Exercise Habits and Thermoregulatory Responses of College Students

This study examines how exercise habits affect human thermoregulatory responses. A total of 14 healthy male college students participated in this study as subjects: 8 students who exercised regularly (REG) and 6 students who did not (IREG). First, there were no significant differences between REG and IREG in rectal and mean skin temperatures. Second, the general thermal sensation was "slightly warm" at the equilibrium state and "cool" during body cooling in both groups with no significant differences between the two groups. This implies that exercise habits did not affect the subjective thermal sensation under this study's environmental conditions. Third, there were no significant correlations between the preferred temperature and related variables such as rectal and mean skin temperature changes, oxygen uptake, and the general thermal sensation in REG. However, there were significant correlations between the preferred temperature and the mean skin temperature change (p<0.05) and oxygen uptake(p<0.01) in IREG. In sum, these results suggest weak effects of exercise habits on daily life at the individual level. Therefore, future research should verify this study's results under controlled conditions such as cooling intensity and durations.