What happens to body temperature during and after exercise?

[physicsperson]

Does anyone know what happens to the internal and external body temperature during and after exercise? I think that internal temperature increases during exercise and then continues to increase..Im not sure..

 

[russ_watters]

By "external" do you mean the surface temperature of your skin? In that case, yes, both internal and external body temperature will increase. And I'm not sure what you mean by "continues to increase". After you finish exercising, your body temperature will relatively quickly return to normal.

 

[physicsperson]

Well apparrently when you stop exercising, your heart immediately slows down, decreasing the amount of blood pumped to your skin, so your temperature rises higher and you sweat more. And by external i do mean skin. Thanks. Any more help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Moonbear]

Your heart rate doesn't drop off that dramatically after exercise stops. Besides, the increased blood flow to the skin is due more to vasodilation of the surface blood vessels than to increased heart rate. Ambient temperature is also going to influence your body temperature in a situation like that. If the ambient temperature is too hot or too humid, you could wind up overheating (heat stroke) because your body can't cool rapidly enough to compensate for the exercise-induced increase in core body temperature, but if the ambient temperature is cool and dry, that's less of a problem.

 

[physicsperson]

k, thanks so i guess ideally i can safely say that during exercise both internal and external (fingertips) temperature increases and might increase slightly after exercise but not significantly?

 

[physicsperson]

I still need help, while we are exercising both internal and external temperatures are increasing. Directly after we stop which ones continue to increase and why?

 

[russ_watters]

What does "directly" mean? In the 5 seconds after you stop, your temperature may increase more, but not much. More likely, your body will already have reached an equilibrium between heat generation and dissipation rates. It isn't like your temperature will keep rising while working out.

If I run outside in the winter, I sometimes get hotter when I come inside, but barring something like that, what you are describing (imprecisely) doesn't make sense.

Where are these questions coming from? What is the point of this line of questioning?

 

[physicsperson]

Well i have to do this experiment and took temperature measurements, even after the exercise my temperature kept rising and i needed an explanation for that. thanks for the help russ and moon.

 

[Moonbear]

Well i have to do this experiment and took temperature measurements, even after the exercise my temperature kept rising and i needed an explanation for that. thanks for the help russ and moon.

How were you measuring temperature, how long did you exercise, and how long after you stopped exercising did you monitor temperature? Did you give the thermometer, or whatever you were using, sufficient time to equilibrate? Some thermometers can take 3 to 5 min to reach a stable reading. Whenever you have an unexpected result, the first thing to do is verify all your equipment is working properly and is sufficiently sensitive for the measurements you need to take. If you need to take temperature recordings every minute, for example, and have a thermometer that takes 3 min to reach a stable reading, you need to adjust your experimental design to account for your equipment limitations, or find different equipment.

 

[DaveC426913]

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that, even after stopping exercising, heat takes time to spread outward. This might cause an increase in both external and internal temps after-the-fact.

I suspect also that by internal temperature, we're not really talking "core", we're talking mouth, ear or other orifi, which are not quite at the core.

 

[Dale]

[speculation]I wonder if, beyond only a delay in transfering heat from the core to the surface, if heat could continue to be generated after exercise. For example, if you did some anaerobic exercise you can get a little "oxygen debt". I wonder if the cellular mechanisms for replenishing that oxygen generate a significant amount of heat.
[/speculation]