temperature

  • Heat, Hydration, Macronutrients, Performance

    Do extra carbs in an ice-slushy help lower body temperature better?

    When exercising our body gets hotter and hotter. The longer and more intense the exercise is, the more that temperature increases. As the temperature rises though our body begins to slow us down to avoid over-heating. This is why we tend to feel a bit more tired quicker in hot weather. On the other hand if we add a few things to help lower body temperature we may improve performance.

    Ways to lower body temperature

    Our body naturally tries to keep us cool and generally does a great job of it. The number one strategy is through sweat. As the sweat evaporates off of us it creates a cooling effect. In humid conditions where sweat isn’t able to evaporate that doesn’t happen. That’s why hot and humid conditions can be very dangerous.

    Wearing thin/light clothing helps to keep our skin exposed to the surrounding air. Wind going across our skin helps to cool the blood near the surface. As we get hot the blood tends to push more towards the surface for this. This is why you may notice your veins pop out a bit more in the heat.

    Other ways to help include cooling the body externally with cold towels or ice packs and internally with cold beverages or slushies.

    The perks of slushies on body temperature

    First, who doesn’t like a good slushy? But they offer a performance benefit as well. As mentioned previously our body starts to heat up as we train and work harder. Most cooling strategies of cold towels, fans, clothing and shade coverings address the external cooling. But internally the heat can still be building.

    This is where slushies come to the rescue! Having a cold iced beverage like that is able to get into the gut and help cool the body from the inside out. Now I know it’s not very functional to have a slushy machine on the sideline to have in the moment. But having a slushy before can help provide a bit of buffer to give extra time before the body heats up. The question now is can something be added to the slushy to make it even better? Carbs are the first on the list analyzed.

    Carbs impact (or lack thereof) on lowering body temp

    This compared one slushy with a typical amount of carbs in it with another slushy with twice as much. In controlled environments, the impact on body temperatures were…..the same. Extra carbs and extra calories in general can help provide additional energy to improve performance. None of the benefits being provided by the carbs appear to be related to lower body temperature effects.

    Is a sugar rush slushy needed?

    Nope. Short sweet and to the point there. This likely doesn’t come as a surprise to many, myself included. But just because I didn’t think there would be anything doesn’t mean it’s not worth checking out! Keeping an open mind to potentially being wrong is never a bad thing. But this study does show that slushies can help keep core temperatures down regardless of carb content. So if going to compete in a hot/humid environment, looking to see if you can grab a slushy beforehand could be worth a try if that is appealing to you. Just maybe don’t grab some extra sugar packets to try and throw in there.

    Study referenced: click here

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  • Hydration, Performance, Recovery, Wellness

    Chill Out and Perform Better – Keeping Cool In Heat

    When we workout, train and compete our body generates heat. This heat is generated due to the energy our body produces to allow us to perform. Obviously though we don’t want to get too hot! As our temperature increases our body has to work harder to maintain our performance and keeping cool. Fatigue then begins to set in and our body forces us to slow down. If we don’t slow down and our temperature continues to climb we can have big problems! To fight this our body works to try and cool itself down but there are things we can do to help it.

    Why do we care about keeping cool? Safety

    If we get too hot it can become very dangerous. Just like a car will breakdown if it overheats, our body’s respond the same way. A significant increase in our internal body temperature can lead to heat exhaustion and heat strokes. Neither of those are a good time. Unfortunately though many people suffer from over heating every year.

    High school football has in particular received a lot of attention due to the number of players who have collapsed from heat exhaustion. This can be attributed to several factors leading it to be a perfect storm. A major reason is simply the equipment that is used with helmets and pads. On top of that two-a-day practices are very common causing increased exposure to the heat outdoors and potential dehydration. But perhaps the biggest factor that applies to much more than just the sport, is the age of these athletes.

    High school football players in full pads in the heat.

    Adolescents are at an increased risk for heat related problems due to their body’s not being fully developed yet. Their body’s don’t have the full capability to cool themselves yet which we’ll dive into here shortly. Because they’re still developing, coaches and training staffs need to be very cautious and mindful with youth athletes.

    Our body naturally try’s to keep us cool

    The human body is incredibly resilient and try’s really hard to keep us up and moving. Which is greatly appreciated! In regards to what our body does specifically to keep us cool, sweat and blood flow distribution are the main methods.

    Athlete sweating profusely in the heat.

    We’ve all been in a hot situation where we are sweating buckets! Sometimes it’s out on the field and other times it’s at that family member’s house who keeps the heat on way too high. We’re ok for a little bit but eventually the sweat inevitably comes. The interesting part though is that simply sweating isn’t what cools our body down. It’s when the sweat evaporates that we cool off.

    Think of when you get out of the shower. Even though there’s no wind blowing we feel noticeably more cold. If our sweat isn’t able to evaporate then sweating doesn’t help us and is simply reducing our blood volume due to the volume of liquid being lost. When it’s very humid outside there’s already a lot of moisture in the air and it prevents our sweat from being able to evaporate and cool us off. That’s why extra caution is needed on those hot and humid days especially!

    Now for the blood distribution piece, this involves our body pumping blood towards our skin. By having blood closer to the surface of our skin, the wind/air traveling over it will help to cool down the blood. Then the slightly cooled down blood can travel back through the body helping cool the body down internally.

    Have you ever notice your veins sticking out a bit more in hot/humid environments? Now you know why! It’s the body directing the blood to the surface more in hopes of cooling down more. When we’re dehydrated though, this becomes very challenging.

    Athlete with extra vascularity.

    Keeping cool means keeping hydrated

    If we don’t replace the fluid being lost in sweat, our blood volume decreases. Less blood means it gets hot faster and isn’t able to stay at the surface of the skin long enough to cool down because it has to keep circulating. No rest for the weary!

    Athlete in the sun wiping the sweat off his face.

    Think about what takes longer to come to a boil on the stove; a cup of water or a large pot? Spoiler, it’s the cup!

    In our body, we want to avoid that boiling point for as long as we can. Like the large pot of water, not being dehydrated and drinking plenty of fluid keeps our blood volume up. Cheers to that.

    Having some extra sodium with that fluid though can be very helpful. Sodium will help our body to absorb and hold onto that water a bit better. The main goal of all of this is to increase that blood volume to keep us cool and avoid overheating.

    Ways to help chill out

    In addition to simply drinking more, there are several ways in which we can help keep our body cool.

    Keeping our beverages cold is the low hanging fruit of everything. Pack your water and electrolyte drinks in a cooler with ice packs as a simple and quick solution. Pro tip: freezing a water bottle will allow it to act as an ice pack and then when it melts you have extra fluid to drink. Helps to make the most of limited space and the cold beverages help to cool us internally from the inside out.

    In a similar manner slushies and popsicles can be a great way to help drop our core temperature. As an added benefit, making slushies out of sports drinks can help to provide some additional electrolytes as well. Who wouldn’t like a cold lemon lime Gatorade after a hot practice?

    Popsicles and fruit on ice to help cool down body temperature.

    Cooling ourselves externally is incredibly helpful as well. Grabbing some cold towels and ice packs to throw on ourselves is great. There are a few specific locations though that can impact our temperature to a great extent though and should be the areas to focus on when possible. These areas are where larger blood vessels are closer to the surface allowing closer direct contact to our blood. Those hot spots (pun intended) are our neck, armpits and groin. If needing to cool down quickly, that is where you need to focus placing ice.

    So chill out, stay safe and keep your performance up. The more of these things you can incorporate, the cooler you will be.

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