Sweat and your element

There is a stubborn belief in training rooms: sweating a lot is the sign of good work, and sweating little the sign of insufficient effort.

That is false, and the real information is more interesting.

What sweat measures

It measures thermal regulation, and that regulation is not identical from one person to another.

Some people sweat within three minutes, and abundantly. Others take twenty minutes and stay dry. At equal effort, under equal conditions.

It is neither a merit nor a flaw. It is a characteristic, and it is stable — those who sweated quickly at twenty still sweat quickly at fifty.

What tradition made of it

It read sweat as a sign, in the same way as sleep or appetite.

Abundant, rapid sweat belonged to the register of rising heat: the forehead that colours, the warm nape in the evening, the person who lights up in conversation. For her, sweating is a release valve, and suppressing it costs.

Late, rare sweat belonged to the register of economy: finer skin, a drier jaw, the person who does not spend. For her, sweating a lot is a loss, and it must be measured.

Heavy sweat, the kind that settles and does not dry, belonged to the register of what holds on: the centre of the face that becomes congested, the heaviness of the morning. For her, sweating is useful because it sets in motion what had stagnated.

Sweat that arrives all at once, late, with a drop right after, belonged to the register of reserve: the person who holds, holds, then falls.

The practical information

It is not about quantity but about what follows.

If you sweat a lot and feel good afterwards, it was a release. It suits you.

If you sweat a lot and feel drained two hours later, it was a loss. You need to reduce, or change the environment — less heat, less humidity, shorter.

If you sweat little and still progress, all is well. There is nothing to correct.

If you sweat little and heat up without releasing, the heat stays inside, and it shows on the forehead the next day.

The mistake to avoid

Trying to sweat more because you believe it is the sign of work.

Very hot or very humid environments increase sweat without increasing the work. For some natures, they are excellent; for others, they turn a good session into a drain.

What decides

Knowing which register you are in cannot be deduced from the amount observed — two opposite natures can sweat a lot, one through release and the other through loss.

What distinguishes the two is read one step earlier, from the very beginning, and it turns a daily observation into usable information.