Summary
The thermoregulatory behavior of two highly trained racing cyclists and of five untrained male subjects was investigated. The subjects were totally immersed in a water bath. They could regulate the water temperature according to their sensation of thermal comfort. At rest, in the state of thermal comfort, no thermoregulatory events—as sweating—could be observed. During exercise, esophageal temperature rises and consequently the subjects lower the water temperature. The resulting skin and deep-body temperatures caused an increase in sweat rate and heat conductance. Thus, during exercise, thermoregulatory responses increase as a function of oxygen uptake although the subjects are at thermal comfort. The different function of the two systems regulating sweat rate and thermoregulatory behavior respectively may arise from different weighting factors of skin and deep-body temperature as input variables to both systems. In the correlation equation\({\text{Output = }}a_0 + a_1 T_{oe} + a_2 T_s \) the ratioa 1:a 2 is about 12–15 in the case of sweat rate, and about 4 in the case of behavior
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Bleichert, A., Behling, K., Scarperi, M. et al. Thermoregulatory behavior of man during rest and exercise. Pflugers Arch. 338, 303–312 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00586072
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00586072