Influence of intervals of radiant heat performance and pacing dynamics during rowing exercise

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether intervals of radiant heat during thermoneutral exercise altered either the performance outcome or the dynamics of pacing within the exercise bout.\ud \ud Eleven male participants (VO2peak; 56 ± 12 ml·kg^-1·min^-1) performed three 5000m exercise trials on a rowing ergometer in three different conditions, in a random order. The participants were either: non-warmed (NW), warmed (W), or periodically warmed in intervals throughout each trial (IW). Warming was achieved using radiant heat lamps to raise the localised environmental temperature from 18°C to 35°C. Intervals of warming were applied over fixed periods of the 5000m bouts between 1000-2000m (W1) and 3000-4000m (W2).\ud \ud The results of the experiment demonstrated that performance time and average power output of the 5000m matched intensity trials were not significantly different between conditions (p=0.10 ; p=0.189). However, the application of warming significantly reduced intra-trial power output during the first (W1) interval in the IW condition (p=0.03) but not during the second (W2) warming interval (p=0.10). Tsk increased by 0.51°C (p=0.05) in response to the application of warming during W1 in the IW condition and by 0.15°C in W2 (p=0.28). No significant between-condition differences were observed in Tc throughout the trials.\ud \ud These findings suggest that an abrupt change to environmental conditions brought about through intervals of radiant warming can affect the transient pacing dynamics of an exercise bout, but not necessarily impact overall performance time. Performance time appears unaffected by intervals of radiant heat during an exercise bout, although further work is required in more challenging dynamic environmental conditions