- What's up? This is Tariq here
from SMARTBikeTrainers.com.
Have you ever thought about the air quality
in your workout room?
One of the most complaints I hear
when someone starts working out indoor is,
"Why does it feel so much harder to work out indoors?"
And why is the heart rate is usually higher indoors
than outside for the same type of efforts.
And why is that perceived exertion
is much higher indoors than outside.
And why some people might start
to feel exhausted after only 30 minutes
or start to feel dizzy and fatigued?
The workout room, probably for the majority of us,
gets a small, tiny little space in the house,
possibly in the attic, the garage, a closet, laundry room,
basement right next to the furnace, or water heater.
However, one key element we sometimes do not think about is,
how that space affect our health.
And is it designed to make us perform at peak?
The air quality in your workout room
plays a big part of that.
And according to the American Conference of Governmental
Industrial Hygienists Bioaerosol Committee,
it is known that, "Decreased air exchange with outdoor
environments can lead to drowsiness
and loss of productivity and performance
during physical exercise could be affected
by the CO2 concentration."
I do the majority of my workouts indoors.
I have done plenty of five-to-six hour rides.
I run a lot indoors and as athletes,
we breathe a lot more than someone at rest.
When you are resting,
you normally take 12 to 15 breaths per minute,
and one breath consists of around half-a-liter of air.
When you are working out,
you can breathe up to 60 times per minute,
and your intake of air rises
from six to seven liters per minute when at rest
to 100, 120 liters per minute.
And elite athletes can breathe much more air per day,
depending on the volume of training.
And because of this, we also inhale more air particles
than a normal person.
So I decided to do some air quality testing
during my workouts and how my own body
affects the environment.
I've been using an air quality device that I purchased
from Amazon and it measures carbon dioxide in the air,
which is produced as we exhale.
It also measures the humidity, and temperature,
and can store all that information for later use.
Keep in mind, this is not a review of this device,
the Aranet4 Air Quality device.
I'm not an expert in air quality.
I'm just using a commercially available device
to do a little bit of research.
And I have no relationship with this company.
There are plenty of other air quality devices
that you can go and buy yourself.
Having said all of that and put all of that out of the way,
if you find this video helpful, please take a quick,
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Okay, the first test I did was just using my normal setup.
This is how I usually work out.
My workout room is 15-by-11 feet
and the ceiling is nine foot high.
I usually close my workout door
to keep the noise down in the house.
And usually the windows are also closed
and I just have a fan or two running.
I do like to work out in a hot and warm environment.
So this is usually my setup.
The workout I did was called Slide Mountain
that I pulled from TrainerRoad.
It is a 3x10 minutes at 80%
with four minutes recovery. It's an hour-long workout.
And I did the same workout for all these tests.
My heart rate average for the workout was
around 120 beats per minute and it maxed out 138.
So my breathing wasn't as labored
as if I did a hard workout, like a VO2 max-type workout
or an FTP test.
Okay. With the door completely shut, the windows closed,
and the air conditioning was off as well.
And I had two different fans blowing air on me.
At the beginning, right when I started the workout,
the CO2 concentration was 754 ppm,
which is parts per million. After one hour,
the CO2 went up to, and ready for this? 2,837.
For reference, 400 to 1000 ppm,
that's a typical level found in unoccupied space
with good air exchange.
1000 to 2000 PPM, this is when you start
to hear of some complaints and possibly drowsiness.
2000 to 5,000 ppm, this is when things
get really unpleasant.
These levels are associated with headaches, fatigue,
inability to concentrate, or think clearly.
So not very good.
It is not uncommon for CO2 levels
to rise up when the space is occupied,
but close to 3000 PPM with only one hour
of working out all by myself, was pretty shocking to me.
In my next workout, I wanted to see if I can keep
the levels lower, so I opened the window,
but kept the door closed.
And after one hour, the CO2 level went up to 1,637.
That's much better, but I wanted to try
to bring it down to less than 1500.
At the third workout, I opened the window more
and opened the blind as well,
and opened the workout room door,
placed the fan closer to the window
to bring in more fresh air directly from the outside,
even though the air outside was extremely humid,
but I thought getting fresh air is more important.
That set up helped a lot.
And I was able to keep the CO2 level
in the workout room low, and it only went up
to 1,156 PPM, which is good.
However, one thing that was shocking to me
is how warm and humid the room got just from my body.
In my first two workouts,
the temperature in the room went up
from 73 degrees Fahrenheit to 77.5 degrees.
And the humidity went all the way to 76 and 78%,
which is extremely muggy in one hour.
In the last workout with the door and window wide open,
the temperature went up only by two degrees,
but the humidity went up to 77%.
Now granted the humidity outside at the time
of my workout was 94%.
So that definitely did not help with the humidity
in the room and probably made it worse.
The humidity here can be ridiculously high
during the summer months, especially in the mornings.
100% humidity is not that uncommon.
And I actually had one day
with 100% humidity in the morning.
A lot of studies have been done on the effect
of heat and humidity on performance
and the additional stress that it can put on the body.
The human body is only 20% efficient
and your core body temperature needs to be kept in check.
And the way your body cool itself down is by sweat
and more precisely through the evaporation of your sweat.
That's why it is so important to have a fan
or even multiple fans directed at your body when exercising,
otherwise you will only be sweating
and dehydrating yourself.
Another air pollutant that can be found indoors is TVOC,
or Total Volatile Organic Compounds.
These can be emitted by things in your house
like detergents, paint if you have a freshly painted room
and even your clothes.
High exposure to these can cause many disorders
and illnesses. Also, make sure to check out
the Air Quality Index outside.
If you live in a polluted area like in a big city
for example, or live in an area where there is forest fire,
like we have here in the West Coast of the United States,
you probably want to keep the windows closed.
When working out, we mostly breathe through
the mouth, effectively bypassing the normal nasal mechanism
for filtration of large particles.
Also the increase in airflow velocity carries
those pollutants deeper into the body
and possibly causing more harm than someone
who is breathing at a normal rate.
So check the Air Quality Index outside in your area
to make sure it is safe. The higher the AQI value,
the greater the levels of air pollution in the air.
So you might want to keep the windows closed
if that's the case.
An AQI value of 50 or below means
the air quality outside is good.
You can check the AQI index in your area
using most weather apps available for your phone.
So good ventilation and air circulation
in your workout room is so important.
Have multiple fans going to keep your body temperature cool.
I have the Wahoo fan and I also have a floor fan
and usually have both directed at me
and running at the same time.
Open the window if you can.
If you cannot or have no windows,
get some kind of an air purifier
to keep the air circulating and filtered.
I want to hear from you. What is your setup like?
Have you thought about air quality in your workout room?
Let me know what you have done
to optimize your workout space.
Okay, hope you enjoyed this video.
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Thank you for watching and see you in the next video.
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