Our Year 12s conducted an Exercise Physiology Heat Laboratory experiment where the
the investigation sought to explore the body's physiological acute response to exercising in hot and humid environmental conditions.

First, they completed a controlled experiment in normal climatic conditions for a baseline of data to compare against. Under these conditions, the human body will use sweating and evaporation to cool internal body temperature rises caused by cellular respiration and muscle contraction. They measured heart rate, body temp, rating of perceived exertion and thermal sensation scale.

Then they conducted the same experiment with the same subjects but in a hot and humid environment. Under these conditions, the human body will experience a double heat load, heat from muscle contraction and heat absorption from the environment.
The body will not be able to cool itself as evaporation heat loss is negatively impacted and the body will experience cardiac drift. I.e Heart rate will continue to rise despite there being no rise in exercise intensity.

This will cause a mechanism of fatigue that will cause the body to drastically lose performance. The experiment highlights the need for heat acclimatisation and specific heat load reduction strategies to assist the athlete to perform in hot and humid conditions.

Kyle Barker
Physical Education Teacher