300, a 2006 Hollywood blockbuster movie, showcased that in Sparta stunted and sickly newborns had been thrown off the cliffs. Effectively-built and durable boys had been allowed to reside, who on the age of seven had been turned over by their dad and mom to the state to bear rigorous training and navy coaching. They weren’t fed effectively and had been inspired to battle one another. And sleep was for the weaklings. They needed to prepare in all types of utmost circumstances, particularly warmth.
A decade after the discharge of 300, i.e. in 2016 on the Rio Olympics, OP Jaisha was representing India within the marathon. She too was handled no lesser than the Spartan male warriors. Jaisha had collapsed after crossing the end line and needed to be rushed to the hospital. She alleged that she was not supplied water and vitality drinks by the Indian officers on the designated stations and will have died.
We don’t should be elite athletes or be within the military to narrate to Jaisha or 300. Most of our bodily training lecturers and even dad and mom instructed us to not drink any water, positively not chilly, after doing strenuous bodily exercise in sizzling and humid circumstances. Pouring chilly water on our heads was merely out of the query. Then there have been the coaches who made us play in excessive warmth because it supposedly made us robust and prepared for any situation. It nonetheless occurs right this moment, even in some prime sports activities academies internationally.
People have identified about heat-related diseases – together with warmth stroke – since 400 BC, when Hippocrates documented it in The Aphorisms of Hippocrates and acknowledged that sweating is vital for cooling down. It was across the identical time that Herodotus made an statement on the nice outdated Spartans that bodily exertion within the warmth led to thirst and water was essential to deal with it. And about 70 years later, Alexander the Nice suggested his military to not march when it was extraordinarily sizzling, positively not with out ample water provide.
How then did the consensus to deal with warmth stroke take a 180° flip?
A thousand years in the past, The Canon of Medication of Avicenna in 1020 first documented that swallowing chilly water may result in sudden dying. It strongly really helpful that chilly water ought to solely be used for rinsing the mouth, that too sparsely. Quickly sufficient, folks had been getting identified as ‘harm by ingesting chilly water.’ There have been warning indicators subsequent to public hand pumps in Europe and North America, stating that ingesting chilly water may result in sudden dying. Courtesy of colonialism and commerce, this method to managing warmth strokes seeped into all of the cultures world wide. This ‘knowledge’ was handed down the era, quickly turning into “widespread information”.
Despite the fact that there was a distinction of opinion in managing warmth stroke, there was a consensus all through the final two and a half millennia that there’s an pressing want to chill the physique down when the core temperature exceeds 40°C. Sweating occurs to be essentially the most environment friendly technique to calm down.
However the place does the sweat come from? It’s a query price asking to know what we have to do to securely train in warmth and carry out to our optimum ranges. Sure, you guessed it proper. Sweat comes from the water we drink, however no, it’s not as easy as that. Once we drink water and different liquids, they get to the abdomen by the meals pipe and are absorbed there. Now blood has two main elements, the liquid portion that constitutes 55% of the blood is named plasma. It primarily has water – which has electrolytes, vitamins, proteins and so on. The opposite element has crimson blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and so on.
When the physique’s temperature will increase due to exercising, extra so in sizzling and humid circumstances, receptors (sensors) within the hypothalamus portion of the mind and in addition within the pores and skin set off a collection of occasions that result in sweating to chill the physique down. There’s an elevated quantity of blood pumped with each heartbeat and the center fee additionally will increase to get the blood dashing to the pores and skin. It’s the liquid portion of the blood from which sweat is fashioned, decreasing the fluid portion of the blood, in consequence rising the blood’s viscosity. There’s an total discount in blood quantity that’s circulating within the physique. Lack of fluids and electrolytes results in the feeling of thirst.
Once we proceed to train in sizzling and humid circumstances, the physique’s core temperature will increase additional. This places additional strain on the center to pump extra blood, but it surely begins to wrestle to maintain up with the demand. Blood stream to the pores and skin begins to fall and sweating reduces. There’s additionally a compromise in blood stream to very important organs just like the mind, coronary heart and intestine. As a lot as there may be thirst, widespread mobile damage, particularly to the abdomen and the intestines, causes the lack to drink, failure to appropriate fluid stability and electrolyte loss.
Busting Myths
> Don’t pour chilly water, moderately any water, in your head after exercising within the warmth
When you find yourself unable to drink water, it turns into much more vital to pour chilly water over your neck, head and limbs, together with splashing ice chilly water in your face to scale back your inner physique’s temperature. It’s endorsed in any case exercising periods within the warmth. One feels refreshed fairly quickly and never drained and torpid all through the day.
> Don’t drink chilly water after exercising within the warmth
Utter garbage. As defined above, you will need to shortly deliver down the physique’s inner temperature and it’s secure. Simply drink it in small sips.
> Drink solely plain water after exercising within the warmth
Each water and electrolytes are misplaced by sweat, so all the time have electrolytes. Having extra plain water can be harmful.
> Don’t have any water earlier than beginning your train
When you’re going to be exercising within the warmth, it’s best to begin barely extra hydrated. A glass or two of electrolyte-mixed water over 2-3 hours earlier than exercising is ample. It is very important repeat that the water ought to be consumed in small sips.
> Exercising in sizzling and humid circumstances makes you stronger for all circumstances
There is a bonus to acclimatising to coaching in sizzling and humid circumstances, however the advantages of it solely final for 1-2 weeks. It’s detrimental to coach on the hottest time of the day all year long. There’s early muscle fatigue, decreased coordination and poor metabolism, resulting in poor efficiency. It additionally has a direct psychological impression as, regardless of the upper perceived effort, the outcomes are worse. Not directly, exercising in sizzling and humid circumstances results in circumstances like melancholy, stress and nervousness, resulting in worse efficiency and pointless accidents. There’s a delay in restoration, making sleep uncomfortable. One of many largest causes for warmth stroke is extreme motivation from self, friends and coaches to hold on and push oneself in excessive circumstances.
> Apply sleeping in sizzling circumstances with out placing on the air conditioner
Not utilizing air conditioners throughout summer time nights provides to the woes. The core physique temperature is already excessive, even earlier than you start to train within the warmth. Not less than for the final hour of sleep, have your air conditioners at a level or two decrease than you normally do. This helps in delaying heat-related diseases and higher efficiency too.
It is very important make ourselves conscious of this info and query the established order. On the finish of the day, the concept is to benefit from the sports activities and train we do, and do them safely, so you’ll be able to get pleasure from them for so long as you presumably can.
Hold miling and smiling.
Dr Rajat Chauhan is the writer of MoveMint Medication: Your Journey to Peak Well being and La Extremely: cOuch to five, 11 & 22 kms in 100 days
He writes a weekly column, completely for HT Premium readers, that breaks down the science of motion and train.
The views expressed are private