Influences of Cotton Fabric Treatments on Human Physical Responses during Exercise and Recovery

摘要

We investigated the influences of liquid water transfer property of cotton fabric on human physiological responses, such as ear canal temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, stress hormone, during exercise and recovery.Long sleeves cotton knitted sportswear treated to have special liquid water transfer property were prepared:(1) Hydrophilic; ( 2 ) Hydrophobic; and ( 3 ) Moisture Management (MM). Wearing these garments, human subjects ran on treadmill according to a pre-designed experimental protocol. It was found that during exercise hydrophilic cotton caused significantly higher mean skin temperature than MM and hydrophobic cotton fabrics, while during recovcry, hydrophilic and MM cotton fabrics caused significantly higher mean skin temperature than hydrophobic cotton fabric. Hydrophilic cotton fabric caused significantly lower heart rate than MM cotton fabric, lower systolic blood pressure than MM and hydrophobic cotton fabrics.Hydrophobic cotton fabric caused significantly higher urinary catecholamine volume than hydrophilic and MM cotton fabric, indicating stronger physical stress.Hydrophilic cotton fabric caused significantly stronger thermal and humidity sensations than MM and hydrophobic cotton fabrics at the end of first and second exercise sessions. Hydrophilic cotton fabric caused significantly stronger discomfort sensation than hydrophobic cotton fabric at the end of first session of exercise. In the end of wear trial, MM cotton fabric caused significantly higher tiredness sensation than hydrophilic and hydrophobic cotton fabrics.