I was watching a documentary about high level athletes and it got me thinking about how extraordinary their feats are, can’t we tackle each symptom of exhaustion to make it so that the general public is more capable ? like an oxygen tank for the oxygen need, a cold water container for the thirst and heat and maybe an exoskeleton for an easier time, I’m asking why these notions are not feasible.
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The limits to animal performance are:
Oxygen. This is determined by respiration efficacy, the size of airways and lungs compared to the body and other factors. Humans are pretty good here and can sustain quite high performance while replacing CO2 with fresh O2 via respiration.
Chemical energy. Animals move via chemical reactions, turning energy from food into motion. They don’t have an unlimited supply, and if they keep working at a rate where they can breath enough and keep up oxygen demands they will eventually run out of chemical fuel, forcing them to stop and recover, husbanding enough energy to keep producing more energy from food (digestion) and to keep oxygen coming (respiration).
Heat. Animals rely on chemical reactions that only work in a narrow temperature band, and the chemical reactions that let them move produce waste heat. If they have enough chemical energy and enough air, they can still be forced to stop if their body becomes too hot, restricting activity to what is needed for survival while they cool down.
Rest. Animals require sleep for reasons we don’t perfectly understand. Even if every other requirement is still met an animal will eventually have to sleep. The chemical reactions that allow animals to move also produce waste products. Scrubbing these waste products from the blood and tissues is best done while resting, and eliminating the resulting waste products from the body requires at least a short stop for most animals.
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