydration: important, but not in the way you think

In the 100m and 200m, the race is too short for dehydration to be the primary limiting factor.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

Dehydration of around 2% of body mass, as highlighted in several exercise physiology studies (e.g. Cheuvront & Kenefick, 2014), can:

• increase core temperature
• impair neuromuscular function
• reduce precision and coordination

So yes—you need to arrive already well hydrated.

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What to do in practice

1. The warm-up is everything

• The goal isn’t just to “warm up”, but to bring the muscles to their optimal temperature.

2. Manage the heat—don’t avoid it

• You can’t control the weather, but you can control how you prepare for it.

3. Plan hydration in advance

• It’s not something you fix in the final minutes.

4. Train in less-than-ideal conditions too

• If you only ever train in perfect conditions, you’ll perform well… until they’re no longer perfect.

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The key point

Temperature is not a minor detail.
It’s a variable that can shift your performance by those hundredths of a second that make all the difference in sprinting. And that’s exactly where the line is drawn between running fast… and running at your true maximum level.

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The future is bright,
Scirocco TF

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