Effect of an acute hot and dry exposure in moderately warm and humid environment on muscle performance at different times of day

Abstract

This study investigated whether 30 min of acute hot exposure has an additional passive warm-up effect for the improvement in muscle performance in a moderately warm and humid environment. We also sought to determine whether this effect is dependent on the diurnal variation in body temperature. Nine male subjects (age: 31.9 [+/- 5] years, height: 177 [+/- 6] cm, body mass: 69.3 [+/- 10] kg) were tested (CMJ, cycling sprints, and isokinetic contractions of the knee flexors and extensors) in a moderately warm and humid environment (24 [+/- 1] degrees C and 70 [+/- 4] % rh) with and without acute heat exposure (30 min of rest in a sauna at 76 [+/- 2] degrees C and 27 [+/- 1] % rh), both in the morning (07:00 - 09:00 h) and in the evening (17:00 - 19:00 h). Our results indicated a significant effect of both time-of-day and acute heat exposure on leg skin temperature (p < 0.01) but failed to show any effect of time-of-day or acute heat exposure on the various evaluated parameters (CMJ: speed, force, power and height; cycling power: over a half pedal revolution and a total pedal revolution; isokinetic torque: knee extensor and flexor muscles at 4.19 rad x s (-1), 3.14 rad x s (-1), 2.09 rad x s (-1), and 1.05 rad x s (-1)). In conclusion, our data suggest that 30 min of acute hot exposure does not have any passive warm-up effect in a moderately warm and humid environment. Furthermore, the diurnal variation in body temperature has no passive warm-up effect in a moderately warm and humid or in an extremely hot environment.