Maximising Performance in Hot Environments

A Problem-Based Learning Approach

Christopher Tyler

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780815362722
• eBook ISBN: 9781351111539
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Fisiologia

Ensuring high levels of performance and safety in hot climates is a key consideration for sport scientists and coaches. Maximising Performance in Hot Environments is the first book with a project-based approach to focus solely on exercise in this common climactic condition, providing students and coaches with a clear and concise introduction to working with athletes in the heat. Rigorous in its physiological underpinnings, the book adopts a problem-based learning approach, encouraging students to engage with the science and apply it to practical, real-world scenarios.

Posing questions such as "how should athletes be monitored in high temperatures", "what are the ideal conditions for setting a world record in a 10, 000m race", and "what special considerations should be made when working with masters athletes", the book covers all key topics, including:

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• The basics of human thermoregulation

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• The effect of high temperatures on performance

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• Heat acclimation and acclimatisation

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• Cooling

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• Hydration

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• Preventing heat-related illness and injury

Offering pedagogical features throughout to further enhance student learning, this is a truly innovative and unique resource. It is crucial reading for any student taking classes in environmental physiology, important applied reading for any exercise physiology students, and a vital companion for any sport scientist or coach working with athletes in high temperatures.

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INTRODUCTION

Maximising Performance in Hot Environments: A Problem-Based Learning Approach is a book that focuses on the effect that hot environments have on the human body, mind, and ability to perform optimally. Many people are exposed to such conditions due to factors such as event scheduling, the increased ease of travel, and the increasing global temperatures, and so the topic has wide-reaching exercise, occupational, and health applications.

Maximising Performance in Hot Environments: A Problem-Based Learning Approach is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and scientifically sound resource for advanced students, academic, and practitioners with a focus on the application of the science to the real world. The book covers the underpinning physiology associated with hot environments and the associated effects on exercise and occupational performance, and discusses the literature regarding strategies to minimise the impairments that are often observed. Due to the extreme nature of hot environments, the topic is also a great way to revise and revisit general physiological responses to exercise because the responses tend to be greater and occur earlier!

1.1 What is problem-based learning?

Problem-based learning involves solving challenging real-world, relevant problems with the help of trigger material to allow learning to be more active. Maximising Performance in Hot Environments: A Problem-Based Learning Approach adopts a problem-based learning approach and makes use of innovative, research-led learning and teaching strategies to facilitate active, rather than passive, learning. Each chapter contains real-world problems to give you an opportunity to apply and test your understanding. Hopefully, as you solve these problems, the information provided will have a clear context, purpose, and practical relevance.

1.2 Who is the book for?

Maximising Performance in Hot Environments: A Problem-Based Learning Approach has four main audiences: students, lecturers, athletes, and coaches.

To meet the academic needs of students and lecturers, this book provides a comprehensive, research-informed overview of the physiological responses to high ambient temperatures, how this impacts on exercise performance, whether these effects can be reversed or minimised, and the dangers posed to the athlete by heat.

Many physiology books tend to either be predominantly academic or predominantly applied, and very rarely both. Environmental physiology is a topic that lends itself to bridging this gap because high ambient temperatures are commonly experienced, the negative effects of them on performance and physiological systems are commonly observed, and there is a growing demand for scientific-based interventions in elite and sub-elite sports. Maximising Performance in Hot Environments: A Problem-Based Learning Approach aims to be informative and engaging, to ensure that the scientific content can easily be applied into practically relevant scenarios.

While many of the studies in the field use expensive environmental chambers, you do not need to have access to one in order to test out many of the topics covered yourself. You can easily make an athlete hot by getting them to train in the hotter parts of the day/year, asking them to wear extra clothing (waterproof trousers and jackets are especially good!), and/or heating a small room or tent – you’ll be surprised by how many laboratories around the world still use these approaches! Remember that regardless of how you provide the heat stress, you need to monitor your athlete’s health accurately in order to ensure that the approach is safe (Chapter 3 will help you with this).

1.3 How each chapter works

Each chapter follows the same structure to provide you with a consistent learning approach and contains the following subsections:

1.3.1 What should you know by the end of the chapter?

Each chapter opens with a short summary and bullet points highlighting what you should know by the end of the chapter. These are referred back to at the end of the chapter and tested using a self-check quiz so you can make sure that you have understood the key points of the chapter before applying the information and/or moving on to the next chapter.

1.3.2 Key terms for this chapter

A comprehensive list of thermal physiology terms can be found in the glossary of terms for thermal biology (1); however, for quick reference, key ones for each chapter will be highlighted before we get into the content.

