Responses of sweating and body temperature to sinusoidal exercise in physically trained men

The effect of physical training on the dynamic responses of sweating to transient exercise is still controversial. We determined the phase response and amplitude response (delta) of sweating rate and body temperature to sinusoidal exercise in physically trained and untrained subjects. Eight trained and seven untrained male subjects exercised on a cycle ergometer with a constant load for 30 min; for the next 28 min, they exercised with a sinusoidal load. The sinusoidal load variation ranged from approximately 10 to 60% of peak O2 uptake with a 4-min period. The ambient temperature and the relative humidity during exercise were 25 degrees C and 35%, respectively. There was no difference between the groups in the phase lags of esophageal temperature (Tes) and mean skin temperature (Tsk), whereas the phase lags of sweating rates for the chest and forearm were significantly shorter in the trained group (P < 0.05). The delta of Tes and Tsk per 1 W of exercise load in the trained group was significantly smaller than that in the untrained group (both, P < 0.05), whereas there was no difference between the groups in the delta of sweating rate for the chest and forearm. We conclude that subjects who have undergone long-term physical training show prompter dynamic characteristics of sweating response compared with untrained subjects and have a higher capacity to maintain constant body temperature during exercise at transient load.