Well, let's talk about now, uh, your study, he acclimation
improves exercise performance.
Uh, what were you trying to figure out?
What was the
purpose of this study?
Right.
So, um, I don't want to go too long until the history of this, but I'll tell you
a little bit about it is I was working with an athlete, a runner, a marathoner
named Nathan Ritson and he was training and preparing for the Beijing Olympics.
And at the time we thought the Beijing Olympics could potentially
be the hottest marathon on record.
Um, and now we've got Japan, which may also be that big may break that record.
Um, and so, uh, you know, when you're working with these, these.
This level of athlete, they're absolute thoroughbreds.
And so I was really worried about doing anything that would decrease performance
to bringing into our lab, into our chamber and worked very closely with his coaches.
And, um, but what we're concerned about is, is let's say we did get him
really prepared for heat acclimation.
And then we find out that through maybe human dilution or some other factors
that might play in that his performance actually went down a little bit.
I would have done a terrible job as an exercise physiologist.
Um, I would have been, uh, very disappointed this person spent his entire
life getting better with these moments.
Right.
So, um, we really wanted to see.
If we heat acclimate somebody, will we see an improvement apartments?
I didn't think so.
What do you see?
No change in performance, but perform better on the heat.
Absolutely.
Or we see a decrease in performance.
We really want to try and nail that down.
So that was a question we're trying to get at.
If you look at the physiology, there's reasons why you think they might be
decreasing performance in a cool weather after heat acclimation could be no
change or it could be an improvement.
And that's what we were going after.
So how did you design this study to figure it out?
Yeah.
So we used a cyclist, um, barley, because we can quantify so well, the workload
that they're doing and w within a environment, we can do the time trials,
for instance, one hour time trials to try and, uh, get performance variables
as well as we can do it in the lab and get really good physiology data.
You know, at the end of the day, I'm a physiologist, but I'm also in.
Integrative cardiovascular physiologist.
So I love looking at mechanisms.
I want to really understand things that deep level.
So we have to do it in the, in our chamber.
Um, we recruited a lot of really good cyclists.
So I think we only had one cat, three, everyone else's cat one or cat two.
We had a mixture of men and women, and we got a little more men.
And when they, we want to have it next, but unfortunately
couldn't find enough women.
Um, of that caliber who were there.
Um, all the men were over a VO, two max was over 65 and all
the women were about 58 to 65.
So we're talking good cyclist, right?
They weren't deleted, but they were a very good couple of people that
could be at the national level.
Um, we then designed the study, um, in a way to try and really
look at, um, Can we improve heat?
Uh, so I can improve performance and cool environments and can we
improve performance, hot environments?
So we used a whole battery of tests before any kind of intervention.
We then had the intervention, which had two groups and they were randomly assigned
to either, uh, the heat acclimation group or the, um, who will control.
And then we did the whole battery of tests afterwards, and the
intervention was, uh, Uh, 10 days.
So five days the weekends off five days, um, one of the key components
we want to do is make sure that people weren't just coming in and just writing
for us and creating a training, um, to study, to take a whole year and a
good thing in Eugene, Oregon, where I am, the cycling races are year round.
You go right from road racing to, to, uh, the, um, You know, to, uh, the cyclocross
racing and that goes all through winter and they just kind of circle back around.
Um, so everyone was training throughout the year and we wanted
them to keep their intensity going.
So one of the key components that we really said is that if someone comes in,
just ride slower for us in the heat, we'll probably see a decrease in performance,
same thing, working with the marathoners.
You, we really want to separate out the adding the heat.
So out of heat benefit, From the high intensity, the key workouts
and worked with the coaches very carefully to make sure.
All right, what are the key workouts are doing per week?
Let's make sure those stay in place.
Make sure I'm doing in the best, ideal.
Cool temperatures, and then add the heat on top of that.
So did
you match
this quite yet?
Did you match this from the experimental group to the control group that you
had one athlete performing at this high level and doing this training
load to the control, doing a similar high performance level with similar
training load.
