You might think that being a race car driver involves a lot of mental concentration and automobile skills, but you probably didn’t imagine that racing is actually one of the most intense and demanding experience that you could put your body through.
If you are planning on participating in a car race of any kind, you might be in need of some training from someone with Advanced PT Courses under their belt, and here’s why.
Cardiovascular stress and heart rate during a race
The human heart can undergo an increase of around 100 beats per minute when the body is under physical stress such as running on the treadmill. That’s quite a big jump and professionals agree that it is enough to be considered a challenging or demanding workout. However, studies and tests have shown that a two-hour Formula One race has the ability of increasing a driver’s heart rate by more than 100 beats per minute, which is astonishing.
It is connected to the mental aspect of participating in a race, and how an immense amount of concentration and focus is required in order to successfully pilot the car. At the speed of a formula one car, the slightest error can be fatal and with that kind of pressure on your shoulders, it only makes sense that your heart starts pounding. In order to resist to such intense cardiovascular changes, F1 drivers train for several hours each day to enhance and improve their cardiovascular system so that it may take the stress of a race.
Build neck muscle strength
While it might not be obvious immediately, there is in fact a big physical strain put on the pilot’s body. The neck is the area affected most, and the neck muscles are the most important muscles in a F1 driver’s body. This is because, under the effects of 4G of Force as experienced in the biggest races of the year, coupled with the demanding weight of the head plus the helmet, drivers need to support over 20 KG of brute weight dangling from their shoulders. This can be incredibly difficult and as a result they must undergo extreme neck training and exercise.
Eating like a pro athlete
In their own way, F1 drivers ARE pro athletes. Someone training for weight lifting or a sport might eat insatiably throughout the day, with carefully planned out period of regulation. The same thing applies for race car drivers, who are very careful what they eat. On the day of a big racing event however, they stuff themselves with plenty of energy sources like pasta, and make sure to drink a lot of water. Inside the cockpit of a F1 car, the temperature can go up by a lot. It can be extremely hot in there, to the point where drivers can sweat up to 3 kilos of their body weight over the course of one race. This puts them in serious danger of dehydration, thus the need for plenty of fluids before and even during a race. The carbs give them the necessary energy to withstand the dire conditions inside the cockpit during a race.
It might seem like they’re having the ride of their life, but in reality race card drivers are under similar amounts and levels of stress as any other pro athlete, and must train accordingly before each race. Under all that metal and rubber, racing is a very demanding sport on both the body and the mind.
