Facial Thermal Behavior Pre, Post and 24 h Post-Crossfit® Training Workout: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Physical exercise induces the thermoregulation process of the human body, in order to avoid overheating produced by muscle contraction. The infrared thermographic image (ITI) is an option to assess the change in body temperature, as it monitors the physiological functions related to the control of the skin surface temperature in real-time. The aim of the present research was to verify the effectiveness of infrared thermography as an instrument for monitoring the central body temperature through the facial thermal behavior of individuals pre, post and 24 h post-CrossFit® training workout. This study evaluated 10 adults’ volunteers of both sexes, physically active, practitioners of CrossFit®, with a body mass index of 23.79 ± 2.66 kg/m2. The training consisted of typical exercises of the modality CrossFit® and lasted 50 min. The athletes were monitored for 24 h, with acquisition of facial thermographic images in the Pre-Workout, Post-Workout moments and 24 h after training. The maximum (Tmax) and average (Tmed) temperatures were chosen to analyze the results, both for the front and side views. There was no difference in skin temperature between the regions of interest (p > 0.05), both for Tmax and Tmed at different times. It can be concluded that thermography is a tool for monitoring the central body temperature, through the facial thermal behavior, of individuals during a CrossFit® training, and also that the CrossFit® practitioners evaluated presented a good thermoregulation capacity, managing to effectively dissipate the heat produced in the training after 24 h of evaluation.