Yes.
Yep.
So, um, the, all the outfits were on the same two clubs that we pulled from.
And, uh, so they were mostly training together.
And so we made sure that we had, it had a good mixture from each group.
We weren't like one club.
And so, uh, and then, uh, then we had them all write diaries and spoke to
coaches and all that kind of stuff to make sure that we were maintaining
those high levels of, uh, of, of intensity in the long, hard work hard,
you know, two, three, four, five hour rides were still in place as well.
So,
where did you space the, uh, the, the, the peat adoption
compared to the intense workouts?
Right.
Yeah.
So we, we, there was what kind of, it was the kind of situation
is sometimes out these ditch switch shifts off a little bit.
We would always want to make sure that any heat acclimation we're
doing was after an intense workout.
So if you're gonna do an affirmation during the morning and then do an
intense workout afterwards, you're going to be fatigued a little more tired.
You've already spent in our case an hour and a half on the bike and the heat.
So we really made sure we had them separate as much as we could.
Um, You know, and this, so we had, you know, five days where they did
the heat acclimation, the weekend off, a lot of them are racing over
that weekend and then five days again.
Um, and again, that was interspersed throughout the year and we worked
with them to try and find the best time as well for their schedule.
If they had a really big event, we didn't want to be messing with them because
that's just not, not fair to them.
Um, but that was kind of the goal.
And then, so then control group also did the same extra volume,
but just not in a hot room.
Is that correct?
Absolutely.
Yep.
So they did it in the 13 degrees C, which is about 50, 50 degree room.
We had vans for both groups, um, and they did.
Um, and this is the, one of the key components that, that, uh, we really
debated about how we're going to do this.
And if we made the right choice or not in the end, um, we made a choice
whether it was the best choice or not.
And that is, we had them match the, the actual loads are doing on the bike.
So we had them working 50% of the CO2 max, um, at that workload.
Whether they were in the heat or in the cool condition, the control condition.
And, uh, what that meant is that those in the heat were at a higher heart rate.
So we match the physical loads and where I was doing that to the time I was
really thinking, all right, the biggest stress for these individuals is going
to be the load or placing on their legs.
And they're going to feel the most, the biggest fatigue for the legs.
They're all highly trained to that point at all and within season.
And so they're all very strong cardiovascular wise.
So we thought.
Let's make sure we don't have like one group doing a lower workload,
um, in the chamber, even though their heart will be higher.
Right.
And that's become a big area of debate.
And actually one of the more interesting things that came out of this study
that, that we didn't actually plan for.
And then you kept
at it and you kept it at 50% of the all to max, because you felt that that
wouldn't confound these findings by, with an influence of actual adaptation
to the training, to that, that
particular training.
Absolutely a hundred percent.
You have, we've put a lot of thought into that as well.
We want to have a big enough stimulus where they're going to get their
body temperature up and be hot.
But, um, in general detail, you know, an athlete, we are, you're going to
spend an extra hour and a half spinning on a, and you can adapt your training
a little bit if need be, but, um, you spend an extra hour and a half spinning
at 50% of your, your, your, your max Watts or your peak Watts, then you're.
You're the most refined, like, well, that sounds fine.
No problem.
It's not gonna change anything, but that value has been shown before.
It did not really improve performance in, um, in athletes and athletes.
Right?
If you take an on train personally, I wouldn't do it doing that.
Of course, they're going to adapt and get strong, but you won't see
any real increase over two weeks.
And that for all the people that understand FTP that's about.
That's an aerobic pace.
70% FTP, 65% of TP, correct?
Right.
Yep.
Cool.
Okay.
So then how did you actually, okay, so they get in the, you get
the people, they do some tests.
Let's talk about how you test them before we, even, they even did
the, um, the controls or the, the.
You know, worked out in the heat intervention intervention.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So as I mentioned, we did a battery of tests, so we, um, really wanted to look
at, um, a number of performance variables and some physiological variables.
