Horses sweat, men perspire and women..

I set off in my shorts and moisture wicking t-shirt, which I think was the perfect attire for an easy/steady run. I was aiming for about an hour and after about 15 minutes I started to feel warm and I started to sweat but I noticed that Bashir was still pretty much sweat-free. That's probably not surprising as he is faster and fitter than me and the pace we were running at was very leisurely for him but he was dressed in running tights, long sleeved tee and a jacket! After around 25 minutes I cut back towards home and left him to put in the extra few miles that he was planning. No doubt he would speed the pace up too. I came home with an impressive red cololur in my cheeks and sweat running down my legs. He came back as dry as a bone. Why?

Every article I read says that women perspire less than men so I started to dig a bit more deeply. Not surprisingly, it's not just about gender. From what I can gather it is influenced by the number of sweat glands you have been born with, to the level you have been trained and your metabolic rate and for me and Bash all of these things are probably very different. Then there is weight and body mass. We're actually pretty similar in that department so I should discard that from the discussion.

One of the most credible studies out there is possibly a study carried out by researchers at Osaka International University and Kobe University in Japan. They looked at males and females of the trained and the unfit variety and picked them all to be around the same weight. They put them all on bikes and had them do a progressive session, starting with them working at around 30% of their VO2 max, moving onto 50% and then 65%. They then monitored their perspiration and found that the men sweated more than the women and the fit sweated more than the unfit. They found that the women were using just as many sweat glands but weren't pumping out as much sweat as the men.

The difference between the fit and the unfit is predominantly that fit people start to sweat at a lower core temperature than unfit people. In other words, we have trained our bodies to be prepared for the expected increase in core temperature.

So why do men sweat more than women? There are some who think that hormones play a big part. There have been studies carried out on prepubescent teenagers and those who have gone through puberty. The results showed little difference between boy's and girl's sweat rates before they went through puberty and a significant difference when they came out of the other side. There are some who think that it is evolution - that our anscestoral women were more sensible about keeping out of the midday sun and so didn't need to learn to sweat as much and there are some who say that women are just as good at cooling their bodies down but we don't produce as much sweat because we have a smaller surface area and so need less of an evaporative cooling method.

All very interesting stuff but none of that answered my question as to why I czme back much more sweaty than him who wore more clothes, ran further, ran faster and has pretty much the same surface area as me. I actually think that core temperature before we set off plays a big part. Why did I choose to go out in my shorts and t-shirt and he chose his winter woolies? He is always cold and I am always warm. My metabolic rate seems to be faster than his. When we set off my core was probably already on its way to higher levels. It might have something to do with the fact that I am always on the go and he likes to play with the remote control more and I think that's where we are typical of the average couple even if we're not when it comes to sweat!