British Journal of Sports Medicine 2008;42:685
COMMENTARY
Commentary on "Autonomic and behavioural thermoregulation in tennis"
T Noakes , Department of Human Biology, Sports Science Institute of South Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa; tdnoakes@sports.uct.ac.za
Autonomic and behavioural thermoregulation in tennis
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Over 100 years ago, biologist Charles Morris proposed the revolutionary idea that humans evolved as hot weather hunters. Today it is increasingly accepted that we Homo sapiens owe our big brains (and our ability to undertake science) to our sweaty, hairless, long-legged torsos that allowed our (then small-brained) ancestors to outrun antelope in the midday heat on the sultry African savanah starting perhaps 2 million years ago. Studies of modern hunters in the Kalahari desert in Southern Africa suggest that these hunts were most successful when held in dry- bulb temperatures of 40–46°C. Often these hunts can last up to 6 hours. Thus the finding that modern tennis players are able to sustain 25 minutes of actual tennis play at dry-bulb temperatures of up to 39° C without dying is perhaps not so surprising, for these are exactly the conditions for which our excellent thermoregulatory apparatus, more effective apparently than
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Br. J. Sports Med. 2008 42: 679-685.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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