So are the main things we're looking at bird VO, two max seeing if we
can improve or change VO two max, we want to look at a lactate threshold.
Um, that was the, uh, And at that time, people weren't really talking
that much about FTP and, uh, critical power and other things.
Um, so we, we focused on lactate threshold as a physiological
measurement that we can actually make.
And then we had a one hour time trial and we're looking at that as well.
And we did some extra stuff.
It's not in the paper.
We looked at some skin, blood flow and temperature regulation, uh, markers.
And we looked at some, um, uh, leg blood flow measurements through
a, uh, single leg picking device.
Um, we're not talking about those cause we haven't, um, they're not as relevant
to the performance side of things, but we had a pretty big battery of
tests that we had that we did before.
And then afterwards.
And the important part really about that, the testing we did is we
did it once in a cool environment and once in a hot environment.
And so, uh, every test we did performance variable was, was, uh, in those
two environments and we'd randomize across subjects, which was first and
which was second for any athlete.
Post-testing we kept the order the same as you did before.
Right.
So they did heat first and then cool.
They do Keith first and then cool.
Someone cool first, then he, then we kept the same that way, but
as randomize across the subjects.
So the VO two max test, I think that's pretty standard where people
have seen where you put the mask on.
You do a, I think I read that it was a 20 watt step test, right?
And then you measure the gas exchange, lactic threshold.
Uh, I'm guessing is that also stepped, but with blood.
Exactly.
Yeah.
It's a little different weed is a separate test.
So some people try and mix them at the same time, but you're usually not
going to get the best data doing that.
Um, so we had a it's another step test.
We have a longer steps between, um, and once we got a clear increase
in the lactate that we measured, um, then we, we stopped them.
So we didn't make it a max test at the end.
You only
went up one millimole, right?
Yeah.
Run normal from baseline.
Yeah.
So you weren't measuring what we term as lactate threshold, which is
typically maximal lactate city-state you were just looking for a one
millimole increase over base.
Right.
And we actually, we actually took them a little farther than that.
Um, and we have a paper that looked at, um, different ways
to, to, to look at, um, a lactic threshold and ways to calculate it.
And there's a formula mold, total one mill step there's, you know, there's
the inflection point work we've done.
So we looked at all those different variables, but for this.
Paper we, and they all changed similarly.
So it wasn't a, anything really remarkable there, but we kind of
used what at the time was probably the most standard approach.
I think.
Gotcha.
And then the, the time trial performance, this sound, this is brutal.
Can you describe what you made people do?
Well, um, uh, so it was a one hour time trial.
And so we basically, uh, all that.
They didn't have any really feedback for them.
Um, other than I think we'd get in distance and then we had them, um, just
do a one hour time trial and, uh, we did it either cold condition or hot condition.
And they did that both times both before and after.
Uh, you know, some of the athletes really.
The ones who are stronger time trials actually kind of liked it.
Um, and, uh, the ones that don't hate it, it, the sprinters and others like
that just of course, hate time trials.
Um, I will say that one thing that we could have done better, um, all
the people had experienced the time trials, so we felt good about that.
But, um, you know, we, we subsequently done some work looking at, um,
different histamine blockers and, um, some work by Matt Elian and he
is, he did a really good job making sure people did for time trials.
Just practicing, just getting, getting used to it and making sure that we
get to really consistent variables.
And then we added the added the, the, the, uh, the controlled
experimental conditions.
Um, this one we kind of trusted, Oh, they're really good.
Cyclists are going to do it.
But there were some pacing that we saw that happened between pre
and post changes, um, in the heat.
And the first one, some of the athletes went out pretty fast.
And they didn't realize how hot they're going to get.
And so that was, that was interesting, but we felt like the, at least in the cool
cold conditions, which are real con a real question was we got real consistent data.
Um, in the, in the control group
on that time child performance, it was on an ergometer.
So people are used to earth mode.
