Winter Swimmers
It is possible to undergo physiological conditioning to reduce the cold shock response, and some people are naturally better suited to swimming in very cold water. Adaptations include the following: (1) having an insulating layer of body fat covering the limbs and torso without being overweight; (2) ability to experience immersion without involuntary physical shock or mental panic; (3) ability to resist shivering; (4) ability to raise metabolism (and, in some cases, increase blood temperature slightly above the normal level); (5) a slight but significant ability to mentally control blood flow to the muscles: and (6) a generalized delaying of metabolic shutdown (including slipping into unconsciousness) as central and peripheral body temperatures fall. In these ways, winter swimmers can survive both the initial shock and prolonged exposure. Nevertheless, the human organism is limited by its thermal design: in freezing water, the struggle to maintain blood temperature (by swimming or conditioned metabolic response) produces great fatigue after 30 minutes or less.
Read more about this topic: Cold Shock Response
Famous quotes containing the words winter and/or swimmers:
“The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. The old English rule was, “All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.” And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping.”
—Rupert Brooke (1887–1915)