Getting Warmer

Things are hotting up...

So the cycling continues. The mid Heat Tolerance Tests are starting to be completed as people finish their 5th heat acclimation session. Without measuring physiological values, it is clear to see people are already finding a noticeable improvement in their tolerance to the training in the heat. Yet it is still seems to be pretty hard work for those doing the heat based trials as you can see from our video.

Testing Week Two

Heat Acclimation Overload

Another week of testing with the start of the heat acclimation process for one third of the students on the project. The heat acclimation training requires 10 days of 90mins cycling at 50%VO2max in 40 degrees Celsius. Measures of heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, thermal sensation, core temperature and physiological strain are taken every 5th minute for all participants.

The other two thirds of the group are either completing a normothermic training for the same duration and intensity, or no training at all. The students in the control doing no training at all are acting as the experimenters and busy collecting all the data from the 16 exercising participants.

Needless to say, the heat acclimation hasn't been easy, but the 8 students completing the training have worked hard so far, especially considering this has had to be done around their normal students and the considerable amount of work that is due in soon or immediately after Peru.

In the week prior, participants had completed VO2max tests and heat tolerance tests in which they run until exhaustion in the 40C environment. All participants will complete these tests again after 5 and 10 training sessions.

Participants are also required to give venous blood samples at the same time points. This is to measure various blood markers including heat shock protein 72, a protein chaperone known to be up-regulated when the body is subjected to sufficient environmental and physical strain. It is suggested that by up-regulating HSP72 an individual may improve their tolerance to environmental extremes such as heat and altitude.

Oli Gibson, who is leading this research project, is now looking rather more stressed than normal, as the snow day and closure of the University has caused all sorts of problems with rearranging of testing, lectures and bookings for the chamber. Fortunately it all seems to be going well, follow our twitter page to follow how it goes.

Research

Undergraduate students undetaking incremental VO2 max tests
using the Metamax 3X System  from Cortex Medical

Testing Times

So with 1 month to go, the sea level testing is due to start. Ambitiously we are trying to fit in five reasonably large research projects over the Peru project to gain as much from the opportunity as possible. Suddenly the  realisation of what we are undertaking and how much that involves when considering a sample size of 29 becomes apparent on making all the sign up sheets for all the testing slots. However, most seem to be up for the challenge and realise the learning opportunity that it obviously brings.

The Hypoxic Chamber (Altitude Centre, London)

To give you an idea of numbers, simply before we go to Peru we need to complete:

- 24 Incremental VO2max Tests 

- 10 Lipid Challenge Tests

- 10 Basal Metabolic Rate Tests

- 58 Tests of Hydration

- 58 Hypoxic Walking Tests

- 72 Heat Tolerance Tests

- 87 Normoxic Walking Tests

- 261 Venous Blood Samples 

- 80 90min Heat Training Sessions

- 80 90min Normothermic Training Sessions 

= ~540 hours of testing.

To make sure all participants are booked in and appropriately prepared for testing we have created eight separate booking sheets to sign up for testing online. While all students have chosen one of the four physiological research studies to be experimenters for during sea level testing and while in Peru.

Our Gantt chart overview of testing blocks

Dr Alan Richardson and Dr Peter Watt analysing some blood samples

This amount of testing will obviously be a challenge and something I for one am looking forward to. We should be able to answer some really interesting questions, while offering our undergraduate and post- graduate students the opportunity to undertake some excellent projects and get even greater experience of laboratory techniques. 

Over the next few weeks we will be showing you the testing we are undertaking prior to leaving for Peru. We will be taking photos and making films.

Testing starts on Monday!