why do we get sweaty palms if we’re doing something dangerous like climbing? Isn’t that counter-productive?
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You probably think sweaty palms means slick hands. But it turns out that a little bit of dampness actually makes skin more tacky and increases friction, while absolutely dry hands are smooth and slick. So no, if you are needing your hands to have better grip it is actually helpful to sweat a little.
It is indeed counter productive. The reason is adrenalin and the sympathetic nervous system. Adrenalin is released in stressful situations (heights, public speaking, near car crash etc.) and causes secondary stress responses like sweating, rapid breathing, dry mouth etc by activing the sympathetic nervous system. All of these are in some way or another part of the “fight or flight response”, and are supposed to prime the body for radical, live saving actions.
Anecdotally, I rock climb and lift weights, and in both cases drying hands using chalk provides massive increase in your ability to exert grip force. In this sense, I agree and find the sweating response on hands to be ***absolutely counter-productive***.
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I feel like a lot of people have this false assumption that every physiological response humans have must be beneficial in some way. Sometimes it just simply is counter-productive. There isn’t always some magical adaptation we have for every situation. Not all responses have a biological advantage.
Sweating during climbing is quite counterproductive, it happens since the body is unable to distinguish between “threats”; we react in the exact same way (trembling, sweating, hyperventilating) if we’re in a dangerous climbing situation or if we were doing a scary public speaking event. Someone else outlined the specific sympathetic response. Humans aren’t perfect.
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Somebody correct me if I am wrong
But your sweat glands don’t know the difference between climbing a rock or running a marathon right? It just does it’s job. Only your conscious minds knows how dangerous rock climbing really is. How will that have any effect on the sweat glands which works independently?
It might be counter productive when climbing, but it might be productive in other dangerous situations that are more likely to happen during our evolution. For example if you’re running for your life, sweating is massively beneficial. For example if someone has grabbed you and you’re trying to get away, sweating is beneficial because it might make your hand slip free. During a hand to hand fight with a chimp that’s trying to catch your hand and bite your fingers off, sweating and getting slippery is beneficial.
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Evolution does not design. We (life) are a collection of random mistakes that made our ancestors a slight amount more likely to breed and produce viable offspring.
As for sweat, when we get stressed our sympathetic nervous system causes psychological changes like increased heart rate and sweating as part of “fight or flight” response. Your body sees stress like a light switch. On: increased heart rate and sweating. It does not differentiate climbing, lions, finals, boss yelling, or public speaking.
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