Oct 28 2008
Car Racing: World of Fittest Athletes
The athletes themselves along with their fans claim that car racers are the fittest and healthiest on earth. How can this be when the only thing they do is grip the stick and steering wheel?
In a race, the driver must stay composed and focused. There should be a continuous contact with technical team while in control of the race car driving around the track. On top of that, the driver has with him dozen of competitors that with unwise decision, he can collide and lost life with. And who on earth can manage decision-making in split of seconds on a speed of 300 kilometers per hour? Only guys at the peak of their physical and mental stability can do that.
Car racers spend a lot of time in the gym. They know better when it comes to taking care of themselves; physical health including the heart, neck, and diet, and the mental health.
Normal heart rate of a human being is 60 beats per minute, rising to more than 100 depending on the activity he is doing. A car racer’s heartbeat could reach more than 150 per minute during a race, the same of that of runners on field. Mental stress causes the difference. Car racing requires extreme concentration, pumping tremendous amount of adrenalin, same way the physical stress causes the high heartbeat rate.
To be able to deal with such extremities, drivers should indulge to intense cardiovascular workout for up to few hours a day. Doing so helps in weight maintenance as well.
Car racing is one of the sports that greatly demands neck strength. The neck has to support a head with helmet heavier than regular, combined with G-Force during a race: a total of more than 20 kilograms, making it the most important muscle in a driver.
Large elastic bands are used to simulate the demands of high G-Force during training. Drivers also incorporate resistance work into their exercise regime – rowing and weight lifting. But since Formula One cockpits are very small, no racer is allowed to weigh like a lifter.
Like track and field athletes, F1 drivers should carefully regulate their carbohydrate and protein intake. Pasta and bread are what they eat, for carbohydrates.
Before the race and throughout, drivers absorb huge amounts of water. This prevents driver to dehydrate. Heat in F1 cockpit is enough to make someone sweat off few pounds of body weight during course of a race.
Physical health stability alone is not enough for car racers. Mental health as well is very important, too. Teams usually have sports psychologists to make sure that a driver is capable of mind control during a race. They make the driver review track maps, visualize a route and a lap, so that he would feel familiarized as though he has driven the course already.
Breathing technique is a plus factor. Drivers do need to stay calm at crucial moments. He needs not to be distracted by the people around him: medical team, technical staff, and screaming fans and members of the press.
