Effects of wearing two different clothing ensembles on endurance performance of handgrip exercise

The experiment was done to investigate the effects of wearing two different clothing ensembles on endurance performance of handgrip exercise in 7 female subjects. Subjects walked on the ground for 1 h where air temperature ranged from 21 to 25 degrees C, glove temperature from 22 to 28 degrees C, relative humidity from 30 to 50% RH, air movement from 0.3 to 0.90 m/s, wearing the clothing ensemble HALF or LONG. The clothing ensemble HALF consisted of half-sleeved shirts, knee-length trousers, sandals, hat and LONG of long-sleeved shirts, long trousers, gloves, socks, walking shoes, hat. After 1 h of walking, the subjects exercised with a hand ergometer in a climatic chamber (25 +/- 1 degrees C, 50 +/- 10% RH) until volitional exhaustion. Rectal temperature, heart rate, body weight loss, number of contractions and strength of each contraction were measured during the experiment. Major findings were as follows: 1) Number of contractions in handgrip exercise after 1 h of walking was significantly greater in clothing ensemble HALF than in LONG, for which lower maintenance of rectal temperature during 1 h of walking on the ground in HALF might be responsible. 2) There was no significant difference in the strength of contraction between two clothing ensembles. Our present results suggest that how to wear clothing is of significance for the endurance performance of handgrip exercise.