Wimbledon: history being made right now

[Ruprect]

Easier than running a marathon I'd have thought.

10 hours of top level tennis? easier than a 4 hour marathon?

[TimberWolf]

10 hours of top level tennis? easier than a 4 hour marathon?

They aren't moving most of the time. Just stop and start, which is okay for fast-twitch muscle types. I don't think the effort is as great as say a Tour De France leg and a lot of other sports. Sure a twenty year old would be knackered after 10 hours tennis, but after a night's rest I'd have expected them to be as right as rain again. I've never, to this day, done something on a previous day that has effected me conspicuously after a night's rest. Although I did sometimes feel sports were easier/more enjoyable when I took a few days off. But Federer and McEnroe have been speaking of weeks and months recovery time. After 10 hours tennis.

[TimberWolf]

It would be interesting to know how long it takes for athletes in (more obviously gruelling) sports take to recover. Rowing, cycling, etc, in the olympics, where every ounce of effort is expended. Whether recovery time can be measured in months.

[d000hg]

The human body is fairly well designed for a loping run for long periods. In tennis, you are constantly lunging around. Full acceleration over very short sprints and a lot of twisting and heavy deceleration. Your legs and arms are under heavy use, as well as the central core... and you're putting them in a wide range of angles.

Plus as I said, serving alone is a big strain, it's a full-strength action unlike running.

Not to mention, you have to be hugely mentally focused otherwise all the physical effort is meaningless. You've got to be at high mental concentration levels nealry 100% of the time, which is not like marathon running. You know how you feel physically tired after having to think hard all day?

It's easy to think tennis is easy after playing a few times. But you only have to see how much those guys are sweating to realise it's physically gruelling.

[d000hg]

But Federer and McEnroe have been speaking of weeks and months recovery time. After 10 hours tennis.

Physically, I'm sure they'll recover. Mentally though, who knows. Seems such tiny mental issues have huge effects compared to physical ability. Especially for the loser

[centurian]

The human body is fairly well designed for a loping run for long periods. In tennis, you are constantly lunging around. Full acceleration over very short sprints and a lot of twisting and heavy deceleration.

Yep. Humans have the greatest endurance of virtually all mammlas - allowed us to wear down our prey in times gone by - but genetically we still have those traits.

It's short stops and starts that screw us up - which makes tennis much harder on the body than it appears.

[dang65]

Yep. Humans have the greatest endurance of virtually all mammals - allowed us to wear down our prey in times gone by - but genetically we still have those traits.

Helped, of course, by our unique ability to sweat in order to cool down. This was demonstrated on the telly recently when they showed a bushman hunting an antelope simply by following it, tracking it, never letting it rest until it simply overheated and lay down. He then just walked up to it, said a few words of respect, then shot it in the neck with an arrow.

[TimberWolf]

Helped, of course, by our unique ability to sweat in order to cool down. This was demonstrated on the telly recently when they showed a bushman hunting an antelope simply by following it, tracking it, never letting it rest until it simply overheated and lay down. He then just walked up to it, said a few words of respect, then shot it in the neck with an arrow.

That's probably key - we are the best sweaters on the planet. I've seen documentary footage of them chasing lions to heat exhaustion too.

Guyton reports that a normal maximum perspiration rate is about 1.5 liters/hour, but that after 4 to 6 weeks of acclimatization in a tropical climate, it can reach 3.5 liters/hr! You would have to just sit around drinking constantly, just to keep from getting dehydrated! That maximum rate corresponds to a maximum cooling power of almost 2.4 kilowatts!
Evaporation of Perspiration: Cooling Mechanisms for Human Body

2.4 kilowatts is more than a human can put out for anything but a short period, so that leaves a a bit of wiggle room to counteract an equatorial noon day sun too. I doubt the prey's ability to lose heat comes close to being as near as effective as a human.

So efficient, on the other hand, is the thermoregulatory mechanism of sweating in normal people that we seldom experience more than slight discomfort over a wide range of environmental temperatures, a fact which enables man to live anywhere on the earth. Indeed, for something like twenty minutes a man can survive temperatures as high as 260 degrees F--high enough to broil a steak in the same cubicle with him, provided the air is absolutely dry so that all his sweat is evaporated...But in what way is man unique in this respect? Don't animals sweat profusely--horses, for example? In spite of appearances to the contrary, animals are not equipped by nature as man is to achieve thermoregulation by sweating....What does appear from Hardy's work and from other sources is that the few animals that have some ability to prevent a temperature rise by evaporative cooling can be arranged in an ascending order of efficiency as follows. The monkey has virtually no ability, the cat has slight ability, the dog has greater ability still, the horse even more, and man almost complete. Somewhere between the dog and man must be placed cattle.
Animal and Human Sweating

[MarillionFan]

I once played a marathon 10 hour session of table football.

Wow. My rests were sore afterwards and it took at least three days to recover.

I know what these top athletes are going through.

[TimberWolf]

I once played a marathon 10 hour session of table football.

Wow. My rests were sore afterwards and it took at least three days to recover.

I know what these top athletes are going through.

I think part of a top athletes fitness/endurance must be down to the fact that inhibitory mechanisms are switched off or turned down, so they can get closer to the unhealthy edge than would normally be possible and can do greater long-term damage to themselves than a normal person.