If you're a cyclist and they were just hitting intensity up or down.
Right.
And then changing the wattage.
Is that what it was?
Yes.
They couldn't see the wattage.
Right.
Nope.
Yeah.
We wanted them to just be able to just go in and use the absolute, you know,
we didn't want them getting any cues.
And so it's all just in their head, how hard they're going to work and
how hard they're going to push.
And they just have the time, how long, how much longer they have to do.
And then
how did you measure their core body temperature?
Cause I saw that in the paper too.
Right.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
So this is, this is something I get it, it gets a lot of debate.
Um, you know, we've used the industrial pills in the past and
some people like those, but those are at a minimum $45 per pill.
Um, so, and sometimes they don't work that well.
So, um, we use the classic way, which is a rectal temperature.
And, um, the way I explain this to this, to athletes who come through and, and
the way I explain it to any cyclist, you know, um, God or evolution or whoever
it gave us this wonderful bum crack.
And it was designed specifically, so you can ride a bike with a rectal probe over
basically it's using human evolution to put some real good science forward.
The
crazy part is I read that I was five centimeters, which to me seems
like it wasn't always a 10 cent.
How much was it?
10 centimeters, 10 centimeters, which seems like a lot.
Uh, I dunno.
You know, the funny thing is, um, and I think, um, women in general are more
comfortable, their bodies than men are.
And so the women never bad.
And I really about rectal probes, the other than there's some embarrassment
of thing walk around here.
So yeah.
Here's my rectal probe, you know, and it's coming out your shorts.
Um, but the men have a little harder time with it.
I think not men in general, not as comfortable with our bodies.
Um, and you tell them how far it needs to go and you show them and they're
like, ah, but honestly, it's you don't once you're sliding it in, there's
this little bulb that we, all of us go through, um, to help hold it in place.
It has to go through the anal sphincter.
Um, it's not bad.
And if you ever done a esophageal, we do a soft gel temperature as well.
That goes up the nose down the throat.
Um, Down that, you know, in that into Sophos, um, that's miserable.
You're gagging reflex, all that kind of stuff.
But, um, the rectal probe is once you're moving, it's not bad.
How did, uh, how did you control for things like, like what did that a bunch of
caffeine that day or something like that that could increase their performance?
Yeah, we had, we made sure they kept, uh, food diaries and they
followed them every single day.
Um, you know, I'm sure you're probably somewhat familiar
with this from the athletes.
Speak to, but the majority of them are pretty regimented what they do, especially
those who are training for big events.
They're pretty good about, you know, start telling you to document things.
Um, they're, they're, they're fine doing the X pretty much have a certain
amount of foods that don't bother them.
They eat certain times.
Um, we try to have them not have any caffeine on the testing days
and you know, the big debate in my field and, and something.
I have some ideas that be kind of fun to do a study on is to take
regular caffeine, caffeine drinkers.
And have not have caffeine for a day and see how their physiology changes.
Cause there will be some changes.
Um, but I think once people are going in the lab, that kind of goes
by the wayside, no one complained of headaches or other things.
Um, but we did try and, uh, make sure that food, the diet, the exercise,
everything they did in any pre or post testing was identical the same.
That's awesome.
So what were the results.
Yeah.
So the main thing that we saw is that, um, there are two parts to it.
One is we knew or really suspect.
We see real improvements in the performance variables, in
the hot conditions, meaning heat, acclimation work.
So in the heat acclimation work very well.
So improvements in the heat, uh, all the heat, uh, tests in the experimental
group control group, we saw no changes, um, but it was surprising as we saw.
Um, the U2 max increase, lactate threshold improved and intro time trial
performance in the cooler condition.
And, uh, they were on the order across subjects about two to seven or 8%
increases, which was, um, and it wasn't 100% everybody, but it was pretty close.
We published our individual data so people can see who the true
responders and non-responders are.
Um, and, uh, almost nearly every athlete improved in the cool weather performance.
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