ANYTIME FITNESS KENSINGTON
June 23, 2011
If You Can’t Stand the Heat…
By: Patrick Carter
As beach season has officially begun,
many people are looking to get that “beach
exercise capacity, with significant decreases in
body” of which they have always dreamed. For
tolerance time to exhaustion.” Exercising in the
those non-beach-goers, a
heat can put large amounts
fit, well trained body is no
of strain on your
“exercise in hot or even temperate
less sought after. As we
cardiovascular system,
environments can severely impair
prepare to fight the fat and
impairing blood pressure
exercise capacity, with significant
condition our bodies into
and restricting blood flow to
decreases in tolerance time to
the rock hard machines that
the brain and other tissues
exhaustion.”
we want them to be, the
(Cheung). This causes a
heat is also gearing up to
higher level and quicker
get us ready to sweat off the pounds. However,
onset of fatigue and exhaustion.
while some may think the heat is aiding our
Exercising in the heat not only causes
bodies in shedding off weight, even the slightest
exhaustion, but also forces us to scale down our
bit of overheating can be detrimental to our
workouts. With the heat, we will not get all the
health.
benefits of working out. The heat causes us to
Most people connect the sickness
lose mental intensity and physical stamina.
known as hypothermia with cold temperatures
Along with hyperthermia, many other
during the winter months. This connection is
health problems are associated with the heat
made from the fact that hypothermia means
and the risks of developing them are greater if
the body’s temperature has
exercise is coupled with high temperatures and
dropped below that of its normal
humidity. The heat increases our bodies’ need
thermal measurements. What
to sweat, which can cause dehydration and an
we often times do not think
imbalance or loss of essential and non-essential
about is hypothermia’s opposing
electrolytes (those attained from the diet and
illness, known as hyperthermia.
those made by the body, respectively). A loss of
Hyperthermia is an increase in
electrolytes, for instance, can slow down
the body’s temperature to higher than normal
nervous system responses
levels. Like hypothermia, hyperthermia is
and action times and can
detrimental to our health, but also to our ability
cause muscle cramping,
to exercise.
especially in the legs. Other
Hyperthermia does not necessarily have
dangers of exercising in the
to be a large increase in body temperature. Any
heat include fainting,
abnormally high temperature above the
headaches, and heat stroke.
average 98.6°F could be considered
Yes, exercising
hyperthermia. When exercising out in the heat,
greatly benefits our bodies, our health, our
elevation in body temperature easily surpasses
minds, our attitudes, and our lives. Let’s do
that of exercising indoors at a room
ourselves a favor though, and get inside to
temperature of 72°F.
exercise during a standard East Coast summer.
According to Stephen S. Cheung’s
My escape from the hot summer sun is the
article in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and
comfortable 72°F in the Anytime Fitness gym in
Metabolism, “exercise in hot or even temperate
Kensington. Be kind to your body, it will be with
environments can severely impair
you for quite some time.
A n y t i mAe F i t n e s s K e n s i n g t o n - 4 2 6 5 H o w a r d A v e . - K e n s i n g t o n , M D 2 0 8 9 5
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ANYTIME FITNESS KENSINGTON
June 23, 2011
Works Cited
Cheung, Stephen S. "Hyperthermia and Voluntary Exhaustion: Integrating Models and Future
Challenges.(SYMPOSIUM)." Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism 32.4 (2007): 808+.
Academic OneFile. Web. June 2011.
Images extracted from google.com
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