Sporting extremes: The science of Olympic success
PodcastsThe Naked ScientistsSporting extremes: The science of Olympic successHow an understanding of physiology and psychology can prepare you for the podium. . . 23 July 2024To mark the start of the Olympics,. . .
PodcastsThe Naked ScientistsSporting extremes: The science of Olympic successHow an understanding of physiology and psychology can prepare you for the podium. . . 23 July 2024To mark the start of the Olympics, we're hosting our own science themed opening ceremony, centred on sporting extremes. We'll learn about potentially dangerously high temperatures at this year's Games and how athletes are reckoning with them. Then, we'll find out whether (really) cold therapy is the key to recovery, and what the mindset of a successful athlete should be. Then, it's the turn of a sport nutritionist to provide some tips on how to keep your body in with a chance of crossing the line in first place. Olympic athletes risk serious harm in high temperaturesMike Tipton, University of PortsmouthThere are concerns about the extreme heat at the Olympics. The summer games have been getting warmer, and heat physiologist Mike Tipton has warned that climate change is causing fundamental changes to the safety of Olympic events, with the risk of some competitors collapsing and even dying. . . Mike - The Tokyo Games was labelled the hottest in history with an air temperature of about 34 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity around about 70%, both of which of course are very important in terms of your ability to regulate your temperature during exercise. The estimation is that the Paris Olympics could surpass that certainly in terms of temperature. That could mean we'd be looking at air temperatures in the 40's and, just to put that in context, the best air temperature for people who are engaged in continuous activity is around about 11 degrees Celsius. It's a challenge to the physiology of the body that can result in pathophysiological consequences. James - Let's launch straight into them then. What health risks are we talking about when it comes to competing in extreme heat?Mike - So the direct effects are simply the fact that you become hyperthermic. If you stop all the heat from leaving the body and ask somebody to exercise moderately, they'll reach a dangerous level of heat content in about 20 minutes. You tend to go through the sort of warning signs of heat disorders, which will include things like muscle cramps, heat cramps, which are obviously affecting performance. . . James - While this programme is about sport at the extremes, this is a spectrum really, isn't it, when it comes to the effects of heat on our physiology? But all of them are detrimental to the sport because right at that less severe end of the spectrum: fatigue, those cramps, we're still going to see a diminished spectacle for the people who've paid a lot of money to come and see the events. Mike - Yeah that's absolutely right and it's important to keep this discussion in the wider context. Obviously we don't want athletes to be injured or put in any way in hazard, but by the same token they also want to perform at the best of their ability. When you start to talk about things like heat cramps and feeling faint and lightheadedness and bad decision making because of cognitive impairments, then that all has a direct effect on performance. We tend to focus quite a lot on endurance athletes, athletes producing lots of heat, understandably. But some of these changes, some lightheadedness, poor decision making are going to affect all sports. James - Exertional heat illnesses, heat stroke for example, what's going on physiologically, there, for in particular people like endurance athletes in extreme heats?Mike - It's compounded by dehydration, which is very easy of course to achieve in a hot environment when you've got somebody exercising and producing 1-2 litres of sweat per hour. It's characterised by blood pressure being lowered, lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, headache, and you start to lose cardiovascular function. You find blood pooling in dilated peripheral vessels, you have an impaired cardiac function, cardiac output, decreasing arterial pressure. It's not necessarily associated with a high deep body temperature. It's much more to do with cardiovascular impairment and the fact that when you perform in the heat, you are now obligated to send much more blood to the skin. James - And these are obviously athletes with the most efficient cardiovascular systems in the world so that makes it all the more shocking. From the conversations you've had with these athletes, what have been some of the remarks that have stood out to you from how they feel about their requirement to compete in evermore extreme conditions?Mike - It ranges from concern through to fear. If people go and have a look at the report that we've produced, you'll see some of the interviews with the elite athletes where they talk about actually the fear of dying. The tennis guys, Djokovic was talking about people dying, people talking about being able to fry eggs on court. Historically the climate really didn't feature very much in the preparation of an athlete. They tended to concentrate much more on their nutrition and on their training. But certainly now probably the number one concern on their list would be the climate. That's something that's changed pretty radically in the last 20 or 30 years. James - We'd love to be able to solve climate change. We're probably some way of being able to do that. In lieu of that solution, what other actions can we take to make sure we maintain this greatest sporting spectacle on earth in the summertime, but keeping athletes safe at the same time?Mike - Yeah, absolutely, the number one thing would be to mitigate climate change. Given that that's hopefully ongoing and very high on people's agenda, the next level you go to is the adaptation