Any good research on running shirtless

does a singlet count as a shirt? what about a singlet cut off at the chest?

archer wrote:

does a singlet count as a shirt? what about a singlet cut off at the chest?

Like this?

I spent a summer training in Florida, hitting hundred mile weeks several times. It was terrible, and the only thing that made it bearable was being able to run without a shirt. Whoever said that shirts keep you cooler is an idiot -- it's the opposite, unless you're dehydrated. So the only issues are hydration and skin cancer.

The more skin you have exposed to the air, the more water can evaporate from your body. This cools your body. If you have a shirt on, it doesn't make you sweat less -- if anything, it makes you sweat more, because your sweat isn't evaporating the way your body expects it to, and you don't stop sweating just because your body is covered in water.

Man, I remember a couple of gross speedwork sessions where the sweat just flew off of my outstretched fingers. It was hard to do anything fast in that heat also; my tempo runs were disgustingly slow. But after all that mileage my running improved dramatically once I got back to a temperate climate.

Do not be this guy wrote:

archer wrote:

does a singlet count as a shirt? what about a singlet cut off at the chest?

Like this?

http://www.marquieoriginals.com/images/HalfTankTops.jpg

THIS. Have them wear this!

We had the same law where I grew up in upstate NY. Once the AD saw us running around in sleeve-less t-shirts cut off just below the armpit, with our school name written all over it, and just generally making asses of ourselves, we were granted leniency.

The same AD tried to restrict us to running on school grounds. That rule we got around by simply ignoring it, so you could try that too.

pablo wrote:

Heat in the SW is not at all like heat in the SE. The SW is (temperature wise) much hotter, but very dry. It's common to see many days in a row in the triple digits, but being a dry heat, your sweat does evaporate, and thus more efficient at cooling you. The moist, humid air in FL (and probably Houston as well) prevents sweat from evaporating (as quickly), and completley drenches you within a matter of minutes. This makes it really uncomfortable to wear a shirt, either cotton or a tech shirt. Imagine wearing a shirt into the pool, then getting out and running 10 miles, not fun. Forgive me, but I'd rather go shirtless.

I should say South Central (North of Dallas). Trust me, I've done many many long runs in 100-110+ degrees and high humdity. Heat training definitely makes it more tolerable. I've trained in true Southwest as well (both winter and summer- 5am runs), which definitely can't match Florida or South Central US.

The guy who says you're not cooler with a shirt on has never heat trained. Read the stuff I posted. There's people doing Ultras in Death Valley and heat training in saunas. Puts Florida's heat and humidity to shame. It's uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it (as I said, greater plasma = hydration of blood). You'll learn to like and crave the feeling of mass amounts of sweat on your skin to cool you off. When you are heat trained, you'll actually shiver when you shed the clothes in typical 80-100 degrees and high humidity. If you're shivering when it's 90-100 degrees, that's when you know you're doing it right.

any chance you coach at bloomingdale hs? they werent allowed to run with their shirts off or else they risked being kicked off of the team. if i remember correctly the football team complained to the administration about the xc team running when their shirts off when they werent allowed to practice with theirs off (those idiots also have never managed a winning season in the schools history)

youareevenslower wrote:

Do your kids ever race shirtless in meets? If not, then why the hell do they need to practice without shirts? Why would you have your kids wear less in practice than in a meet? This defies logic. Make them wear their shirts. I always make my kids wear their shirts.

What does what they do in meets have to do with what they do in practice? They only wear spikes in meets and only run 5K or less. Should they only do that in practice too?

The school I used to coach at had a policy that required my athletes to wear their shirts on campus. Due to a couple of mormon girls on the soccer team being offended by shirtless boys apparently. I complained bitterly against this rule as it wasnt applied evenly. The school favorite basketball teams were allowed to play shirts and skins games.

This is just one of those nanny rules that bureaucrats make. Someone was offended to see teenagers running without shirts, and viola, a rule.

Running in a light-colored, lightweight synthetic shirt won't make much of a difference either way. Just be sure to have them emblazoned with "This shirt worn under protest" in big letters.

