Kenneth Gardner

Some of us also evaluate the benefits of exercise in terms of how much we perspire. Perspiration plays a vital role in controlling our body temperature. It is also good for cleaning the skin and eliminating waste products from our body. Sweating is the body's device for cooling off. Our body maintains a healthy internal temperature of 37 degrees Centigrade (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by regulating heat loss which happens naturally through the skin.

When our body temperature increases, as often occurs during exercising, our sweat glands pump perspiration to the skin's surface where it evaporates and cool us off. If we did not perspire we would have difficulty surviving because our body would overheat. When we are exercising and we sweat, this signal indicates that our body's climate control system is working efficiently.

It's odourless

Perspiration is 99 per cent water and odourless. However, the reaction of bacteria with our perspiration causes the development of the odour associated with it. So removing the perspiration at intervals will prevent unpleasant odours.

In general, men perspire more than women and women need to exercise and increase their body temperature to a full degree higher than men before they perspire at the same rate.

Some persons are naturally less tolerant of heat than others and perspire more excessively even when there is very little physical effort on their part. This could be indicative of their poor physical condition.

The exercises that we do greatly affect the amount of fluid that is lost via perspiration. An intense workout invariably results in a high rate of fluid loss. Likewise any exercise that increases our body temperature above the norm will increase our rate of perspiration.

Increased perspiration during exercise indicates an increase in the use of energy that can also result in weight loss. The cooling mechanism of our body requires the passage of water through the skin. Thus we should keep our fluid intake high to counter the massive fluid loss. On average the first 10 pounds that we lose during weight loss via exercise is the loss of water from our body due to perspiration.

Heat stroke

So when we are exercising, our body temperature rises above the norm, we sweat to cool down and once we are cool enough the sweating will stop until we warm up again. If we continue to exercise and maintain a constant high body temperature, we will continue to sweat at a steady rate until our body shuts off our sweating mechanism. This could result in heat illness or heat stroke eventually.

As we age, our sweat gland activity diminishes and our body experiences difficulties in maintaining heat control. This is also partly responsible for some of the difficulties adults experience in adapting to exercise; they have a diminishing ability to adjust to the increase in body temperature associated with intense exercise.

It is important that we consume adequate amounts of fluid before, during and after exercise. Our sense of thirst alone is inadequate to help us determine the exact amount of water needed to compensate for what we lose on an on-going basis.

Perspiring is an automatic response of our body when it is overheating due to exercising. Overheating does not only cause discomfort but also malfunction of our body functions. Thus, we need to be conscious of our need to perspire during our exercise routine and make allowances to accommodate the experience effectively.

Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at the G. C. Foster College of Physical Education: email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.