Fundamental Physiology

The problem here is that you don’t have to understand training, physiology or foundational principles in heart rate training, or the cardiovascular system to own or manage a fitness facility.  Owners and managers are not the only ones who don’t get it.  Few certification programs for instructors also include this fundamental knowledge base.  Consequently, there is a prevailing notion (along with other silly ideas like the 220 minus your age formula for calculating your max heart rate), that the more you sweat, the harder you are working.  That kind of logic then leads those misguided souls to think that the more you sweat, the more weight you are loosing.  The ultimate, and most heinous conclusion this leads some to, goes like this “They don’t need fans, they want to work hard and lose weight, and that’s what they are supposed to do… sweat!”. 

Uh… well… not so fast.  If that were true, then just build a bunch of steam rooms and saunas and let people sit and sweat.  Ah, but it’s not that simple is it?  You know they don’t really lose real weight that way.  It’s just water weight.  But really, it’s worse than that.  Here is the basic principle in a nutshell.  If you don’t have time to read anything else in this blog, or learn anything else about the thermodynamics of the human body, and how it relates to indoor cycling, Spinning®, please try to understand this:

The human body does not dissipate heat very well on its own.  We burn 4 to 5 calories to perform 1 calorie of work.  What happens to the other calories?  It turns the remaining calories into heat, which unfortunately must by eliminated for our bodies to function properly.  To maintain our bodies at a constant temperature, the body will take blood away from the muscles and redirect it to the skin where it can be used for cooling by evaporating perspiration.  The bottom line?  If you don’t have some other way to keep your body cool, you can’t use your energy to perform work – the real way to get fit and lose weight.  Instead, you’re wasting energy cooling (or at least trying to cool) your body.

Don’t take my word for it. The importance of cooling a cyclist who is not riding on the open road can not be overstated.  Here is a link to a great article (which includes a video interview) of Dr. Lim from Garmin-Chipotle cycling team.  He is their team physiologist: http://bit.ly/Cooling

“When you do this [keep cool] you don’t have to use as much energy to cool yourself down so more of that blood can be used to actually deliver oxygen [to the muscles.]”