level. We can monitor the environments using WBGT, WetBulb globe temperature, which has a look at the radiant heat, the level of water vapour in the air and the ambient temperature. We measure the heat stress of the environment and say, well actually this should be postponed, this should be cancelled. Physiologically, the best intervention is heat acclimatisation, and within 7-10 days of about 90 minutes exposure a day, you can very significantly increase the circulating blood volume, which is essentially the coolant of the body. You can increase sweat production, decrease salt loss, people feel more comfortable, they can maintain lower skin temperatures, lower core temperatures. Why are athletes stepping into -120 degree cryochambers?Gosia Bieniek, Light Blue ClinicProponents of cold therapies, like ice baths, say they help athletes’ muscles recover faster and can boost their mood. As experts will tell you, there’s credible rationale for these claims, but there are some gaps to be filled in the evidence, and then there are the unqualified benefits often bandied about: such as the purported link to improved immune function. There’s also the danger of suffering cold shock in an open body of water during open water swimming, something avoided during a supervised session inside a cryo chamber: sleek and super cold contraptions which are set at -120 degree celsius and below. In the name of naked science, I stripped down to my trunks at the Light Blue Clinic in Cambridge, where Gosia Bieniek took me through this treatment. . . James - While my cold therapy experience was to be facilitated by modern means in a high tech cryochamber, the healing benefits of exposing your body to extremely low temperatures has been posited for centuries. That's not to say it's for everyone, though. When I booked myself in at the clinic, I was asked to fill out a medical questionnaire online, making sure I had no underlying health conditions that might make me unsuitable for the treatment. On arrival, my blood pressure was taken, I was given protective clothing to shield my extremities, including thick socks, hat and gloves, and then it was time. The lovely people here at the Light Blue Clinic have made sure I'm fit and firing, healthy, ready to take on the cryochamber. I'm faced with this enormous fridge. I'm being told there's a prechamber, which is going to go down to, what was it again? -60 Celcius. That sounds quite cold enough if you ask me. But then I'll move on to the main chamber, which is looking at -120 degrees Celsius. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous, but I've got a friend. Gary's here with me. Gary - I am indeed. I've been into the cryochamber before. You're in safe hands. We're going to enjoy this experience and you're going to benefit from all the things that you get out of the cryochamber today. James - Brilliant. Well, I can't take the recorder in with me. It'll explode probably, but here goes. I'll see you on the other side. Setting foot inside the atmospheric main chamber, it took a while for the coldness to really make its mark, distracted as I was by the liquid nitrogen fog dancing over my body. A combination of nervous energy and the shiveringly low temperature caused me to turn into a bit of a chatterbox, which I was assured by cryo enthusiast Gary was a normal reaction. Thanks for putting up with me in there, Gary. It also meant that, before I knew it, my three minutes was up. Gosia, I've just about come back round from my cryochamber experience. My breathing is back to normal. That was quite something. I'm no elite athlete, but athletes are using this technique to aid with their recovery. How does it work?Gosia - So, cryotherapy puts your body into shock, which means we pretty much induce the fight or flight response. With the cardiovascular system, what happens is that the blood goes back essentially to the heart to protect internal organs and there isn't really much circulation to the peripheries. James - So the idea is to reduce inflammation, am I right in saying?Gosia - Yes, you're absolutely correct. When you come out, you get vasodilation, you get redistribution of the blood, so you get more nutrients in, more oxygen in. The pain threshold shifts as well because the inflammation goes down. If there is any muscular pain, for the next 24 hours, it shouldn't be that noticeable. From the endocrine system point of view, what happens is that we get endorphins in as well. It helps with regulating your mood in the most natural way that you can actually imagine. The only thing is that it only lasts up to 24 hours, so you have to reset your system on a more regular basis. But we have clients using it twice a week, we have clients using it once a week. With the athletes, we really want to get the timing right. Provided they do the right nutrition and sleeping and all of the basic recovery, then this can really elevate their recovery. James - So improved muscle soreness, improved mood, better sleep. Is longer, better? You're talking about the athletes there and you wanting to get the time specifically right. Gosia - With the gold standard, we're talking about 3 minutes 30 seconds, but we also check the skin temperature before you go in. That's one of the indicators, well, the major indicator for us to know if that actually worked. You're going to get all of the acute responses and benefits that we talked about, so we check the skin temperature on the knee and then we check it on your trapezius as well before you go in. We expect the drop to be around 10 celcius when you come out. But the skin temperature is the indicator for us that tells us if the 3 minutes worked or if we have to try and encourage them to go in for another minute. James - That huge chamber I was in was very high tech, very cool. What's the advantage of a cryochamber over an ice bath, say?Gosia - It's optimising the time under which you have to be uncomfortable in order to get the full benefit.