1.3.3 Problems to be solved

At the start of each chapter, you will be presented with an example problem or two related to the content you are about to read. The problems are fictions but based on real-world scenarios. The chapter will contain the information required to solve these problems and you will be given little hints and tips on how to do so as you read. For example, in Chapter 9, you will be faced with the following scenario:

You are the head coach of an athletics club preparing to go abroad for seven days of warm-weather training. The weather at home is cold and wet, whereas it is forecast to be warm (25–32°C) and dry where you are going. What steps can you take to ensure that you minimise the risk of any of your athletes suffering from a heat illness or injury while at the training camp? The main objective of the warm-weather training camp is to escape the poor weather back home rather than to induce any heat adaptations.

1.3.4 Quick questions

Every now and again I will pose a question for you to consider before reading on. This gives you a good opportunity to stop and think about a certain topic before finding out whether you were correct or not in the next section.

1.3.5 Content

Each chapter will make use of key historical research as well as the latest published work to give you a data-rich overview of the topic being covered. Often the literature is not as definitive as some would like you to believe – where there is a controversy or disagreement this book will give you both sides and help you to form your own informed opinion.

1.3.6 Answers to the problems posed

Comprehensive answers to the problems posed will be provided. These answers will show how I got to these answers. You may have gotten a slightly different solution, and as long as you can support your answer with relevant literature and data, then that is fine… In fact, it is great!

1.3.7 Summary

After a lot of information, it is nice to have a concise summary of the main points – don’t simply skip to this bit though as you will miss a lot of very important detail!

1.3.8 Self-check quiz

As mentioned, each chapter will start with some bullet points highlighting what you should know by the end of the chapter. The self-check quiz will help you see whether these learning outcomes have been met and whether you have learnt the key topics within each chapter.

1.3.9 Practical tool kit

Whether you are in the laboratory or in the field, you should be able to make use of what you read. Each chapter will have some relevant resources for you to use in your research, consultancy, free time, or work.

1.3.10 References

All the references from each chapter are summarised at the end of each chapter for your reference. Please find the primary source cited and read the full manuscript where possible. Make use of you library subscriptions, personal subscriptions, and library services in order to find the primary source.

1.4 By the end of the book what should you know?

Maximising Performance in Hot Environments: A Problem-Based Learning Approach is an up-to-date, comprehensive resource for all things related to exercising in the heat. Each of the main chapters will cover a different topic, each with their own specific questions posed.

1.4.1 Chapter 2: the basics of thermoregulation

What happens to the human body when we are exposed to high ambient temperatures at rest and during exercise?

1.4.2 Chapter 3: how hot is hot?

Is there a difference between being hot and feeling hot? Do all people feel the heat in the same way? How do we accurately measure thermal stress and thermal strain?

1.4.3 Chapter 4: the effect of high ambient temperatures on exercise performance

To what extent does thermal stress and/or strain affect our ability to exercise? Are all exercise types affected in the same manner?

1.4.4 Chapter 5: the effect of high ambient temperatures on cognitive performance

As we get hot, or feel like we are getting hot, does our ability to perform cognitive tasks change? Are all tasks affected equally and does exercise have any role in this?

1.4.5 Chapter 6: heat acclimation

Why do many athletes undertake warm-weather training prior to competitions? What does repeated heat exposure do to the body and the ability to exercise in hot conditions?

1.4.6 Chapter 7: cooling

You may have seen many athletes using cooling interventions before, during, and after exercise – either in real life, on the television, or in the news. Why? Is there an optimal way to cool?

1.4.7 Chapter 8: (de)hydration

It seems like almost everyone carries a water bottle around with them nowadays – do they need to? What effect does hydration status have on the body and exercise performance?

1.4.8 Chapter 9: heat-related injuries and illness

What happen when an athlete gets too hot? How can you treat it and what can you do to prevent it from occurring?

Reference

1 Glossary of terms for thermal physiology. 2nd ed. Revised by The Commission for Thermal Physiology of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS Thermal Commission). Pflugers Arch 1987 Nov; 410(4–5):567–587.

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BASICS OF HUMAN THERMOREGULATION

What should you know by the end of the chapter?

If you have ever undertaken some exercise or physical activity in hot conditions, you will have noticed that your body responded differently than when you undertook a similar activity in cooler conditions. The reason for this is that your body was responding to the added thermal stress and strain experienced and was attempting to regulate core body temperature by dissipating the additional heat generated and stored. This...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Basics of human thermoregulation
• 3 How hot is hot? Measuring thermal stress and strain
• 4 The effect of high ambient temperatures on exercise performance
• 5 The effect of high ambient temperatures on cognitive function
• 6 Heat acclimation and acclimatisation
• 7 Cooling
• 8 (De)hydration
• 9 Heat-related injury and illness
• Index