thermoregulation (exercise)
Last reviewed 07/2021
Exercise raises the core temperature of the body as heat is produced rapidly by the inefficient burning of energy sources within skeletal muscle - initially, too rapidly for compensatory mechanisms to counter.
However, an elevation of temperature is beneficial in that:
- it causes pre-capillary sphincters to vasodilate, so:
- increasing supply of nutrients to muscle
- increasing removal of waste products from muscle
- increasing heat loss in cutaneous capillaries and acting to lower core temperature
- ventilation rate is increased in frequency leading to increased evaporative heat loss
- the oxygen dissociation curve is shifted to the right, liberating more oxygen to muscles