When we’ve been for a long run or cycle, sweat is usually rolling off every pore (if you’ve done it right). It’s a badge to wear proudly – but briefly before you shower - to show off your hard work. But no matter how hard you swim in the pool, this feeling of sweating isn’t apparent. So the question begs – do you sweat at all when you swim?
Do You Sweat When You Swim?
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, that it isn’t sweating as we know it. You see, pools are often kept at a much lower temperature than our core body temperatures. This means that they will keep us cooler for much longer than if we were in a warm gym.
Also, because your body is constantly submerged in such temperatures, it represses the rise in your core heat as you workout. These factors mean that our natural bodily response to sweat only occurs at a much higher threshold.
How Can I Tell If I Am Sweating In Water?
You will obviously never see sweat when you’re swimming, and you will never really feel hot, but what you can feel is breathless. If you are at a stage in your swimming workout when you are breathing heavily, chances are you are sweating. It can also be quite hard to tell when dehydration is setting in since the natural indicators aren’t there – so it is very important to maintain lots of water intake.
If you have a swim cap on, this will cause further sweating which will stay underneath the cap – causing you to lose more electrolytes. Replacing these with water or natural energy drinks will not only keep you healthy, but it will boost your performance.
Post-Swimming Sweats
Sometimes when you’ve had a shower after your swimming workout and start to get dressed, you can feel like you are beginning to sweat. This is because swimming causes an elevated body temperature for a prolonged period. When you dry your body off, your pores are no longer repressed so the regular function of sweating can seem accelerated for a brief period.
Are Pools Dirty from Sweat?
Sweat as a substance is a mixture of salt, sugar and ammonia. Fortunately, chlorinated water is more than capable of neutralising bacteria that can form as a result. As we mentioned in other blog posts though, if your pool smells too strongly of chlorine, it is likely a dirty pool. Clean pools rarely smell of anything at all.
There you have it – we hope we’ve made a good attempt at explaining this rather unusual but valid question.