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The bright sun… a
hot day… and a hard workout: that combination can be dangerous.
A recent practice had 17-year-old Austin Farmer on his knees. “Started
feeling a little dizzy. And then, you know, throw up,” he
says.
Dizziness, nausea… typical signs of heat exhaustion…
But…like many high school football players… Austin
is reluctant to take a break.
“You have the whole team out there practicing,” he
explains, “And everybody else is in the heat, but you don’t
really want to seem like you’re the weakest link on the team.”
But ‘toughing it out’ can be costly.
“The progression from heat cramps to heat exhaustion to
heat stroke and death can occur very quickly,” says David
Marshall, M.D., who heads up the Sports Medicine Program at Children’s
Healthcare of Atlanta.
More and more coaches and trainers are using a ‘heat index
monitor’, which measures temperature and humidity.
Out on the football field on a hot afternoon, with the temperature
in the mid 90’s and humidity around 50-percent, Trainer Geoff
Koteles takes a reading. “So the heat index right where we’re
standing right now is 111 degrees.”
That means it feels like 111 degrees outside… that puts
it in the red, ‘danger’ zone.
Workouts should be short… if at all.
“Yeah you’re not really going to run them any longer
than 15, 20 minutes,” explains Koteles.
Next is the orange ‘extreme caution’ range. Kids
can exercise but need lots of extra breaks for rest and water.
Experts say parents should insist their schools coaches or trainers
use a heat index monitor. But another important thing that can
help protect their kids is teaching them that trying to ‘tough
it out’ in the heat… is foolish.
“A kid laying in the morgue, the morgue who recently died
of heat illness doesn’t look very tough to me,” says
Dr. Marshall.
“I talked to my mom about it and then she say if you’re
feeling tired… go get some water,” says Austin, “Cool
down or whatever, because I want you to come home at the end of
the day.”
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