Abstract

Earth, third planet from the sun, contains an awesome array of surface environments, ranging from Antarctica to the Sahara Desert and from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench. Although each locale presents danger to human life, we attempt to explore, work in, or inhabit these extreme environments. Physical training and athletic competition are no different, in that some individuals exercise in extremes of temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, altitude, and water pressure. Without an understanding of the dangers that exist in our environment and the required countermeasures, athletes (a) will not optimize training or performance, and (b) run the risk of incurring illness or injury that could impede or terminate their athletic pursuits. Therefore, this book is written to provide advice to runners, cyclists, climbers, divers, recreational enthusiasts, soldiers, and laborers, as well as high school, college, and professional athletic teams. It is necessary because so many people understand something about environmental physiology, but few know enough or take the precautions that are necessary. Further, because training and competition are usually based on trial and error or tradition, this book has been written to provide objective information from the fields of environmental physiology, exercise physiology, and environmental medicine. It represents a distillation of decades of research and thousands of interactions with athletes, coaches, and soldiers. However, care has been taken to provide practical advice in words that can be understood by those who are unfamiliar with physiology and medicine. The organization of this book allows the reader to examine all of the earth's stressful physical factors (i.e., heat, humidity, air pollution, cold, windchill, high altitude, day length, air ions, and underwater pressure). Chapters 2 through 8 provide details about the body organs that are affected, ways that physical factors alter exercise performance, medical disorders, and tips to avoid performance decrements and illness. When faced with exercise or labor in hostile environments, the reader will learn that adjustments can be made in behavior, training patterns, eating habits, fluids, clothing, medications, or the air mixture breathed. Contents: 1. Adapting to stressful environments. 2. Heat and humidity. 3. Cold, windchill, and water immersion. 4. Diving into Earth's hyperbaric environment. 5. Altitude: Earth's hypobaric environment. 6. Air pollution: exercise in the city. 7. Weather patterns and air ions. 8. Biorhythmic disturbances. Vorwort und Inhaltsverzeichnis