To investigate the effect of hygroscopicity and absorbency of fabrics on clothing environment during exercise in human who clothed different types of tight fitting sports wear, six healthy male and female performed a cycle at almost 120-130 beats/min of heart rate (HR) for 40 min. We selected an environmental condition of air temperature 23℃ and relative humidity RH of 50% with different tight fitting underwear of two fiber types (cotton 95% and polyurethane 5%: C95P5, polyester 80% and polyurethane 20%: P80P20). All subjects wore underwear with long sleeves and polyester T-shirt with short sleeves and a running short pant throughout each experiment. There was no marked difference in oral temperature, mean skin temperature and average skin temperatures between two fiber types during exercise, but there was a tendency that mean skin temperature from chest, back, upper arm and thigh in C95P5 was higher than P80P20. While the humidity in a space between underwear and T-shirt, and comfort sensation in P80P20 were significantly higher than in C95P5, humidity sensation was markedly lower in the former condition that the latter condition (p<0.05). These results suggest that the differences of fiber types, that is, the hygroscopicity and absorbency of fabrics were effective on clothing environment during exercise in human who clothed a tight fitting sport wear.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.30/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE