Why You Sweat More After Exercise
It's normal to sweat more after you finish
exercising than you do while you exercise. Your body
temperature varies throughout the day, going from around 97
degrees in the early morning to about 99 degrees in the early
evening. Exercise raises body temperature considerably. When
you exercise, more than 70 percent of the energy that powers
your muscles is lost as heat. Less than 30 percent drives your
muscles. Athletic competition can drive temperatures as high as
105 degrees without harming the athletes.
To keep your body temperature from rising too high, your
heart pumps large amounts of heat in the blood from your hot
muscles to your skin and you sweat. The sweat evaporates and
cools your body. The amount of sweat that your body produces
depends on the temperature of the blood that flows through your
brain. When the temperature of the blood rises, you sweat more.
During exercise, your heart beats rapidly to pump blood to bring
oxygen to your muscles and to pump the hot blood from the
muscles to the skin where the heat can be dissipated. When you
stop exercising, your heart slows down also, pumping less blood
to the skin. The heat accumulates in your muscles, causing blood
temperature to rise higher, so you sweat more right after you
finish exercising than during exercise.
Checked 7/19/10