Not that I ever wear them, but I thought that some wicking compression t-shirts were supposed to actually aid in reducing core temp. Underarmour HeatGear, for example. Snake-oil?

Would you have your kids practice in flats and switch to trainers to race? It's the same thing if you practice shirtless and then have to wear a shirt to race.

I assume your rules require them to wear shirts at races. If they're used to running without shirts in practice, they'll feel hot and constricted (ie, worse) when racing. But practice in a tshirt and when you put on a singlet before a race you feel lighter and faster and you're telling your body it's time to move fast.

Kids can and will do whatever they want when they're running on their own, but when they're practicing on school grounds, they need to get used to running with a shirt on.

An elite who heat trains wrote:

You'll learn to like and crave the feeling of mass amounts of sweat on your skin to cool you off.

If there are mass amounts of sweat on your skin, it's because the sweat is not evaporating, which means you're not getting any cooler.

I think your shivering was from the onset of heat exhaustion.

lucKY2b wrote:

Not that I ever wear them, but I thought that some wicking compression t-shirts were supposed to actually aid in reducing core temp. Underarmour HeatGear, for example. Snake-oil?

My guess is that they reduce core temp because they reflect infrared radiation and still allow for evaporative heat loss. I would like to hear the physics of wicking shirts leading to more evaporative heat loss.

To the OP the following article has some slightly informed speculation about clothing and children exercising in the heat:

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

Volume 11, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 58-65

dingle wrote:

lucKY2b wrote:

Not that I ever wear them, but I thought that some wicking compression t-shirts were supposed to actually aid in reducing core temp. Underarmour HeatGear, for example. Snake-oil?

My guess is that they reduce core temp because they reflect infrared radiation and still allow for evaporative heat loss. I would like to hear the physics of wicking shirts leading to more evaporative heat loss.

Wicking tech t-shirts might help with temperature management when evaporative cooling happens - here in Houston, when humidity hovers around 90%, you don't get evaporation.

I hear what you're saying miler. But while running, the air is moving over your skin, and even in those conditions (similar to FL) convection of hot air over your skin will cause some evaporation to occur. Some, but not a lot. We've all seen the sweat fly off our fingers while running.

M.C. Confusing wrote:

What does what they do in meets have to do with what they do in practice? They only wear spikes in meets and only run 5K or less. Should they only do that in practice too?

Are you brainless? My point is that it doesn't make sense to wear MORE clothes in a race than you do in practice. If you are practicing without a shirt and then you have to race with a singlet, it is uncomfortable. If the purpose of running shirtless is to feel cooler, then all of that "cool" training might just make you more prone to heat exhaustion on race day.

Your point about spikes is not analogous with my point at all. Spikes are significantly less shoe than the trainers the kids wear at pratice. An analgous point would have been "my kids race in concrete shoes so they need to wear very heavy shoes at practice." This point, however, would clearly be false because no one races in concrete shoes.

Your point about distance is also not analogous. 5k is significantly less distance than they run in practice. An analgous point would have been "my kids run ultra-marathons, so they need to run a super ultra-marathon in practice." This point, however, is also false because not only do high schoolers not run ultra-marathons, but it has been proven that one can run too long in training.

Again, you are not intelligent, or at least not good at making simple connections.

The Stache wrote:

I hear what you're saying miler. But while running, the air is moving over your skin, and even in those conditions (similar to FL) convection of hot air over your skin will cause some evaporation to occur. Some, but not a lot. We've all seen the sweat fly off our fingers while running.

I agree. Even when it is super-humid, I'll notice that the sweat doesn't start to drip from my body like crazy until I stop running. In fact, when it is really hot and humid, I actually feel a little more comfortable jogging than walking.

I'm all for equal rights, but I could understand if any coach, veteran or not, had his girls running shirtless, how his job might be in jeopardy.

FL distance coach wrote:

Yes, I coach in Tampa. ... When a veteran coach publically refused to make his girls wear shirts at practice, he was threatened with his job unless he complied.

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